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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 9768844" data-attributes="member: 6785785">Perhaps. My issue here is the potential quality of the performance. If your portrayal of the teary-eyed king... designed to elicit a specific emotion... doesn't land... let's say it makes me chuckle... then the scene may actually be counter productive. The immediacy of the task at hand is important to me. Remember, we're talking about a situation where the GM has a prepped adventure ready. If that's the case, why dilly dally? Jump to the beginning of the actual adventure. Put the characters in some kind of situation that demands action. To me, that's far more valuable than trying to elicit specific emotions via NPC portrayal. You can do flashbacks whenever you like. It need not retroactively change anything. You could, for instance, bring up the teary-eyed king after the first encounter, as the PCs may be taking a moment to gather themselves. Pick one of the PCs and bring up the teary-eyed king and ask them how they felt about that. This way, you're still offering these details, but you're also allowing the player to tell you how their character feels about it. It doesn't rely on eliciting sympathy or any other specific response. Different characters may have different motives for getting involved... designing a scene to try and garner sympathy seems to me to assume one motive. And it can be done quickly, and after other elements have been established. There's no need for a drawn-out interaction. The players will already be engaged, and know where this leads them to, but then they may have an opportunity to offer some insight to their character. I'm not saying that NPC portrayal cannot be a useful tool or that it has no place. We were talking specifically about the beginning of play and how to avoid players dicking about until they "bite the hook". My point is that why bother with the bait and hook? Just jump to the start. You can always flesh things out as you go, if needed. As for what's bad for immersion, that's subjective. I could say that watching a DM act out a crying king is bad for my immersion because I just want to get to the game, not watch him act.</blockquote>

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