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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8316584" data-attributes="member: 82106">But again, I want to reiterate that I don't see where the GAME is in this! You have now just basically free-form RP. NOTHING in the 5e core process binds the GM in any way whatsoever. He decides if and when a check is required in his sole opinion. He decides what the DC is. He decides what the fictional valence of success or failure are, and even what any mechanical consequences would be. The only exception might, to a degree, be spell casting. In fact I would expect that the most likely approach of an experienced D&D player in this kind of basically combatless socially intensive scenario would be to go whole hog into maximizing ones casting ability at the expense of virtually anything else (certainly of any non-social skills, though knowledge skills might come in handy too). I mean, OK, Stealth seems pretty useful too, potentially, but that is often easy enough to bypass magically.Anyway, this is the core problem, 5e adjudication is toothless for the reasons I've listed above, so once you have no combat, 5e itself is almost perfectly free form play with some numbers and maybe dice rolls that hint to the GM what he might want to have come to pass. At best the players can make worthwhile tactical decisions that relate to things that literally within their eyesight or which have been fictionally established to be plausibly reliably true at this moment. It isn't nothing, but even within that sphere the resolution of all actions is still almost entirely the GM's call. In fact if I was going to use a system which didn't really address the whole intrigue aspect mechanically I would pick something like PACE, which at least allows the players to force the GM to be bound by fiction that they are willing to buy with their chits.</blockquote>

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