I'm in the midst of desgining a new adventure, and slowly remembering all the "roleplaying" encounters I've seen through the years... Almost invariably, encounters where the PCs are supposed to chat with the critter (or perhaps use a Bluff/Diplomacy check) are called "roleplaying encounters." Despite the fact that chatting with a monster in the midst of a dungeon wouldn't be logical for many D&D characters.
For example, let's take Groog the half-orc barbarian. His player has assigned his worst scores to Intelligence and Charisma and his best to Strength, figuring that Groog is one to smash things. Groog has probably figured out that hitting things with a greataxe and a generous dose of Power Attack solves many of life's problems, rather than his wit and personality.
Or let's consider Alacrind the lawful neutral cleric of Saint Cuthbert, who has recently been involved in thwarting a devil corrupting the local nobles. For the time being, he's popping off detect evil and detect lies every time he engages in any conversation of importance, and keeping the holy mace close by. His trust level in regards to strangers (especially strangers in a dungeon or strangers that seem chatty) is close to nil.
Of course there's always more factors to consider in any specific situation, but in general terms... Given these reasonably typical D&D characters, why would they stop to chat with an orc in the middle of a dungeon? Wouldn't it be far more logical for the character to assume that it's about to hit the fan? In a situation like this, would it not be within a character's "role" to resort to violence?
For example, let's take Groog the half-orc barbarian. His player has assigned his worst scores to Intelligence and Charisma and his best to Strength, figuring that Groog is one to smash things. Groog has probably figured out that hitting things with a greataxe and a generous dose of Power Attack solves many of life's problems, rather than his wit and personality.
Or let's consider Alacrind the lawful neutral cleric of Saint Cuthbert, who has recently been involved in thwarting a devil corrupting the local nobles. For the time being, he's popping off detect evil and detect lies every time he engages in any conversation of importance, and keeping the holy mace close by. His trust level in regards to strangers (especially strangers in a dungeon or strangers that seem chatty) is close to nil.
Of course there's always more factors to consider in any specific situation, but in general terms... Given these reasonably typical D&D characters, why would they stop to chat with an orc in the middle of a dungeon? Wouldn't it be far more logical for the character to assume that it's about to hit the fan? In a situation like this, would it not be within a character's "role" to resort to violence?