By cutscene, I mean an uninterruptible scene that you describe, without the players being able to interact with what's going on. Some common types include:
Showing the scene -- typically just the camera panning around the field, showing everything that's going on; creatures might be moving around, but they're not really doing anything mechanically significant, or that is particularly practical to interrupt.
The villain intro or monologue -- he shows up and there's a cinematic showing how evil and scary he is.
Battlefield setup -- every creature is moved to its starting position on the map, traps and hazards are placed, and so on.
Plot setup -- the villain appears, does something evil, and leaves, without the PCs having a chance to interrupt it.
Extended death sequences -- the villain is defeated, his plans in ruins, and from the ruins either a new hope, or a new threat.
My first reaction was "never," but I thought about it more and realized that I have once or twice given my players visions they couldn't interact with. One was a vision of a historical event and one was an expositional dream - and although the players couldn't interact, they did have the option to ask NPCs questions about it. But usually, I let my players interact with everything if they want to, including dreams, visions, and postscripts. Even travel montages can turn into RP'd scenes if they're interested in it.
If I use cutscenes in D&D it's because either the PCs aren't in the cutscene or they don't have control of their actions. In other systems I might use them for more than that, but more because of the tropes in those settings, supervillain monologues for example.
Occasionally and sparingly. I think there's good lessons in this Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus. A lot of the drama to the Avernus part of that adventure involves Zariel's backstory, and Lulu's backstory. The players are magically able to relive/replay those flashbacks, rather than some Game of Thrones cue the flashback plot twist music exposition of what happened on the High Tower or whatever. I might use a cut scene, more like a "stinger" (what folks call credit scenes these days) to show some sort of shift in campaign arc or hint that there may be more going on than what the players think is going on type stuff. But I definitely don't punctuate the game with scenes like throughout a session. So like maybe something at the start or end, next to nothing if not nothing during the actual "play" so to speak.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
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By cutscene, I mean an uninterruptible scene that you describe, without the players being able to interact with what's going on. Some common types include:
I just describe what the PCs can see at any particular point.
I can't see a reason to prevent PCs acting during a villain's speech.
My first reaction was "never," but I thought about it more and realized that I have once or twice given my players visions they couldn't interact with. One was a vision of a historical event and one was an expositional dream - and although the players couldn't interact, they did have the option to ask NPCs questions about it. But usually, I let my players interact with everything if they want to, including dreams, visions, and postscripts. Even travel montages can turn into RP'd scenes if they're interested in it.
If I use cutscenes in D&D it's because either the PCs aren't in the cutscene or they don't have control of their actions. In other systems I might use them for more than that, but more because of the tropes in those settings, supervillain monologues for example.
Occasionally and sparingly. I think there's good lessons in this Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus. A lot of the drama to the Avernus part of that adventure involves Zariel's backstory, and Lulu's backstory. The players are magically able to relive/replay those flashbacks, rather than some Game of Thrones cue the flashback plot twist music exposition of what happened on the High Tower or whatever. I might use a cut scene, more like a "stinger" (what folks call credit scenes these days) to show some sort of shift in campaign arc or hint that there may be more going on than what the players think is going on type stuff. But I definitely don't punctuate the game with scenes like throughout a session. So like maybe something at the start or end, next to nothing if not nothing during the actual "play" so to speak.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.