Page 1154 - Knowledge Fantasy

One of the comments earlier already had an interesting suggestion: If you have players who want to solve problems and you don’t want to derail things with instant gratification, give them smaller/side problems to tackle that make bits of progress and teach them nuggets of useful information. That kinda sounds like a good reasoning behind sidequests and optional objectives, honestly.

Naturally, the players and DMs here don’t have the benefit (and curse) of an experienced comments section.

Twilight Sparkle: The more I think about it… I’ve been a little bit like this the whole time, haven’t I?
DM: I did hear you say “I just want to stop listening and start solving.”
Twilight Sparkle: …Right. I did say something like that, didn’t I? Maaaaaaaaaybe I have some control issues.
DM: Definitely maybe.
Twilight Sparkle: And maybe that’s informed both my character and my playstyle a bit. Wanting to live a fantasy where I have all the answers and can solve every problem… Yeah, that sounds a little like me.
DM: That’s good to know. The hard question there is: How do I satisfy that while still keeping it a game, with a real challenge?
Twilight Sparkle: That’s… a good point. I don’t really know.
DM: Still, this wasn’t the best way to make it…
Applejack: Oh. Hey.
DM: Hey.
Applejack: Y’all, uh, havin’ a bit of a moment in here? …Mind if Ah join in?