Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6556561" data-attributes="member: 42582">I agree about clever ideas.A related thing: if you run a game where the players know that interesting characters and interesting choices will be rewarded (in the sense of generating spotlight time, having NPCs respond to those choices and care about the character, etc) then I think you get the players playing more interesting PCs in more interesting ways.I've never really run an adventure path, but I have had experience with railroad-y GMs. As well as shutting down interesting ideas (which they do), I find they also shut down interesting characters - or, at least, they make interesting goals and motivations unimportant to play (and "interesting character" therefore gets reduced to "character with quirky dress-sense and mannerisms", which personally I often find irritating rather than interesting). My variation on this - instead of taking account of what the NPCs know about the PCs, make it the case that the NPCs have some sort of actual or implicit relationship to the PCs (eg they care about something the PCs also care about). Then the players have a reason to have their PCs do something about the situation. What they do doesn't really matter - what I want to avoid is the players not being motivated enough to have their PCs do anything at all.</blockquote>