*phew*  Just caught up on the email after that huge explosion... things
haven't been going well for me to keep up!  Anyway, on to an idea...

From: 
>
> Okay...if you explained to them that they charmed in the first place,
maybe
> they would have role-played things a little better?  In my experience, if
you
> tell a PC how their character feels, without this explanation, they'll
rebel
> against it.  It's simply not the GM's job to tell a player how their
> character feels about a particular topic/person/setting, etc. unless there
is
> a magical affect that is affecting the characters.  In that latter case,
this
> should probably be explained when the affect first reveals itself (i.e.
when
> it is cast upon them, they enter the area of affect, etc.).
>
Wish I'd caught this thread earlier on...

A suggestion, which I realize is after the fact.  When I'm dealing with a
situation like this, I'm big on one-on-one work.  In fact, for your overall
difficulty, I'd use a similar approach.

But first, this particular situation.  I wouldn't have a problem making the
rolls ahead of time.  But to keep suspense, and get the characters to buy
in, I'd play a little with it.

For example, the scene begins, and you take note of who is talking to the
guy.  Say there are  5 PCs, and A,B,C,D are all talking to the NPC but E is
bandaging his wounds.  Okay, now which one of them failed the worst?  Let's
say its player B, so you take him aside and whisper to him that this NPC
sounds reasonable... VERY reasonable... like if he said cliff jumping is in
this year, he might go along with it.  Be blunt or subtle, but get across
the point that he is a) experiencing a supernatural/magical effect, and b)
that you want him to roleplay it, to help keep the others in the dark
longer.  Then let it trickle along, slowly affecting people.  Because once
you've got the first one believing, you may never need to get the others
aside.  More buy-in from each player means less blunt work on your part.

I'm a big fan of getting the playres to help me, even if I have to let one
in on the secret.  *smiles*  And this has worked out *very* well for me.

Now, on the overall example...

If you're having difficulty with people roleplaying to the depth that you
want, or even playing true to their characters, that may take some work.
I've often done it with designing "mini-scenarios" for each player.  I give
it a break time.  I say time's passing, and then shcedule a period of time,
even a few hours, with each character to work with them and do some strictly
RP plot.  No dice, no rolls, all RP.  It usually takes a few sessions.  But
I used this to get a friend to shift his focus from purely combat in a
superhero game to really caring about what affected his character.  It was
when he realized that we'd spent two hours sitting on my bed, having an
in-character conversation, and he'd never once thought about the fact that I
*wasn't* his character's best friend -- a sophomore jock in college (I was a
senior girl... most non-jockly) -- then I had him.  And this has worked
often for me throughout the years.

But this is my babbling, and stories likely far too familiar to some people
here (I've been around too long *chuckles*).

D.

"I ask for so little. Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your
slave."

- Jareth, _Labyrinth_

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