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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6608052" data-attributes="member: 42582">That doesn't really mark a distinction from a skill-based system, either, or at least a good one. In a good social-skill system, you can only make a skill check by declaring some action that makes sense in the fiction.I'm not really sure I entirely follow the example.In Moldvay Basic, as in real life, it has to be possible to persuade someone to buy something they don't like. In a system like 4e, the Bluff skill might be relevant. In Moldvay Basic, it's raw CHA (no social skills).If the NPC really doesn't like pies, that would impose a penalty. If the GM is roleplaying the NPC well, then the players might work out the NPC doesn't like pies and have their sales efforts switch to (say) apples instead.Presumably, the PCs can also learn information about NPCs and deploy it. For instance, NPC X in the dungeon might have gossip that a trader down the corridor is interested in good-quality giant ferret skins. If the players approach the trader offering giant ferret skins for sale at a good price, then that should give them a bonus (just as, if they learn in advance that your NPC doesn't like pies, they can avoid offering pies for sale and thereby avoid the pie-hatred-induced penalty).I'm not sure what you mean by "as they see fit". The GM shouldn't be arbitrary. If the NPC description says "The trader is keen to buy giant ferret skins" and the players, having learned of this, approach the NPC offering skins for sale, it would not be proper GMing for the GM to impose a penalty just because s/he suddenly "sees fit". The GM should also be adjudicating things in a way that makes sense, given the fiction. (Including the pre-established fiction which the players are gradually unearthing through their explorative efforts.)In practice, not every group who plays Moldvay Basic uses the written rules for stat generation. Or even if they do, there might be a stable of characters and a player can choose to take the high-CHA one out for a spin.It might also be possible to learn of a magic item or magic pool or similar that raises CHA.It seems to me that, in the same way that players can take steps to increase their chance to hear noises (eg play thieves or demihumans), they can take steps to increase their chances at good reactions.In the post that I was replying to, [MENTION=6680772]Iosue[/MENTION] says of the hear noise example "The characters listen at a door? The DM can decide what they hear, or roll." What I don't think the GM is free to do is to declare that the PCs hear nothing, even if - according to the dungeon key - there is in fact potentially audible noise in the room. Nothing in the Moldvay Basic GMing advice gives that GM that sort of authority, to block the players' exploratory efforts without regard to the fictional positioning.</blockquote>

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