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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 9791553" data-attributes="member: 29398">If you become completely disengaged when your character isn't or can't be involved, as opposed to staying engaged and entertained by what's happening even though you're not actively participating, that's entirely your choice.  It's not the fault of the game designers.TV shows are randomly interrupted for two-minute intervals all the time.  We're just used to it as ad breaks have been a thing since forever, but they're still interruptions.In other words, music on youtube.Side note: that would be a cool bit of interactive theater, where different parts of the audience somewhat randomly got to see different parts of the play (maybe even simultaneously on different stages) until the last act where everyone came together and it all suddenly made sense.But note that here - as with the D&D game - the audience's expectations would have to be set ahead of time so they know what they're signing up for.There's a significant difference between "not being involved" and "completely excluded".  "Completely excluded" implies that when your character gets paralyzed or goes down you-as-player get kicked out of the room and can't interact with your friends at the table until-unless your character snaps out of it or gets revived/healed, nor can you watch and learn the fate of the rest of the party.  This is not the case in reality at any table I've ever heard of.If I'm a hockey player I'm not involved in the play at every moment; in fact if it's an organized league game, odds are I'll spend more time sitting on the bench watching (and catching my breath!) than skating around on the ice playing.I'd rather it be the result of randomness than the result of a pattern, but that's just me I guess.The GM is doing the job outright correctly if, when playing one or more intelligent party foes, she gives said foes the best chance to win - or at least survive to fight another day.  Often, that best-chance option means taking out the opponents (the PCs, in this case) one at a time when possible in descending order of real or perceived threat, which inevitably means that if the foes are doing at all well then someone's character is going down early and, ideally, staying down for at least the rest of the fight.Remember: this is war, not sport.Or would you rather GMs intentionally play their intelligent monsters and NPCs sub-optimally for metagame reasons?P1) Some mechanics can cause one or more players to (frequently?) be disengaged for extended periods.P2) Some in-character roleplay decisions* can also cause one or more players to be disengaged for extended periods.Q) Fact of life: sometimes that disengaged player is going to be you.R) <irrelevant>C) As part of playing the game, players must accept that periods of disengagement can and will occur.* - examples: a character goes scouting alone (everyone else is disengaged while that scouting is played through); a character volunteers to stay behind while others go ahead and act (voluntary disengagement for that chaacter's player); a character gets kicked out of the party (involuntary change of engagement type while the player rolls up another one), etc.Why on earth should I ever stop or prevent players from role-playing a private conversation between two party members? (though if the conversation is supposed to be secret, I'd suggest the players involved go to another room and just send me-as-DM a note afterwards with a summary of the outcome)Because oftentimes those things can unexpectedly be or become an important part of play.  A private conversation between two party members might lead to a complete change of plan or mission, a party split (or worse!), an in-character romance, or whatever.A quiet prayer session might produce divine blessing or guidance - or maybe something less pleasant - which means if a player tells me their character is going to pray for a moment I-as-DM have to pay attention to that.</blockquote>

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