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Message: <blockquote data-quote="BoldItalic" data-source="post: 6551757" data-attributes="member: 6777052">I'm with you, there. I can give you lots of examples from my sessions of where, what might have been run as a dice-rolling skill challenge, was instead run as a free-form role-play episode. But it doesn't suit all varieties of player. Some players prefer to feel more structure. The key thing, is that it requires buy-in to that style by both the players and the DM, who have to be comfortable with mentally making judgements as they go along and have to know each other well enough to recognise each other's "moves" and play along. It's great when it comes off. If you analyse it afterwards, you can often superimpose a skill challenge structure post hoc although to my mind, that rather misses the point.Here's an episode from a session we ran last year, that I wrote up afterwards as a narrative. See if you can spot the moments where we could have been rolling dice. The PC was a female rogue called Poli, who had split off from the party and wanted to get the co-operation of the local guild-master of assassins. The player's goal was to persuade him to use his influence to spy on a high priestess called Anelia but to ensure that Anelia wasn't murdered gratuitously, because she might be useful to the party later. Poli had Expertise in Persuasion and her plan involved offering information and confidences (using thieves' cant) to move the man from being neutral to being friendly. She succeeded, but not easily, and there were moments in the conversation when she had to backtrack and try harder. I was the DM, playing the guild-master. [sblock="Narrative"]Poli said farewell and revisited some of her old haunts. At one shadowy doorway in a street frequented by people who were not there, she said, to no-one in particular, ‘The man wants to see me.’ A door opened and she walked up a flight of stairs. In a dingy room, a fat, balding, man sat behind a heavy desk writing in a ledger. ‘Take a seat, Poli,’ he said, ‘I believe I wanted to see you?’There was a keyhole with a silver escutcheon plate on her side of the desk but Poli knew that there was no lock behind it. Unless you counted a crossbow mechanism as a lock. This man had a decisive way with visitors who disagreed with him. She wasn’t planning to. ‘Something big going on,’ she began. ‘Can’t say much but I need a favour. Might have something for you. Not definite.’The man put down his pen. ‘Go on.’‘Temple in Upcross. Priestess there, scrawny woman, about as holy as I am. She might be coming through in the next day or two.’ Poli made a gesture, a sweep of the hand, palm upwards, meaning she might be useful to me.‘ I wouldn’t want anything to happen to her.’The man’s stony expression said: give me a reason to care.‘She is noted for her generosity to the poor,’ said Poli, phrasing her words carefully, ‘Hand-outs of large amounts of silver are not unknown.’‘The poor are always with us,’ agreed the man. ‘You arrived here today, did you not?’ Poli nodded. No need to wonder how he knew. ‘Then you will not be aware that a certain holy woman came through yesterday, having apparently ridden through the night in her carriage. She stopped only for fresh horses before leaving by the Amber Gate.’Poli was surprised. She hadn’t expected Anelia to move so quickly. ‘They say that the price of horses was exceptionally high yesterday,’ she offered.‘Supply and demand, supply and demand.’‘Her temple has many treasures. I was amazed to see them,’ said Poli meaningfully.‘To rob such a temple would be sacrilege.’‘And it is guarded. By as many as two guards in the daytime.’‘No doubt these treasures are heavy and difficult for the cleaners to move.’‘It would take as many as three wagons.’The man made a small note in his ledger. ‘Well now, we are busy people, was there something else I wanted to see you about, Poli?’He called me by name, that means he is satisfied with the trade, thought Poli. She chose her next words with care. ‘I may need to disappear for a while. If anyone should come to this town asking about me or anyone resembling me, or about the priest I have been travelling with, the innkeeper at Bythorpe might like to be informed.’The man nodded. ‘They do say that innkeepers are especially astute at knowing what occurs in distant towns. Who can say how the news comes to them? They also say that red-bearded halflings are especially good at this. But tell me, how is Ganhard and his pretty little maidservant?’Poli was careful not to give too much away. She told the man what she guessed he already knew. ‘Ganhard is exceptionally well. The girl he calls Tammy suffered a brutal attack and still bears the bruises but she has forgiven her assailant.’ She held her fingers in a circle as she said this, and tensed the muscles to signify: I nearly strangled her.‘A young girl’s beauty quickly fades. A woman’s strength is in her hands,’ quoted the man diplomatically. ‘It is all a matter of position.’ He rubbed the back of his neck thoughtfully as he said this. Poli understood. He was suggesting she tried again, with better technique. Well, that was a close as she needed to go, as a story. The trade of information had been satisfactory on both sides and it was time to get out. ‘Now, if you will excuse me,’ she said, ‘I have to make some arrangements.’The man nodded. ‘I believe mother Maggins has a bed free.’[/sblock]I should explain that Ganhard was the cleric of the party, that Poli had earlier tried to seduce him and failed, and that she had tried to strangle his girlfriend Tammy in a fit of jealousy. Rogues are not all nice people.</blockquote>

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