T w e n t y S i d e d
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– Shamus, Monday Nov 27, 2006
No no no, you just have an NPC come in from entirely off screen and be confused who told them about your grand gifts of boats. Make it a weird social interaction:
Galadriel: Oh…you gave them the boats already?
Nameless elf guy: Well they just sort of…
Galadriel: I really thought you’d wait for me, I had a whole sort of ceremony planned…
Nameless elf guy: Well, yes, but…
Galadriel: Go on back, I’ll speak to you about this later.
The party can then be gleeful they cut off a awkward ceremony. Or horrified and speculative wondering if they got that guy fired and if elves even have jobs in the first place. Either way, your players don’t get off thinking they just bullied your NPC’s into gifts they didn’t want to give, leading to more bullying later on.
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This looks like an accidental repost of the last strip.
Ah…yup, fixed. 4 and 5 are shockingly close together for some reason. What idiot did that. /s
One of my favorites. He just looks so irritated.
Yeah. Capturing the perfect stills is really the heart of this series.
I’ve recently learnt the value of insight/perception/investigation checks. Not to learn things, but to nail things down so that the GM has more difficulty in rebalancing them later if I get a good roll :D
Given the bonus of hindsight, I think I’d include some hint in the dialogue between Galadriel and the embarrassed elf about some other things that *could* have been a great benefit for the players but is now hard to accommodate.
Like, some scouts are just coming back in, likely with important info, and the rations aren’t ready yet.
Or the random elf “gave” them the wrong boats.
Ingame, I think it’s cool if PCs notice if they behave like idiots, with negative consequences for their quest/success.
IRL, I think it’s also cool if players notice some consequences to not even trying to keep up. Unless the DM was really just interested in showing off, that whole stuff was good for *something*, and if players think they can waltz through the adventure by punching whatever gets in their way should at least be made aware that this is a different game.
Simultaneously, the DM has already got their reminder that something is out of sync, and should also adapt their style a bit. Maybe not act out the whole thing in excruciating detail but narrate through it a bit quicker than planned… or maybe have an out-of-game conversation with the players about preferred playstyles?
…yeah, like I would ever manage to do that :(