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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bill Zebub" data-source="post: 9546024" data-attributes="member: 7031982">That has me thinking about my own preference.  Sometimes I really love the non-combat sessions, and sometimes they really drag.And I think the difference is whether or not there are clear challenges with clear choices about how to overcome them.I read a book about script writing ("Save The Cat") that talks about how every scene needs to have a clear conflict to be resolved (with 'conflict' pretty broadly defined) and how at the end of each scene the protagonist needs to be either better or worse off, never the same.I think the same is true in RPG sessions.  When I don't know what we're doing, and we're all just wandering around talking to NPCs, with some vague goal to work toward but without any direction (a.k.a. "railroading") about how to go about that (or a DM that knows how to improvise so that whatever we do, it somehow moves us toward that goal)...then I'm bored and want to attack something.  And part of that is what happens when I talk to NPCs.  If I try to Persuade or Deceive or get Insight, and there are no stakes, no risk, then that's boring, too.  "Sure, I'll roll."  Maybe the result is that we learn something about our goal, but it hasn't been exciting to get there because there hasn't really been any tension.I mean, imagine if there were no downside to a failed attempt at picking pockets or shoplifting.  If you just....failed.</blockquote>