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Message: <blockquote data-quote="swrushing" data-source="post: 2792189" data-attributes="member: 14140">Understanding that, without more info on the issues driving the character choices, and going from the portrayal of your games as setting the stage and letting the PCs choose what they do...To me the "what am i missing" is simple... that its perfectly reasonable IN CHARACTER to choose jobs based on "what am I good at" and compared with "what does this job entail".If there is not compelling reasons IN CHARACTER for this guy to go onto a boat and may well be compelling reasons for him not to (how good a swimmer is he? ) then why is it bad for him to choose to not take this job?See, when you start talking about "unless the players do this one thing, then the game screeches to a halt" I don't think bad player" but usually move to think "bad script". When that "one thing they must do" is also something that its obvious would be contrary to one character and its also "screech to a halt" i think "really bad script." perhaps a better script (better = not likely to crash the game) would be one that pointed to a place which was QUICKER accessed by boat but also accessed by a longer, maybe more dangerous land route. In this way, the perhaps no-boat guy still "pays" for his preferences by having more difficult time getting to the mission (resources expended on the trip leaving them weaker when they get to "room #1") and maybe something about the script makes it more beneficial for them to get there quicker so that their challenge is even greater if they take the long route.This makes the no-boat crisis into a situation of CHOICES where neither choice brings the campaign to a halt while still putting the "penalty for specialization" or "penalty for roleplaying" into play.But, beyond this is the notion that it is reasonable IN CHARACTER to take jobs suited to one's talents and to pass up ones that aren't, so if the script doesn't make the issue cmpelling, a GM probably ought to plan for PCs to actually make choices that matter. This is one of the reasons I have more than one thing prepared for a wekk, so that if they decide to not follow the main plot there is something to do. I myself don't like the "there is only this one job in town and you have to take it cuz you are adventurers and i only have one dungeon ready" kind of "Extortive GMing". if you as Gm have decided we as PCs must get on the boat this week or your campaign will come screeching to a halt, then have the forthrightness to just say "you guys all got on a boat and headed here and have no say about it" when we start the session. Don't let it look like "we have a choice" and then get fussy if we choose the other option.</blockquote>

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