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Is D&D Too Focused on Combat?
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<blockquote data-quote="The Crimson Binome" data-source="post: 7733469" data-attributes="member: 6775031"><p>I can't say for certain, since you're the one choosing your language, but it sounds to me like you aren't talking about meta-gaming or framing at all. It sounds more like you think the DM is roleplaying their NPCs inauthentically, and that they're getting away with it because there are no system mechanics with which to hold them accountable.</p><p></p><p>As an example, if the party is in town and the local loan shark starts harassing the fighter over some past debts, you think the fighter shouldn't be able to get away with simply letting the bard handle it; even though the fighter negotiates at -1 and can't possibly bluff, while the bard is absolutely guaranteed to convince the loan shark that the debts had already been paid. Is that an accurate assessment of your position?</p><p></p><p>Assuming this to be the case (so I can finish my point before going to bed), it sounds like you're confused by the concept of meta-gaming. The colloquial definition of the term refers to a character <em>within</em> the game world acting on information from <em>outside</em> of the game world. If the fighter chose to talk instead of the bard, based on the real-world rules of etiquette, then that would be meta-gaming because the world <em>they</em> live in doesn't actually work that way; only in <em>our</em> world would the fighter feel such a social pressure to speak for themself. Within the game world, allowing the bard to handle it is the correct course of action, because their world really does allow such deflections to be handled in that manner (it all comes down to the skill check, after all).</p><p></p><p>If you want to say that D&D is too combat-oriented because it has a lot of rules for combat and not enough rules to compel group participation in social interactions, then that's certainly a valid position (and it wouldn't even rely on DM framing to carry out). I would just argue that you could solve this example equally well by nixing the social skills entirely, such that the bard <em>couldn't</em> save the fighter trivially, and the fighter was not mechanically penalized for speaking on their own behalf.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="The Crimson Binome, post: 7733469, member: 6775031"] I can't say for certain, since you're the one choosing your language, but it sounds to me like you aren't talking about meta-gaming or framing at all. It sounds more like you think the DM is roleplaying their NPCs inauthentically, and that they're getting away with it because there are no system mechanics with which to hold them accountable. As an example, if the party is in town and the local loan shark starts harassing the fighter over some past debts, you think the fighter shouldn't be able to get away with simply letting the bard handle it; even though the fighter negotiates at -1 and can't possibly bluff, while the bard is absolutely guaranteed to convince the loan shark that the debts had already been paid. Is that an accurate assessment of your position? Assuming this to be the case (so I can finish my point before going to bed), it sounds like you're confused by the concept of meta-gaming. The colloquial definition of the term refers to a character [I]within[/I] the game world acting on information from [I]outside[/I] of the game world. If the fighter chose to talk instead of the bard, based on the real-world rules of etiquette, then that would be meta-gaming because the world [I]they[/I] live in doesn't actually work that way; only in [I]our[/I] world would the fighter feel such a social pressure to speak for themself. Within the game world, allowing the bard to handle it is the correct course of action, because their world really does allow such deflections to be handled in that manner (it all comes down to the skill check, after all). If you want to say that D&D is too combat-oriented because it has a lot of rules for combat and not enough rules to compel group participation in social interactions, then that's certainly a valid position (and it wouldn't even rely on DM framing to carry out). I would just argue that you could solve this example equally well by nixing the social skills entirely, such that the bard [I]couldn't[/I] save the fighter trivially, and the fighter was not mechanically penalized for speaking on their own behalf. [/QUOTE]
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