This is great! It crystallizes a frustration I've had with adventure design as well as in-the-moment play. Sessions can feel like a breathless rush from epic confrontation to epic confrontation when the DM focuses on conflict to drive the narrative.
I wonder what would be specific examples of friction. If the PCs get involved with an invasion of drow raiding parties into a city, for example, conflict would include fights with the drow, as well as interrogation of captured drow. Would friction include negotiating with the local lord on effective payment, trying to convince a captured drow to guide you to their lair, or dealing with the environment of the Underdark?
In the drow situation, I see friction as the details that complicate the central conflicts you first propose - fighting and interrogating the drow.
For the former, friction represents all the ways that fighting the drow gets complicated or is hindered. Some examples:
- the city the PCs are defending has known peace so long that it has few capable defenders on top of being poorly armed. The PCs not only have to fight, they have to train and lead.
- the drow invading are using a special magic that allows them to perform lightning raids, striking before the defenders can propose a proper response. The PCs have to figure an answer to this to fight them properly.
For interrogation:
- a great (and underutilized IMO) friction device: language. The drow know not one drop of Common or surface tongues, so any PC interrogating them runs into special challenges. Another way to run with this is to have the drow magically geas'ed into silence, forcing the PCs to get really creative.
- another type of friction is the sympathetic hostage. One of the captured drow was actually press-ganged into service and is reluctant to serve. They don't want to be raiding; they don't want to fight, but they don't want to give up info either, for fear that the commanders will kill their loved ones. Building on that, if the PCs aren't willing to press forward on the interrogations, there is a dishonorable captain in the city guard who doesn't care about how they get information and pushes for harsh torture.
Friction represents resistance or complication on the way to resolving a conflict; it enhances the texture of the associated complication because it forces the players off whatever straight path they had planned to resolve the conflict.
Out of the second group you listed, I think that the first two (negotiating with the lord and the drow) are good examples of conflict, while the third (navigating the Underdark) is a great example of fiction.
This is great! It crystallizes a frustration I've had with adventure design as well as in-the-moment play. Sessions can feel like a breathless rush from epic confrontation to epic confrontation when the DM focuses on conflict to drive the narrative.
I wonder what would be specific examples of friction. If the PCs get involved with an invasion of drow raiding parties into a city, for example, conflict would include fights with the drow, as well as interrogation of captured drow. Would friction include negotiating with the local lord on effective payment, trying to convince a captured drow to guide you to their lair, or dealing with the environment of the Underdark?
In the drow situation, I see friction as the details that complicate the central conflicts you first propose - fighting and interrogating the drow.
For the former, friction represents all the ways that fighting the drow gets complicated or is hindered. Some examples:
- the city the PCs are defending has known peace so long that it has few capable defenders on top of being poorly armed. The PCs not only have to fight, they have to train and lead.
- the drow invading are using a special magic that allows them to perform lightning raids, striking before the defenders can propose a proper response. The PCs have to figure an answer to this to fight them properly.
For interrogation:
- a great (and underutilized IMO) friction device: language. The drow know not one drop of Common or surface tongues, so any PC interrogating them runs into special challenges. Another way to run with this is to have the drow magically geas'ed into silence, forcing the PCs to get really creative.
- another type of friction is the sympathetic hostage. One of the captured drow was actually press-ganged into service and is reluctant to serve. They don't want to be raiding; they don't want to fight, but they don't want to give up info either, for fear that the commanders will kill their loved ones. Building on that, if the PCs aren't willing to press forward on the interrogations, there is a dishonorable captain in the city guard who doesn't care about how they get information and pushes for harsh torture.
Friction represents resistance or complication on the way to resolving a conflict; it enhances the texture of the associated complication because it forces the players off whatever straight path they had planned to resolve the conflict.
Out of the second group you listed, I think that the first two (negotiating with the lord and the drow) are good examples of conflict, while the third (navigating the Underdark) is a great example of fiction.
Thanks for your comment!