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

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 8790001" data-attributes="member: 29398">These are two quite different situations in one respect - in the house scenario the PCs are taking the conflict to the opposition, while in the Gerda scenario the opposition is bringing the conflict to the PCs.The former is IMO fairly straightforward: in broad strokes, the PCs proactively do what they do and the enemy - if alerted (this would be the "twist") - reacts as it naturally would.  Put another way, the PCs almost set the scene for you by their declared actions.The latter, however, can be tricky; in that here it's an NPC being proactive and the PCs have to react as best they can.  I don't know Gerda's capabilities or personality so it's hard to say how she'd approach the theft; but if she's been following or observing the PCs in order to learn where they might be at any given time, maybe the PCs have a chance to notice her or hear about her through the underworld grapevine (you did say the PCs are burglars, right?).  Failing that, as you say it might come down to on-the-fly framing and-or narrating based on whether the Elf (and-or allies) declare they're keeping watch during the night or not; and if not, whether any of the PCs wake up before Gerda makes her getaway.As for the more general question at the end of your post, personally I find the more I think about and-or plan for things like this - as opposed to just letting them happen as part of the flow - the worse they often work out.  When the PCs are the instigators it's easy.  When it's an NPC that's the instigator, the main thing I have to keep telling myself is to think like the character(s) - i.e. not like an omniscient GM - and use only what the NPC(s) would know when determining their actions and-or approaches.</blockquote>

Verification