Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rune" data-source="post: 8698352" data-attributes="member: 67">As long as you know what your NPCs’ agendas, motives, and methods are, you’ve got most of the tools you’ve got most of the tools you’re going to need to navigate through any social scene unscripted. You don’t really need to worry too much about guiding the players through it. Let the conversations play out naturally unless they stall.  You can prompt players along the way, either with out-of-character questions, or directly from the NPCs. Maybe the NPC thinks they can take advantage of a less vocal PC. Or maybe they just take a liking to one of them. Motives and methods. If you’re worried about getting players involved in non-interactive scenes like mission-planning, you still can subtly influence things by pointing out potential logistical challenges that might need to be overcome or just outright ask questions along the way. The goal here is to provide room for the more passive players to add input to the process. Of course, all that assumes the players are even willing to discuss such things in front of you. Some players are paranoid about that. Which reminds me of another thing: your job will be easier if they don’t have good reason to be paranoid about strategizing in front of you. You can build your tension through NPC machinations and escalating situations. Don’t abuse information that the NPCs wouldn’t have. Finally, establish clear stakes early and build on them. Many times, when players seem to be aimless and the game stalls out it’s because stakes aren’t clear or compelling enough. If they are clear and compelling (and if your NPCs act on their agendas), you should be able to manage the pace of the session without much interference at all. Above all, don’t worry about being perfect. Trial and error is an important part of finding your voice as a DM. If something you try doesn’t work for this particular group, just take note of it and move on.</blockquote>

Verification