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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Krensky" data-source="post: 5610664" data-attributes="member: 30936">It was an exaggeration, but no more then your position that the guard not letting them in on a single Bluff check. Like I said, they succeeded at the Bluff check. The guard believes them. What happens then depends on the circumstances and the lie. Failure means that plan is blown and it's time for a new one or to improvise. Your 'well they failed, so they get in but their other checks will be harder' is way more railroady then anything I've been advocating.Yes, that's what their success indicates. The guard believed them. What happens then depends on way too many things to go into. Just because the guard believes them does not necessarily mean he lets them in or that he doesn't pass the buck, or summon the Senschal to escort them to the King or whatever. What happens then is up to me as GM.Succeeding at their Bluff check means the guard believes their lie. Depending on the lie and the circumstances, he may let them in, he may call his boss, he may call for someone to escort them to the meeting room, he may call for a security lock-down because he thinks the people that showed up earlier are spies or assassins. It depends on what's going on at the time. Ideally, the players did some prep work. They have forged (or maybe the real ones) documents saying who they are. They've dressed the part, perhaps even are wearing disguises. They've ensured the people they're replacing are delayed or indisposed. When they get sent to the meeting, someone, likely posing as a servant, or maybe the "diplomat's" boss's idiot nephew has to go use the jakes and slips away to steal the documents while the con artist/courtier/whatever keeps the Powers That Be busy.They succeeded, the guard believes them. Him letting them pass may or not be reasonable.That never happened though. They succeeded and the guard believes them. What happens after that has nothing to do with them. It depends upon the situation, the guard, etc. This is why, to me, your position is like what I said about boiling the whole thing to one Bluff check. In the case of the spy and the guard calling his boss it's time for them to convince him otherwise using Intimidate or Impress (read Diplomacy for D&D/PF). For the Diplomats, barring something like their plan not accounting for the real diplomats or whatever, he lets them in and calls for someone to escort them to the Senschal or whatever.First, a single Bluff check is not a plan. It's a step in a plan.Second, the most important GM advice ever:"The players aren’t your enemies. They’re your entertainment."If you want to run this sort of thing, you want to emulate a caper movie, or better yet, more specifically Leverage (which feels like a RPG in the first place). Complications and their plans going awry are entertaining. Their tap dancing and improvising is entertaining.</blockquote>

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