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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Piperken" data-source="post: 9536520" data-attributes="member: 7047091">Coming back to this thread after thinking some on what others' have mentioned...Trying a different lens, most games tend to have this break between combat & the other parts of the game. I'll use D&D as the framework. Once combat starts, play becomes more procedural, time in game becomes more granular, there are discrete blocks of focus: everyone rolls initiative, it is now this individual player's turn, they may choose to do a list of things that fall under a move + action rubric, once those are stated, dice are rolled, etc.As a game engine, D&D historical strong points are: how it handles combat, and how it handles dungeon crawling. When I think about examples in the social and exploration parts of role playing, when play visibly slowed (not because of the framework, like above) yet players remained focused, it tended to be when the situation was engaging for most, if not all the group.When this happened for me in situations outside of combat:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">They meet an npc the party for whatever reason, finds fascinating</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">When the party has had to plan for something e.g. a heist, an attempt to deceive guards on the street so they get a brief opportunity to interview a few persons of interest</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">In a dungeon and the crawl suddenly leads the party to a different environment e.g. a large cavern. One of the party spots something that could be hazardous. This sparks discussion over how to best enter the new space as a group</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Through conversation, how to approach an npc in order to gain something of value from them.</li> </ul>Another example that came up not too long ago:The party had met some dryads who lived in an apple grove. In exchange for not being messed around with by the fairies, the party agreed to get rid of a small goblin warband that had been chopping down trees for firewood. Because the warband was currently active, there was a random encounter table to run into them based on how long they spent in this grove.What happened?Rather than be aimless, they decided to set up an elaborate pit trap to attempt to draw the goblins to them instead. This came out of 30 minutes of talking among themselves, as to what they wanted to do with the game state.That's slow, slow for me! But I thankfully saw how actively engaged they were in the fiction. It was as if I didn't even exist. It worked out well too, because I used the opportunity to look up other things for later use in the session (me, engaging in another part of the game)Much like if some activity interests a person, it doesn't matter how rote it is i.e. solving logic problems or putting together a table puzzle. Some people genuinely enjoy doing that!</blockquote>

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