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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ovinomancer" data-source="post: 8011108" data-attributes="member: 16814">Fundamentally, there's a larger difference between a heavily guarded gate where the PCs can count the foes and judge their capabilities and compare it to their own and make a judgement on how the resolution mechanics (combat in this case) are likely to turn out.  The information makes this a player-facing decision point -- can we beat up that many guards of that caliber with our extensively defined statistics?The Burgomaster is not the same situation.  This situation is not player facing.  Even with information that the Burgomaster hates to be insulted, that's not something I can look at my abilities and determine what likelihood I might have in insulting the Burgomaster and still successfully completing my goal.  I can't know because that's locked behind GM decides.  If the GM refers to notes, and further such notes have hard coded outcomes for certain inputs, then this situation gets even worse, as I cannot know if this information about the Burgomaster's aversion to being insulted is something that is in play for a challenge or will absolutely result in a negative outcome no matter what.  I think a large part of the supposed player's frustration (assuming this is correct for the purpose of argument) might stem from this lack of being able to determine what the stakes and odds are.The suggestion has been that you don't have to approach it like that -- nothing at all breaks if you actually test the action to insult the Burgomaster.  If you give the player a roll, it still works -- the Burgomaster can react poorly to being insulted, honoring that bit of the established fiction, but the player can still achieve their goal, honoring the success at the task.  In 5e, there's nothing that prevents you from saying, "Bob, the Burgomaster is known to react poorly to insults, so this tack seems like one that's pretty hard.  In fact, give me a hard DC check to see if you can get away with it."  Again, so long as you adjudicate by being grounded in the fiction and being genre appropriate, there's little that will harm the game.  That's all -- a suggestion that there's a way through that doesn't require hardcoding outcomes and that makes social encounters a bit more dynamic.  I also recommend using a skill challenge framework for successes vs failures.  Or a BitD clock.  Make the challenge require more than one success and you give yourself a lot more room for this kind of approach to smooth out much more nicely.</blockquote>

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