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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Guest&nbsp; 85555" data-source="post: 8156967">I agree that one downside of my approach is player skill becomes more relevant so players with a weaker ability to make compelling arguments, might have a harder time. But the same can be said for players who are weak at battefield tactics or weak at puzzle solving. Now if part of your enjoyment of the game comes from the challenge, and overcoming the challenge (i.e. solving the puzzle, or finding a clever way to persuade the consul to your point), then having those situations boil down to a roll rather than what you choose to do or so, just doesn't feel as satisfying. That said, you can do things to help the player who isn't good at laying it on (I tend to give an A for effort in these cases). Also you can weight stats into your decision and you can call for a roll when it a character with a really high or low skill makes such an effort and you feel the need to factor in that high level or low level of skill (I don't like social skills, but I do use them because people expect them, and this is largely my approach: I only roll when there is some doubt in my mind about what the reaction would be, or when I feel the character's skill needs to have some weight)Still though, I don't think people appreciate just how much skill rolls for social interaction take away from the game for folks who are largely their to engage in direct social interaction with NPCs, solve puzzles directly, etc. This was a noticeable issue for me as social skills became more prevalent in the hobby (and in particular, since it was usually the game played the most that I was in, when 3rd edition D&D made them part of the core game). For me this change had a pretty immediate impact on my enjoyment of play and that impact was fixed the moment I ran earlier editions of the game. There is also a flow issue with these kinds of skills. i really don't like taking time to roll and resolve mechanics when I am engaged in the RP part of play. Now if it is just a simple roll against a target number, fair, that isn't too too much. But there are much more involved social systems (like social combat in some games) and those drive me nuts just from a flow perspective. All that said, I don't expect everyone to take my view. I have said my preference appears to be out of the norm, and that I do include social skills in the games I make because even most of my own players expect them in some way. I just have a very particular way of using them to preserve my style (which has taken me a while to figure out how to work).</blockquote>

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