Interaction: This encounter turns on the ability of the party to have some sort of dialog
with an NPC. The player characters might need to conduct a negotiation, ask
directions, or otherwise establish communication. An interaction creates a good
role-playing opportunity for the DM—who gets to play the NPC and might have an
excellent chance to really ham it up—and tests players’ communication skills.
Interactions are an excellent way to impart information that a party needs to
continue with an adventure or solve a mystery. However, there is no reason why
getting the necessary information has to be easy. At the very least, the
player’s should have to be shrewd enough to ask the right questions. More difficult
interactions might require the player characters to bribe, intimidate, or trick
the NPC.
Interactions often go awry if the player characters are inclined to be
distrustful or to attack everything they meet. This is not necessarily a bad thing if
the DM wants to break aggressive PCs of their bloodthirsty habits. The local
wise woman, for example, might be a disagreeable old wizardess who has a sweet
tooth and who knows that some nearby ruins are infested with olive slime
creatures.
A gift of honey or some ripe fruit is enough to get the lady’s information.
Parties who fail to win her over must face the slime creatures unawares. Parties
who kill her discover the old woman’s 60-year-old journals, which mistakenly
report that the slime creatures are normal zombies. Characters who wade into
combat with the slime creatures expecting to encounter normal zombies are in for
shock no matter how powerful they are.
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