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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ThirdWizard" data-source="post: 6209062" data-attributes="member: 12037">I think this sums up what you're saying pretty well.In the end, what happens in the game is a result of, and constrained by, the ideas, imaginations, and experiences of the people playing the game. I think the big reason for social skills have been added to games has been to attempt to curtail this reliance on a player's own ability, whether that be mental or social. That's why in modules you see everything from "Make an Int check to solve the puzzle" to "Make an Int check to get a clue" to "Perform a skill challenge to solve the puzzle." There's been a sort of resistance to the idea that our character should be limited by us, the players of the game. Maybe social skills being added is because gamers are thought of as anti-social creatures, and designers are trying to build a better system for introverts. Well, I'll leave the theorizing as to why for another day. Suffice to say that I see where you're coming from in this regard.I would definitely point out that deciding what to do can be just as crippling for someone who is not tactically minded when dealt a tactical situation as someone not socially minded when dealt a social situation. If you someone isn't good at wargames, I have to admit that as much as I love it, you won't be "good" at D&D 4e (fuzzy quotes because good is a relative term). It's just not as obvious that your mental skills aren't up to snuff when you forget to use your minor action in a clinch situation than when the DM looks at you and says "The pirate captain looks at you expectantly after finding you stowed away on his ship, a deep growl starting to form in his throat. 'Why are ye on my ship? Give me one reason I shouldn't keel haul the lot o' ya!'"There's, I think, also a tendency when a player isn't sure what to do to look to their character sheet for ideas or answers. It's sort of the spoken 'um' that comes out, where without a fully formed thought, they reach for something. So, they might see that they have a high diplomacy and want to use it! "Aha," they think, "I bet this high skill can get me out of this mess!" After all they sunk a lot of points into it, as opposed to all those other skills like Use Magic Device or Jump. They know they can use those skills. But, they don't know they can use Diplomacy.All this is to say that I think its easier to answer the question "What should I do now" when it pertains to a physical situation, because physical problems usually have straightforward answers, whereas mental/social problems are usually far more open ended. I don't think this is a problem strictly for physicality, and I still don't think it social aspects of the game are a wholly different animal than physical aspects, but I wholeheartedly agree that the two aren't on equal footing, mostly based on the nature of available options for a given situation.</blockquote>

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