I've got a write-up over here beneath the comic, but my question is basically this: When you've got a player that wants to stop the adventure to talk to every…single…minor…NPC, how do you find balance? I like my courtly intrigues as much as the next guy, but at some point my tolerance for plot-irrelevant “talky scenes” begins to wane. As a GM, how do you politely tell a player to move on? Should you?
Ah yes, the dreaded RP part of the RPG! The bane of GMs everywhere. The common refrain of: "My players are TOO invested in the setting!" Echoes around the internet on a daily basis. Truly, what can be done about these damnable roleplayers, and their penchant for talking to NPCs, forming relationships with other players and fleshing out the world?
lol.
In all seriousness though, the issue here is pacing and spot-light time at it's heart. If a player takes 15 minutes to wax eloquent about their family history, dark secret past, or why they want revenge on the Sheriff of Rottingham that's 3 other players twiddling their thumbs during amateur theatre hour, and a big chunk of the adventure time taken up.
Totally get it.
So here's how I handle it, if you know the player is a bit of a problem when it comes to over talking, ask them for a skill check. If they're delving deep into their backstory while talking to an NPC, usually it's not just to show off, it's often because they're trying to justify diplomacy, diplomacy (Gather Inf), intimidation or bluff or disguise. Interrupt the player and ask: "What are you trying to accomplish with this line of dialogue?"
If they give you a clear answer, great make a roll.
If they don't have a clear answer then tell them: "Then let's move on to the next scene."
Do not let players OR NPCs waffle. When you introduce an NPC you should get into the meat really quickly:
"What I want, why I can't have it, how you can help, what's in it for you." (Goal, Quest, Reward)
If the players want more information, unless there's a reason the NPC needs to hide it, just tell them what the NPC knows. As the GM it's your job to set the pacing, if your players are waffling, it may be because you as a GM set a precedent of NPC waffling.
Do not let players OR NPCs waffle. When you introduce an NPC you should get into the meat really quickly:
"What I want, why I can't have it, how you can help, what's in it for you." (Goal, Quest, Reward)
Love this "motivation mindset." Those basic building blocks of the game--goal, quest, reward--form a solid engine for setting a brisk pace. Well done that man!
Bit of a thread res here, but this is one of the reasons I actually LIKE boxed text as a GM. In old modules/adventures, when you met an NPC, this text gave a succinct review of all the pertinent stuff about them, and often times their "Goal/Quest/Reward" info, in one little chunk.
When I write up my homebrew adventures I select a couple of NPCs that actually propel my story forward. In the introduction scene for these NPCs I add boxed text. I will often also give myself a couple notes as to what more they'd say, based on questions players might ask.
For example, recently my PCs met Lady Eyecrud, a Mite Alchemist 5, leader of a tribe of mites living in some ruins near a dungeon. The boxed text was something like...
Lady Eyecrud:
You are administered through a few small, narrow tunnels rough hewn through the rock and rubble, until you find yourselves in the presence of a gnarly old crone, disturbingly hideous even by the standards of her azure-skinned race. "Please, have a seat," she burps beneath her bulging eyes and crooked, warty nose. "My name is Lady Eyecrud, and I lead the Underrubble Tradition." She goes on to explain that she and her kinfolk have lived here for several years, during which they've carved out this lair and learned not only to survive but thrive. The noble woman is an alchemist by trade, specializing in poisons, acids and oils, but of late the mites have been disturbed by a cult that's taken up residence in the dungeons beyond. "As we're all becoming friends a'now, perhaps fer what I c'n tell ya's of the Cellars and dungeons w'in, ya'd be obliged ta' finishin' the blighters so's me and mine c'n get back to our moots in peace eh?"
So you've got a small sense of what Lady Eyecrud looks like, what she can do and what she needs the PCs to do. She also offers intelligence on "The Cellars", the area of the megadungeon where the cultists have taken up residence. In the notes about the info she'd share I had some DCs of Diplomacy checks next to what she'd volunteer. Of course, my players utterly destroyed the DCs with a mega-high Diplomacy check so I basically just gave them the player handout of the mites' map of level 1 of The Cellars and detailed everything the mites had encountered there over the years.
Now the players took it upon themselves to ask, "Lady Eyecrud, is there anything YOU want from down in the Cellars?" so I made something up on the spot. I knew one of the wandering monsters they might encounter was an Id Ooze, so it turns out that the alchemist covets the creature's internal acid secretions and gave them a bunch of crystal flasks to fill with the substance, should they run into it. This in turn gave the PCs a bit of EXTRA knowledge I hadn't intended for them to have, but since they're trying to be heroes the players now feel obligated to actually finishing the unintended side-quest of returning to Lady Eyecrud with the Id Ooze goop.
Bottom line, I agree with The Dude(meister) that you can boil it down to the base info you need the players to have in order to move the game along. It can be handy to create boxed text with a summary of this info ahead of time. Further it can be useful to consider some of the questions players might ask of this NPC, set Diplomacy DCs on them, and have those at the ready too just in case. Beyond that, if players want to monologue or whatever, adding in a bonus or penalty to said Diplomacy checks can be a good way to reinforce the behavior that benefits you and the other players.
Before you change too much, it would be a good idea to ask your players how they feel. Too many times I have seen a GM get all worried about pacing when their players were actually having a great time. I am reminded of a game where we were all supposed to save a fair from evil robots and then hunt those bots back to their lair and find the bigger problem. BUT we were having a blast role playing off each other and the various NPCs at all the events in the fair that it took us three full play sessions to get moving and an additional two sessions RPing our camping stops on the way to track down the robots. The GM was freaking out. He assumed we were all bored. That he never considered the fact that us blowing a one session mission into a six session RP extravaganza was actually the most memorable and fun times we have ever had in one of his games.
So check with your players to find out if this really is a problem first before trying to fix it.
As a side note if it IS a problem then setting strict pace can do wonders for getting stuff done. We had a GM who would "advance to the next scene" every time we started getting all "talky" and many of us did appreciate the progress we were making in his games. But as a side note it helped his games a LOT that he would allow role play "on the side". That is to say we could get with him or each other online, on the phone, or at a random meet up and role play out the stuff he advanced us past.
