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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 9769451" data-attributes="member: 6785785">First, I’m not saying to neglect it. I’m saying that it has a time and place.Second, I believe it can be done with less time and effort than you believe. If the adventure is an expected thing… if we’re going to be playing a specific adventure because that’s what the GM has prepared… then I think it’s better to get to it. Let whatever emotion I hope the players to have develop over the course of play.But to me this seems like exactly what you are advocating for. You don’t expect the players to care until you give some performance that you think will make them care. I remember the first time I played The Steading of the Hill Giant Chief. The GM started us outside the steading and explained that we’d been hired by the human kingdom (of Furyondy, I believe, but perhaps that was just the GM’s personal choice) to deal with the problem. And then we played. And it worked spectacularly. I’m trying to imagine a situation where playing out the scene where the king or one of his agents hired the PCs would really enhance play. Is it possible such a scene would add some weight or pathos to play? Yes, it’s possible. Is it necessary as you describe? No. Especially not when the intention, no matter how the scene goes, is for the PCs to accept the job. Given that key factor, I would say it’s better to simply ascribe a motive to the PCs and then get right to the actual adventure. I don’t really think this is concerning at all. Players can change their minds, the characters’ feelings can shift over time. I don’t really think it’s a case of changing so much as establishing, but even if it is changing, I don’t really see an issue. And why do you assume that this performance will elicit the response you want? It is one prt of things. But I don’t really think that part of play is best served by performance so much as consideration. Now, that doesn’t mean I don’t expect some performative elements here and there… but as with anything I may do as a GM, it is a tool that I’ll select when I think it will best serve. I don’t think that the example you gave would be one of those times.</blockquote>

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