InzeladunMaster
First Post
I think you are taking my comments to an unintended extreme. I am referring to games where the players insist on doing nothing but "roleplaying", where combat or rolling dice is a "bad" thing. Also, getting into a character's mindset can be done in combat and any other situation. But if I do not know how to interrogate someone, then, by-golly, I want a die-roll resolution if my character does know how. If I play a character who wants to dazzle the NPCs with a dance, no one expects me to twirl around the room in "roleplay", do they? Or actually sing to have my character sing... and so on. Why should interrogation, intimidation, bribery or sweet-talk be treated any differently?
Rolling dice does not preclude getting into the character's head and/or mindset - I can do that even in combat, which is dice-heavy. I can grunt with mock-pain when my characters are struck and hiss a curse when my character misses his foe or howl in barbaric fury when I bash in a foe's head - why should social situations preclude the die-rolling? When did dice-rolling and role-playing become mutually exclusive in some people's minds? I think melee combat shows that it does not have to be - and I think social situations can be handled the same way.
Rolling the dice stops certain... whimsies (not sure what word to use here) by the GM. In once campaign I was playing a barbarian. For the first two or three sessions this Barbarian was a real lady's man, bedding nearly every female NPC he came across. Then, suddenly, he was inept with women. Every attempt was met with a slap or laughter, even by the NPC he had already slept with. I asked the GM what happened and he claimed he didn't remember the Barbarian being that good with women and he didn't remember the encounter with the NPC. The GM never again let the character be all that successful with women again - just on his whim because he thought it was funny. If we had skills back then, I could have put the amount of skill points I wanted in the appropriate skill and had a more objective chance to have the character I wanted. Does the dice-rolling preclude getting into the character's head? The dice rolling keeps the Gamesmaster from overrunning the player's concept of the character. Now, if the dice are always failing, then that can add a new facet to the character - but adding facets to a player's character should be up to the player, not to the GM.
My actual point, which admittedly got lost, was that talking to merchants really does not have much of a place in Sword-and-Sorcery style games like it would in a "Lord of the Rings" type fantasy style game.
I had a gamer tell me he once played a game for two years on a weekly basis with only two fights - the rest of the time was spent talking to the locals about mundane stuff. I had a girl actually play a few games with my group and leave, complaining that I had more combat in one session than she had had in over a year of weekly gaming with her "roleplaying" group. If that is what "roleplaying" games are intended to be, then yes, talking to merchants and locals about the weather is unnecessary for me. Getting into a person's mindset and playing through a plot, that is fine and I can deal with that. But, for a straight sword-and-sorcery game (as opposed to a generic fantasy game), I do think conflict and combat is an important part. My AD&D and 2E games were generic fantasy, and were played differently than I play Conan.
If the dialogue directly plays into the plot (buying a sword rarely does), then I enjoy the acting part. If it is extraneous to the plot, I'd rather roll a die than waste the time on something unimportant (like buying a sword).... in a sword-and-sorcery game.
Rolling dice does not preclude getting into the character's head and/or mindset - I can do that even in combat, which is dice-heavy. I can grunt with mock-pain when my characters are struck and hiss a curse when my character misses his foe or howl in barbaric fury when I bash in a foe's head - why should social situations preclude the die-rolling? When did dice-rolling and role-playing become mutually exclusive in some people's minds? I think melee combat shows that it does not have to be - and I think social situations can be handled the same way.
Rolling the dice stops certain... whimsies (not sure what word to use here) by the GM. In once campaign I was playing a barbarian. For the first two or three sessions this Barbarian was a real lady's man, bedding nearly every female NPC he came across. Then, suddenly, he was inept with women. Every attempt was met with a slap or laughter, even by the NPC he had already slept with. I asked the GM what happened and he claimed he didn't remember the Barbarian being that good with women and he didn't remember the encounter with the NPC. The GM never again let the character be all that successful with women again - just on his whim because he thought it was funny. If we had skills back then, I could have put the amount of skill points I wanted in the appropriate skill and had a more objective chance to have the character I wanted. Does the dice-rolling preclude getting into the character's head? The dice rolling keeps the Gamesmaster from overrunning the player's concept of the character. Now, if the dice are always failing, then that can add a new facet to the character - but adding facets to a player's character should be up to the player, not to the GM.
My actual point, which admittedly got lost, was that talking to merchants really does not have much of a place in Sword-and-Sorcery style games like it would in a "Lord of the Rings" type fantasy style game.
I had a gamer tell me he once played a game for two years on a weekly basis with only two fights - the rest of the time was spent talking to the locals about mundane stuff. I had a girl actually play a few games with my group and leave, complaining that I had more combat in one session than she had had in over a year of weekly gaming with her "roleplaying" group. If that is what "roleplaying" games are intended to be, then yes, talking to merchants and locals about the weather is unnecessary for me. Getting into a person's mindset and playing through a plot, that is fine and I can deal with that. But, for a straight sword-and-sorcery game (as opposed to a generic fantasy game), I do think conflict and combat is an important part. My AD&D and 2E games were generic fantasy, and were played differently than I play Conan.
If the dialogue directly plays into the plot (buying a sword rarely does), then I enjoy the acting part. If it is extraneous to the plot, I'd rather roll a die than waste the time on something unimportant (like buying a sword).... in a sword-and-sorcery game.
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