Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="fba827" data-source="post: 5231502" data-attributes="member: 807">That wouldn't fit my personal style/taste as it seems too draconian.The only caveat being 'guarded information' (information that the PC would not necessarily freely share; aka "my dark past") and 'completely irrelevant information' (some topic that would be hard to say comes up in the course of casual conversations and not related to the task/scenario at hand) -- that type of stuff i tend to assume if it's not stated by the player as being shared then i assume it's not.Done a couple times, this would be my preferred style.But if extended downtime happens frequently, then this might get old fast -- from a RP perspective it's great.. gives you more fodder to say "and if Bloth drones on anymore about Wren and the 13 Treasures or Rule he sought when he was younger, I will scream and not take part of any conversation with him for the journey" -- but from a player perspective, it would depend on my mood that day.Once or twice for very crucial or 'big' things, I'd be game for this.  But it runs the risk of droning on.  When one player or the DM has to talk for a while to explain things, people sometimes lose focus.  And a flashback conversation about lore/details that one player knows more than the others will turn more into an 'information dump' rather than participative conversation since one character clearly knows more and the others would just be saying "yes, interesting, and then?"Just as it varies between groups, I'd imagine it also varies in the individual player minds within the same group.I tend to assume that it's a) idle chat and stories b) conversations on directly related information that isn't 'secret' c) practice/meditation/etc d) administration of supplies e) npcs with them are furthering their own love/hate of the PCs and of other NPCs f) topics of interest (such as a religious type may discuss theology with anyone willing to listen, etc)Though everything on this list is clouded by the types of PCs involved.  For instance, bardic-types might focus more on stories, while topics of interest may include tactical discussions for the tactically-minded PCs.But my general observation has been (not just talking about my most recent group, but from any group I've been with) is that if you stop and clarify what is being discussed, it aggravates some players.  Not so much from impatience, but just from the idea that if the DM is going to hand-wave via narrative, then the act of going in to specifics on what was discussed during that downtime is too much detail.  Of course, individuals vary, i am only speaking from experience.When I DM, and later situations come up where one PC might know something and another doesn't (and it's not 'guarded information') I've generally been liberal in pointing out "you realize this might be related to X that was probably mentioned during the travel time").  All kind of depends on the circumstance and a momentary judgment call as to what is "idle enough" and what isn't.</blockquote>

Verification