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<blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 7140789" data-attributes="member: 22779">There are two reasons why I don't have a problem with the intimidate check.1.&nbsp; The player invested in the skill and rolled well.&nbsp; I really believe in letting the dice strongly guide the game.&nbsp; If the dice say you succeed, then you succeed, if you fail, you fail.&nbsp; And, I have no real problems with a player saying, &quot;I intimidate the guard - I got a 24&quot;.&nbsp; Great.&nbsp; AFAIC, not a problem.&nbsp; Would it have occurred to me that the players might do that?&nbsp; Probably not.&nbsp; But, when it happened, I rolled with it (no pun intended).&nbsp; They succeeded in getting past the guards.&nbsp; Note, that that success was a bit pyrric, since barging into the meeting means that the potentially friendly NPC starts Hostile, making convincing the chieftain much more difficult.&nbsp; But, still, they hadn't &quot;failed&quot; at that point.2.&nbsp; This one is purely metagame.&nbsp; I WANT them to get into that tent to talk to the chieftain.&nbsp; That's the point of their being there.&nbsp; They are supposed to convince the chieftain that the cultists are really, really bad and are a major threat.&nbsp; They can't do that unless they actually meet the chieftain.&nbsp; So, while they gained entrance in a manner that I was a bit taken aback by, I can't really fault them for doing what I wanted them to do in the first place - get into that meeting and warn the chieftain.So, as far as that goes, I'm not fussed about my ruling there.&nbsp; It worked in the fiction (the heroes are Big Damn Heroes and it lets them feel like Big Damn Heroes to throw their weight around from time to time) and it was plausible enough.Now, where I made a mistake was insisting that they treat with the chieftain.&nbsp; They barged in and demanded to talk to the cult leader.&nbsp; Now, at that point, I booted them out the door and things went pear shaped.&nbsp; What I should have done was just back off a bit.&nbsp; Let them talk to the cult leader and see where that leads.&nbsp; It could very well come out that the PC's talk about how much of a threat the cultists are anyway and I can then go into an opposed skill challenge between the cultists and the PC's to convince the chieftain.&nbsp; Granted, the PC's would be at higher DC's because of their choices (choices do have consequences), but, I could have salvaged that scene and it would have been a lot more fun.I guess my advice is, I let my ego get in the way.&nbsp; Instead of stepping back and thinking, &quot;Hrm, this scene isn't as fun as it could be, what can I do to make it fun?&quot; I went with my (as was mentioned upthread) first DM thoughts which was, &quot;The players are being asshats and the NPC isn't going to put up with it!&quot; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin&nbsp; &nbsp; :D"&nbsp; data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />First DM thoughts aren't always the best way to go.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Hussar, post: 7140789, member: 22779"] There are two reasons why I don't have a problem with the intimidate check. 1. The player invested in the skill and rolled well. I really believe in letting the dice strongly guide the game. If the dice say you succeed, then you succeed, if you fail, you fail. And, I have no real problems with a player saying, "I intimidate the guard - I got a 24". Great. AFAIC, not a problem. Would it have occurred to me that the players might do that? Probably not. But, when it happened, I rolled with it (no pun intended). They succeeded in getting past the guards. Note, that that success was a bit pyrric, since barging into the meeting means that the potentially friendly NPC starts Hostile, making convincing the chieftain much more difficult. But, still, they hadn't "failed" at that point. 2. This one is purely metagame. I WANT them to get into that tent to talk to the chieftain. That's the point of their being there. They are supposed to convince the chieftain that the cultists are really, really bad and are a major threat. They can't do that unless they actually meet the chieftain. So, while they gained entrance in a manner that I was a bit taken aback by, I can't really fault them for doing what I wanted them to do in the first place - get into that meeting and warn the chieftain. So, as far as that goes, I'm not fussed about my ruling there. It worked in the fiction (the heroes are Big Damn Heroes and it lets them feel like Big Damn Heroes to throw their weight around from time to time) and it was plausible enough. Now, where I made a mistake was insisting that they treat with the chieftain. They barged in and demanded to talk to the cult leader. Now, at that point, I booted them out the door and things went pear shaped. What I should have done was just back off a bit. Let them talk to the cult leader and see where that leads. It could very well come out that the PC's talk about how much of a threat the cultists are anyway and I can then go into an opposed skill challenge between the cultists and the PC's to convince the chieftain. Granted, the PC's would be at higher DC's because of their choices (choices do have consequences), but, I could have salvaged that scene and it would have been a lot more fun. I guess my advice is, I let my ego get in the way. Instead of stepping back and thinking, "Hrm, this scene isn't as fun as it could be, what can I do to make it fun?" I went with my (as was mentioned upthread) first DM thoughts which was, "The players are being asshats and the NPC isn't going to put up with it!" :D First DM thoughts aren't always the best way to go. [/QUOTE]

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