The video game Knights of the Old Republic 2 had a very nice way of reducing the time spent "chewing the cabbage". much of the exposition was in the form of your own dialogue choices, many of which lead to the exact same response from the NPC.
This
site raises a very good example of what I mean (note: some not safe for work language, although it isn't especially gratuitous.)
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Originally Posted by the Handmaiden Brianna
Though my father's blood I share with my sisters, I wear the face of my mother. My father was Yusanis, an Echani general.
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Originally Posted by Your dialogue options
1. Yusanis was a hero of the Mandalorian Wars, one of the greatest.
2. I didn't realize Yusanis had any children.
3. Go on.
4. Forget it. I had some other questions.
5. Never mind. I'll be going.
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Originally Posted by Site author's analysis. Note, the Exile is the protagonist.
This is another one of those writer’s tricks, doing exposition through player choices. The first 3 dialogue choices here all lead to the same response, so there’s no functional difference in choosing between them. However, the Exile has a history, and since there’s no narration in this game, his history is mostly told through his own dialogue choices.
The first option here implies the Exile knew a lot about the Mandalorian Wars, though we know of course that he fought in them. [Moose: As the general who carried out the horrific attack that ended that war. Think Hiroshima horrific.] From the second option we can infer he might have even known Yusanis personally. Put them together and the Exile just communicated some exposition to the player without having ‘said’ anything.
This kind of thing happens quite a lot.
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As a quick irrelevant tangent, KotOR and KotOR2 have the distinction of being one of the only game series out there whose protagonists have never been 'under 20', or even '20-somethings'. It's hard to gauge the protagonists' ages, but the chronology of the Jedi Exile appears to place him/her in his/her mid 40s, possibly early 50s. The protagonist of the first KotOR appears to have similar mileage on his/her odometer, and might be as old as 65-70 by the time KotOR2's story wraps up.