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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 8941048" data-attributes="member: 6785785">Right, I get that. But how do you determine the outcome of the social interaction? What's the tipping point for that NPC to say "you know what, I'll take your silver and let you in"? Do you determine a specific amount of coin? Or if deception is used, how do you decide what's tricky enough?It may or may not be more of a railroad. But if there are set numbers, and we use dice to help determine the outcome, then it's not the GM deciding the outcome.You've now added more details to your example that make it less likely to be a railroad. But still... how is the outcome determined?I'm struggling to understand why you brought up the example of the GM not wanting to run the ballroom scene.So you leave something like the existence of something you don't want to run up to the roll of the dice? That seems a bit odd.Why not make the list consist of things you are interested in?You've described a situation where the GM is interacting with the player, without (it seemed at the time, but maybe not now?) much concern for mechanics, or the absence of related mechanics. You then decide how things go based on the interaction at the table, what the player said and how they said it, and how you feel about that. And then you added in the DM's feelings about not wanting to run a ballroom scene.If you don't see the risk of a railroad in there, I'm not sure I can explain.But when the system steps away from the fiction in the way you're describing, what is it replaced by? The GM, mostly.Right, but if there is a skill system or something similar to it, then I at least know how good my character is at persuading or bluffing overall. That's something to go on.And again, if this guard is meant to be meaningful, then I would zoom in on it a little more. I'd emphasize the importance a bit, and then we'd play it out.But if he's just a guard, a minor obstacle to be dealt with, then tell me how you want to do that, and we roll to see what happens.Yeah, that's definitely one way to do things. I don't do it that way. I'm not going to spend as much time on a guard as I will the ballroom scene, where I assume something more interesting is expected to happen. There's not much reason to do that, and every reason to do the opposite.</blockquote>

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