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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Water Bob" data-source="post: 6023472" data-attributes="member: 92305">I haven't been saying "either/or" at all.  Several times I've said that a good DM will keep the pulse on his game and know when to use roleplaying and when not to. I don't want to make throws and then roleplay off of that.  I've tried that, and I don't like how it breaks the smooth flow of the game.   As I've said earlier, I think roleplaying should trump dice throws. I want to take the game back to the player, not the dice. I want my players thinking and solving problems, not rolling dice.So, whenever a situation pops up, the default is to roleplay it out. But, a good GM is a good story teller, and there certainly is a place for dice rolling. Therefore, default first to RPing the situation, but if that feels wrong, or the GM thinks this will bog down the game, then cover it with a dice throw and move on.   Let's look at an example: The PCs approach the town at sundown. "Who goes there," asks the guard atop the battlements. We go straight into RPing the enounter. That's the default. No dice are thrown. The players are masters of their own fates.The next night, and the night after that, the PCs find themselves in similar situations at each village. Well, it's just not fun to repeat a similar encounter so soon after the first. The players wouldn't enjoy that at all. Getting into the town at night becomes drudgery. The GM should know this and have the story-telling chops to just let the second and third nights be dealt with using Diplomacy checks. A quick dice throw, and the GM says, "It's a similar situation that you had at the last town, but you sweet talked the guard and got inside."The GM guides the game between RP moments and dice rolling moments just as he does guiding the game between scenes and combat scenarios measured in six second rounds.Yet...even when roleplaying, stats and skills will be important. They should skew the GM's RP even if no die throw is made. This way, you don't ever really have a CHR 5 half-orc coming across as suave to a lofty, stuck-up, civilized noble NPC, unless the player comes up with something extremely convincing in his roleplay.  GM: "That's the way you came across in your head. And, if the recipient of your dialogue were somebody other than this stuck up noble, you might have half a chance at coming off as suave in spite of being perceived as an uncivilized savage. But, you were talking to this dandy, all he really sees is an uncouth, uncivilized freak of nature not worthy of his attention."This way, I think both rolls of RPing and skill checks are served.</blockquote>

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