Most relatable post. 100% do not pause a three person conversation, it loses that plot every time. You can sometimes salvage it but you lose a lot of the set up.
And the constant requests to join to on patrols? I got them so much before they invented different plots to occupy themselves. I suggest diverting to a walk through just the village map section since they all seem to love picnics when walks are discussed.
I recommend not chat trading items that you need to be properly traded. You can exploit the Ai if you’re a jerk about it, but they regularly mess it up and break the flow of any RP. Aldric accepted my items as gifts and paid me in “Gold Coin”x10 in the shape of beer bottles. So I have a stash on the floor of his shop now and am broke, again.