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Is D&D Too Focused on Combat?
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<blockquote data-quote="Jhaelen" data-source="post: 7733662" data-attributes="member: 46713"><p>Imho, there's several reasons why using die rolls for social encounters can be beneficial:</p><p>1) The die rolls never replace roleplaying, they supplement it. I've already mentioned that in my game players don't get to roll a die without first describing their actions.</p><p>2) It's also a question of what's at stake: I'm not proposing to use die rolls for all kinds of social situations. I propose to use them when the outcome is critically important. Just like you probably wouldn't want to allow your players to defeat a dragon in combat just by roleplaying, I wouldn't want them to be able to solve a diplomatic mission to avoid a war with a foreign sovereign purely by roleplaying.</p><p>3) Did you ever have a player in one of your groups who wanted to be the party's 'face' despite lacking good roleplaying skills? I definitely have. If I'm using an RPG system that supports social skills, then they should be good for something, right? I try to minimize situations in my games that test the skills of the players. I'm trying to test the skills of my players' characters.</p><p>History has told me something else:</p><p>Players invest in the skills that they believe will give them the best benefits in my game. If my campaigns tend to focus on high politics and social encounters, they will only make minimal investments in combat skills. Swords are only effective in conflicts that can be solved by relying on violence. And swords literally aren't effective against everything (in D&D), either: I notice you picked zombies as an example. Well, what about skeletons or golems? ;-)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jhaelen, post: 7733662, member: 46713"] Imho, there's several reasons why using die rolls for social encounters can be beneficial: 1) The die rolls never replace roleplaying, they supplement it. I've already mentioned that in my game players don't get to roll a die without first describing their actions. 2) It's also a question of what's at stake: I'm not proposing to use die rolls for all kinds of social situations. I propose to use them when the outcome is critically important. Just like you probably wouldn't want to allow your players to defeat a dragon in combat just by roleplaying, I wouldn't want them to be able to solve a diplomatic mission to avoid a war with a foreign sovereign purely by roleplaying. 3) Did you ever have a player in one of your groups who wanted to be the party's 'face' despite lacking good roleplaying skills? I definitely have. If I'm using an RPG system that supports social skills, then they should be good for something, right? I try to minimize situations in my games that test the skills of the players. I'm trying to test the skills of my players' characters. History has told me something else: Players invest in the skills that they believe will give them the best benefits in my game. If my campaigns tend to focus on high politics and social encounters, they will only make minimal investments in combat skills. Swords are only effective in conflicts that can be solved by relying on violence. And swords literally aren't effective against everything (in D&D), either: I notice you picked zombies as an example. Well, what about skeletons or golems? ;-) [/QUOTE]
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