I read once that the earliest edition(s?) didn’t have Rogue as a separate class, that everyone would be searching for traps and such. And when Rogue was added with the explicit ability to detect traps, it caused a crises because suddenly that implied that no one else had that ability.

It’s the cats you gotta worry about.

Main quest? Weird tangent? They’re the same picture!

God you just described my prep in a nutshell. This is how they ended up fighting an orchestra

hissss it burns ussss

He even did the full chest bump thing. And then in case there was any doubt, he did the whole gesture again.

There are ways. You could, for example, set up a bbeg where that’s his whole deal. The townsfolk are scared of this guy because he has the supernatural power to just kill you, straight-up. Maybe the questline leading up to their encounter involves the players finding defenses or counters or sabotaging his supply of spell components or whatever, such that, if they DO get power-word-killed, it’s because they had ample opportunities to not, and failed to take them.

Not every character moment has to be climactic. You gotta mix in some slow-burn stuff there too. And also remember that early episodes like this had to do a lot of heavy lifting to reform the Ferengi from their disastrous TNG appearance.

Except that’s the point, they will not be having fun. Nor will you, nor will any of the other players. Because that setup is not fun. And presumably you’re hosting a game for your friends with the intention of everyone having fun, so it’s best if you find another tact.

To me, it felt like the episode mattered because you got character development. It’s the first time we get to see exactly how Odo and Quark’s relationship works, and we also get to see Quark’s…“unorthodox” problem solving style, in contrast to how federation weenies go about things.

Nope, no, that’s encouraging their behavior. Now your player thinks you’re giving them a quest to earn enough money to play out their brothel scene.

Nope, no, that’s encouraging their behavior. Now your player thinks you’re giving them a quest to thwart this bouncer.

You absolutely do not have to RP this. You can say “No.” You can say “Ok, you go off and do that, what’s everyone else doing?”

Today is a good day to die.

Tell Bashir to get the cortical simulator ready, I’m going in.

They’ve all programmed their replicator profiles to include “Ethanol, 22.5ml, Chilled” in all orders they place containing the word “synthehol”

Definitely the worst thing that happened during those years.

What’s more fun, demoting pluto or announcing the discovery of a new planet every week for a couple years?

brb, converting my 401k to gold to attract an adorable baby dragon

ELI5?