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<blockquote data-quote="TaranTheWanderer" data-source="post: 7585002" data-attributes="member: 15882">Politics is fun.&nbsp; This is totally separate from skills specifically but I find it helpful to figure out what the player's goals are when it comes to broad political goals.&nbsp; It's easy to be paralyzed with indecision - mostly because there are so many options but your players don't have all the information that their characters do and they don't know how to proceed.Once you know that, you can help them with an approach.You want to overthrow the Duke?&nbsp; Here's what you know about him:&nbsp; His vizier is power hungry, his wife is having an affair, etc...If they take a lot of time planning and enjoy that, I think that is fine.&nbsp; But if you want to move things forward quicker, You might want to introduce some time pressures.&nbsp; Make them feel some urgency.&nbsp; &quot;the wife of the Duke is a potential ally but you found out she's going to be assassinated tomorrow night&quot;I'm playing in a politicking game and we spend 4/5 session planning and 1 session 'doing'.&nbsp; We like it and we know we have to be cautious.&nbsp; The DM will randomly throw wrenches in our plotting and force us to act before we're ready.&nbsp; It adds tension.Has nothing to do with skills, I know.&nbsp; But to bring it back to your OP, sometimes giving info helps to move things forward and pushes players to action.&nbsp;&nbsp;I use passive skills a lot.&nbsp; I will use passive History, Arcana, Religion scores as a way of deciding what kind of information a character knows as a baseline.&nbsp; You don't have to wait on the players to make a decision as to whether or not to research the library, you can use the person with the biggest passive knowledge skill to 'info-dump'.I get what you are saying and agree.&nbsp; I don't want to get too nitpicky about an example I randomly came up with as I was making the post.&nbsp; Sometimes locks are in an adventure - pre-written or otherwise - maybe it's on a chest and they already defeated everything.&nbsp; The dc is 20 and the rogue has +8.&nbsp; Given time, they'll open it.&nbsp; I'll just narrate, &quot;It's a tough lock, but after trying for a bit, you unlock it.&quot;&nbsp; I don't want to change the narration and say the lock is broken because maybe they might want to keep the chest with the lock intact and use it to store their loot, or put something in it for safekeeping and return for it later etc....&nbsp; But if there was a magic sword or healing potions inside, and they were hurt, and an ogre was trying to smash the door down, that +8 vs a dc 20 lock is going to make a big difference.That's all I mean.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="TaranTheWanderer, post: 7585002, member: 15882"] Politics is fun. This is totally separate from skills specifically but I find it helpful to figure out what the player's goals are when it comes to broad political goals. It's easy to be paralyzed with indecision - mostly because there are so many options but your players don't have all the information that their characters do and they don't know how to proceed.Once you know that, you can help them with an approach. You want to overthrow the Duke? Here's what you know about him: His vizier is power hungry, his wife is having an affair, etc... If they take a lot of time planning and enjoy that, I think that is fine. But if you want to move things forward quicker, You might want to introduce some time pressures. Make them feel some urgency. "the wife of the Duke is a potential ally but you found out she's going to be assassinated tomorrow night" I'm playing in a politicking game and we spend 4/5 session planning and 1 session 'doing'. We like it and we know we have to be cautious. The DM will randomly throw wrenches in our plotting and force us to act before we're ready. It adds tension. Has nothing to do with skills, I know. But to bring it back to your OP, sometimes giving info helps to move things forward and pushes players to action. I use passive skills a lot. I will use passive History, Arcana, Religion scores as a way of deciding what kind of information a character knows as a baseline. You don't have to wait on the players to make a decision as to whether or not to research the library, you can use the person with the biggest passive knowledge skill to 'info-dump'. I get what you are saying and agree. I don't want to get too nitpicky about an example I randomly came up with as I was making the post. Sometimes locks are in an adventure - pre-written or otherwise - maybe it's on a chest and they already defeated everything. The dc is 20 and the rogue has +8. Given time, they'll open it. I'll just narrate, "It's a tough lock, but after trying for a bit, you unlock it." I don't want to change the narration and say the lock is broken because maybe they might want to keep the chest with the lock intact and use it to store their loot, or put something in it for safekeeping and return for it later etc.... But if there was a magic sword or healing potions inside, and they were hurt, and an ogre was trying to smash the door down, that +8 vs a dc 20 lock is going to make a big difference. That's all I mean. [/QUOTE]

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