Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Are things like Intimidate/Bluff/Diplomacy too easy?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5606425" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>Interesting. My response to the example was that, as soon as it becomes clear to the Party Face that the guard is thinking of escalating the issue to his superior, the Party Face should explain that the first "diplomat" is really a doppelganger assassin, and that the only hope for the king is if the party rush in and save him right away! [EDIT: what [MENTION=22779]Hussar[/MENTION] said a few posts up.)</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The particular mechanical iimplementation of social skills in 3E may be weak, although in my view (admittedly as an outsider) this is mostly due to (i) a failure to have a robust way of handling ever-escalating skill bonuses, and (ii) a failure to try and correlate social skills with spells like Charm and Suggestion.</p><p></p><p>But I agree that there is nothing objectionable about playing a social skill PC. Every game I've GMed over the past 20+ years has had one or more socially-focused PCs in it. At one stage I had a couple of PCs (a RM mystic - something like an illusionist - and a RM moon mage - something like a ranger/illusionist) whose players had to maintain lists of their identities to keep track of what names and faces they were using in the various towns and cities of the gameworld.</p><p></p><p>And when I prep for play I give some thought to how different NPCs might respond to various sorts of threats or offers or approaches. (Personality descriptions, relationship diagrams, etc).</p><p></p><p>I think we approach the game differently!</p><p></p><p>From my point of view, for the players it is always and only their goals that are on the line, whether the goal be "kill the goblin" or "rescue the prisoner" or "bluff the guard so we can meet the king". I want social conflict to be up to the task of handling the emotional stakes for the <em>player</em>. The fact that the PC can't die (and frankly, in the case of the king's guard bluff I don't think that's true - that's probably riskier for the typical 5th level PC than being surrounded by a dozen kobolds) strikes me as at best a secondary consideration.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 5606425, member: 42582"] Interesting. My response to the example was that, as soon as it becomes clear to the Party Face that the guard is thinking of escalating the issue to his superior, the Party Face should explain that the first "diplomat" is really a doppelganger assassin, and that the only hope for the king is if the party rush in and save him right away! [EDIT: what [MENTION=22779]Hussar[/MENTION] said a few posts up.) The particular mechanical iimplementation of social skills in 3E may be weak, although in my view (admittedly as an outsider) this is mostly due to (i) a failure to have a robust way of handling ever-escalating skill bonuses, and (ii) a failure to try and correlate social skills with spells like Charm and Suggestion. But I agree that there is nothing objectionable about playing a social skill PC. Every game I've GMed over the past 20+ years has had one or more socially-focused PCs in it. At one stage I had a couple of PCs (a RM mystic - something like an illusionist - and a RM moon mage - something like a ranger/illusionist) whose players had to maintain lists of their identities to keep track of what names and faces they were using in the various towns and cities of the gameworld. And when I prep for play I give some thought to how different NPCs might respond to various sorts of threats or offers or approaches. (Personality descriptions, relationship diagrams, etc). I think we approach the game differently! From my point of view, for the players it is always and only their goals that are on the line, whether the goal be "kill the goblin" or "rescue the prisoner" or "bluff the guard so we can meet the king". I want social conflict to be up to the task of handling the emotional stakes for the [I]player[/I]. The fact that the PC can't die (and frankly, in the case of the king's guard bluff I don't think that's true - that's probably riskier for the typical 5th level PC than being surrounded by a dozen kobolds) strikes me as at best a secondary consideration. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Are things like Intimidate/Bluff/Diplomacy too easy?
Top