Hi Team!
So I was looking over the Web Adventure, Lure of the Lost, and the example of Sarenda following her Compassion and giving stimpacks to villagers and getting -1 conflict for it.

One of the players in my game has his strength/weakness as Caution/Fear, and I simply can NOT figure out a scenario to reward roleplaying this.

Is he meant to specifically state how he's being caution in a situation, or mention his mounting fear when fighting in a dark-side strong cave?

I'm just a little lost on how to reward or engage roleplaying this strength/weakness combo and was wondering if anyone had any ideas to offer.

First thing that springs to mind is pre-combat against a bigger/better foe with needed supplies on the line.

Do you.

Back off a bit and plan your attack to arrive at the best chance of success.

or

Go elsewhere to get those much needed supplies, probably denying innocents of them in the process.

Vixen pretty much nailed it. When simply being Cautious (Emotional Strength), it means not rushing into a potentially dangerous situation without some form of plans and preparations. Whereas, giving into the Emotional Weakness of Fear means going overly cautious to the point of it allowing your fear to paralyze you into inaction when action is necessary.

Vixen pretty much nailed it. When simply being Cautious (Emotional Strength), it means not rushing into a potentially dangerous situation without some form of plans and preparations. Whereas, giving into the Emotional Weakness of Fear means going overly cautious to the point of it allowing your fear to paralyze you into inaction when action is necessary.

Or, as was mentioned in Endless Vigil, cause you to panic and jump too soon. "We don't have time to make the usual preparations!" and such like that. Which I honestly like a bit better, since it's action-oriented rather than inaction-oriented, and a PC who has a tendency towards inaction is much harder to play without impacting the rest of the group's enjoyment of the game.

Vixen pretty much nailed it. When simply being Cautious (Emotional Strength), it means not rushing into a potentially dangerous situation without some form of plans and preparations. Whereas, giving into the Emotional Weakness of Fear means going overly cautious to the point of it allowing your fear to paralyze you into inaction when action is necessary.

Or, as was mentioned in Endless Vigil, cause you to panic and jump too soon. "We don't have time to make the usual preparations!" and such like that. Which I honestly like a bit better, since it's action-oriented rather than inaction-oriented, and a PC who has a tendency towards inaction is much harder to play without impacting the rest of the group's enjoyment of the game.

That too. And some times, a character can often jump from one extreme to another depending upon the situation.

I kinda want to piggyback on this, despite having played my campaign a while, I still struggle with engaging my players' emotional strengths/weaknesses.

I have two players with Enthusiasm/Recklessness, and the line between the two seems so thin that it's pretty challenging for me to apply penalties/conflict for Recklessness without also dampening Enthusiastic behavior.

I kinda want to piggyback on this, despite having played my campaign a while, I still struggle with engaging my players' emotional strengths/weaknesses.

I have two players with Enthusiasm/Recklessness, and the line between the two seems so thin that it's pretty challenging for me to apply penalties/conflict for Recklessness without also dampening Enthusiastic behavior.

This may or may not be helpful, but one thing I've been doing is talking to the characters at the start of the session to find out how they're doing. So an option for dealing with your example would be to let it go in the moment, and make a note of it. Then, at some lull later (start of a session while everyone's getting settled into character), ask them about what happened.

E.g. 'Hey there, jimbo, last session you jumped off the roof of a building to try to grapple a passing tie fighter. How'd that work out for you?'

Jimbo: Surprisingly well, now that you mention it. I am still alive.

GM: So, what was going through your mind when you decided to do that?

Jimbo1: I just knew I could do it, and I knew that my friend Grendl would have my back, just like I've got his, so I went for it.

Or

Jimbo2: There was no other option! Something had to be done and we couldn't well discuss our options in committee, could we? Darned if I'm going to let physics stop me from stopping that tie!

This way, you can let the action happen as it will, you can get an answer to their motivation without interrupting or tamping down, and if you do it at the start of a session you can get your players into their characters' headspace. I think it's a fun way to get going, relive some highlights, and potentially deepen characterizations.