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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Snarf Zagyg" data-source="post: 8274505" data-attributes="member: 7023840">Great question! Building on what [USER=16266]@ph0rk[/USER] and [USER=16586]@Campbell[/USER] already said, I would answer like this-First, please remember that in writing the OP, I was being descriptive, not normative. I am not advocating for any particular play style. Instead, I was looking at the origins of "skilled play" because I think that the assumptions inherent in it underlie a few conversations I see that keep popping up here.Second, "skilled play" is jargon- a term of art. It is describing a certain approach to TTRPGs, and does not mean that other ways of playing are not skilled. Third, it's not about combat (or not just about combat), so it isn't really about the "tactical" aspect of D&D. In fact, certain aspects of skilled play are very hard to translate from the origins of D&D through 5e, because of the differences (at least arguably) in lethality.  Now, I think that your question is incredibly interesting because it goes to an issue that I wanted to include in the OP, but didn't because of the Wall of Text issue I tend to have. Call it the "intelligence" debate. In early D&D (with skilled play), intelligence was often then dump stat. Remember- with skilled play and reliance on player knowledge, and the ability to solve puzzles and riddles (for example) with what the player knew, the character's intelligence didn't matter much. Going away from the skilled play model to one where you are playing your character not just to your flaws, bonds and ideals, but also roleplaying to your abilities, can present a challenge when it comes to dumping mental statistics- which is why we can see debates between people who look for ways to validate skilled play (playing with a role-played high intelligence) despite having a character with a low intelligence.But to answer your specific question- No. In a pure skilled play scenario, roleplaying would be seen as being subordinate to skilled play. You would try to come up with a RP reason for your skilled play, but you wouldn't do something "stupid" (aka, bad for the prospects of the party or your character) solely because of role-play reasons. Aspects of this continue today, when you still have tables acknowledge meta rules in D&D (like no PvP). Does that make it more clear?</blockquote>

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