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General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Why are social encounters called "roleplaying encounters?"
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<blockquote data-quote="Dykstrav" data-source="post: 3763591" data-attributes="member: 40522"><p>Fair enough. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /> I suppose I'll vent a bit about what made me start thinking about this issue. Bit of a story here...</p><p></p><p>I was asked to run a campaign for a group, so I flat-out asked them what type of campaign they wanted to play. I was told they wanted to play important roles in the story (not observers), get the chance to do things that would have wide-ranging effects, and preferably urban-based. No problem.</p><p></p><p>I used the opportunity to detail a portion of my homebrew that I hadn't explored yet. The (very brief) basic situation was the characters were in a city-state where the chancellor was retiring. Various factions wanted to gain the chancellorship, the big conflict boiled down between the landed nobles and the wealthy merchants. The campaign basically focused on the characters deciding what side of the fight they wanted to be on, if any at all.</p><p></p><p>Given these guidelines and the requested campaign style, the party created included two elves and a dwarf. The elves were a wizard obsessed with arcane power and a rogue sneak-thief, the dwarf was a cleric representing the interests of the dwarven guilds. The two elves both used Charisma as their dump stat, and with the point buy I was doing, their Charismas both ended up being 8. Fortunately, the dwarf actually pumped his Charisma to 12, reasoning that it affects his turning attempts and he wanted his character to be a labor-leader type. An interesting party for a intrigue-based campaign: a pair of surly elves working with a gregarious dwarf.</p><p></p><p>The wizard and the cleric both found niches. The dwarves grumbled that their cleric was entangling himself in human politics, where the elves didn't really care but thought the rogue and wizard were stupid for getting involved. The party became attached to one of the candidates, running investigations, working security at fundraisers, and other legwork. Lots of social interaction... The rogue's player spent the first five sessions staring at his dice, doodling on his character sheet, and generally bored out of his mind. I put in several skill-based challenges specifically designed for the character, many of which were cheerlessly ignored in favor of fiddling with dice while the other players had a blast.</p><p></p><p>Finally, in the sixth session, he flat-out shoots one of the city guards with his bow. When all eyes turned on him, he stated, "I'm tired of all this talking b***s***. I'm just gonna kill stuff until I gain a level." Fine, I figured. I gave the group some good old-fashioned dungeon crawling action, figuring that six sessions of political legwork might merit a change of pace. Then it was back to the main campaign story arc.</p><p></p><p>At the conclusion of the campaign, this same player complained that the biggest thing he disliked was all the violence and dungeon-crawling, that he wanted to see some roleplaying in the next campaign. I had some rather direct words with him about what he was asking for since this confused the hell out of me.</p><p></p><p>And now, this player is going to be involved in my next campaign. We're on good terms and all that, but I just don't know how to hook his interest. He's not happy unless he's rolling dice and killing things, but at the same time, complains about wanting "roleplaying" encounters that he can schmooze with a Charisma of 8. I'm at a bit of a loss right now.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Dykstrav, post: 3763591, member: 40522"] Fair enough. :) I suppose I'll vent a bit about what made me start thinking about this issue. Bit of a story here... I was asked to run a campaign for a group, so I flat-out asked them what type of campaign they wanted to play. I was told they wanted to play important roles in the story (not observers), get the chance to do things that would have wide-ranging effects, and preferably urban-based. No problem. I used the opportunity to detail a portion of my homebrew that I hadn't explored yet. The (very brief) basic situation was the characters were in a city-state where the chancellor was retiring. Various factions wanted to gain the chancellorship, the big conflict boiled down between the landed nobles and the wealthy merchants. The campaign basically focused on the characters deciding what side of the fight they wanted to be on, if any at all. Given these guidelines and the requested campaign style, the party created included two elves and a dwarf. The elves were a wizard obsessed with arcane power and a rogue sneak-thief, the dwarf was a cleric representing the interests of the dwarven guilds. The two elves both used Charisma as their dump stat, and with the point buy I was doing, their Charismas both ended up being 8. Fortunately, the dwarf actually pumped his Charisma to 12, reasoning that it affects his turning attempts and he wanted his character to be a labor-leader type. An interesting party for a intrigue-based campaign: a pair of surly elves working with a gregarious dwarf. The wizard and the cleric both found niches. The dwarves grumbled that their cleric was entangling himself in human politics, where the elves didn't really care but thought the rogue and wizard were stupid for getting involved. The party became attached to one of the candidates, running investigations, working security at fundraisers, and other legwork. Lots of social interaction... The rogue's player spent the first five sessions staring at his dice, doodling on his character sheet, and generally bored out of his mind. I put in several skill-based challenges specifically designed for the character, many of which were cheerlessly ignored in favor of fiddling with dice while the other players had a blast. Finally, in the sixth session, he flat-out shoots one of the city guards with his bow. When all eyes turned on him, he stated, "I'm tired of all this talking b***s***. I'm just gonna kill stuff until I gain a level." Fine, I figured. I gave the group some good old-fashioned dungeon crawling action, figuring that six sessions of political legwork might merit a change of pace. Then it was back to the main campaign story arc. At the conclusion of the campaign, this same player complained that the biggest thing he disliked was all the violence and dungeon-crawling, that he wanted to see some roleplaying in the next campaign. I had some rather direct words with him about what he was asking for since this confused the hell out of me. And now, this player is going to be involved in my next campaign. We're on good terms and all that, but I just don't know how to hook his interest. He's not happy unless he's rolling dice and killing things, but at the same time, complains about wanting "roleplaying" encounters that he can schmooze with a Charisma of 8. I'm at a bit of a loss right now. [/QUOTE]
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