Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8006868" data-attributes="member: 42582">I fully agree with the second half of what I've quoted. And mostly agree with the first half - maybe always is too strong if taken literally, but I think there are problems with &quot;negotiation as puzzle-solving&quot; in general, and especially if this is meant to require that the PCs cooperate with nasty people.To me, this only reinforces the issues with NPC-as-puzzle. It's being expressly equated to a problem for &quot;face guy&quot; as scouting out may be for &quot;stealth guy&quot; etc.To me that is completely unrealistic. When the Riders of Rohan encounter Aragorn, GImli and Legolas chasing the orcs, Eomer addresses all of them. When Gandalf and Pippin arrive at Minas Tirith Denethor grills Pippin because he knows he can get more intelligence from him than from Gandalf. When Frodo and Sam speak to Faramir, Sam - though subordinate in rank -&nbsp; interjects from time to time because there are things he wants to say.In the Death Star, when Luke and Han encounter Princess Leia both speak to her. Earlier, in the discussion at Mos Eisley about hiring a ship, Ben, Luke, Han and Chewie all take part.In some formal contexts it might make sense that only a herald or diplomat speaks, but apart from issues of realism that seems to make for relatively uninteresting game play. If a situation is to involve only one PC that seems to me like it should flow from the fiction - both the &quot;plot&quot; and the theme - and not from some notion of &quot;face&quot;, &quot;stealth&quot;, &quot;combat&quot; etc.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8006868, member: 42582"] I fully agree with the second half of what I've quoted. And mostly agree with the first half - maybe [I]always[/I] is too strong if taken literally, but I think there are problems with "negotiation as puzzle-solving" in general, and especially if this is meant to require that the PCs cooperate with nasty people. To me, this only reinforces the issues with NPC-as-puzzle. It's being expressly equated to a problem for "face guy" as scouting out may be for "stealth guy" etc. To me that is completely [I]unrealistic[/I]. When the Riders of Rohan encounter Aragorn, GImli and Legolas chasing the orcs, Eomer addresses all of them. When Gandalf and Pippin arrive at Minas Tirith Denethor grills Pippin because he knows he can get more intelligence from him than from Gandalf. When Frodo and Sam speak to Faramir, Sam - though subordinate in rank - interjects from time to time because there are things he wants to say. In the Death Star, when Luke and Han encounter Princess Leia both speak to her. Earlier, in the discussion at Mos Eisley about hiring a ship, Ben, Luke, Han and Chewie all take part. In some formal contexts it might make sense that only a herald or diplomat speaks, but apart from issues of realism that seems to make for relatively uninteresting game play. If a situation is to involve only one PC that seems to me like it should flow from the fiction - both the "plot" and the theme - and not from some notion of "face", "stealth", "combat" etc. [/QUOTE]

Verification