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ShortQuests -- Pocket Sized Adventures! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed for 1-2 game sessions.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mathew_Freeman" data-source="post: 1535879" data-attributes="member: 1846">Figure I'd better join in... I did indeed mention the rules about Sense Motive, and forget to check my knowledge of Bluff...whoops. My experience of both S'mon and SB as DM's is excellent - both are content to let decent role-playing work when it needs to, and use the social-skills to define what happens in more difficult situations. Part of the big difference between them and other DM's on this forum is that in the games we play we're happier to go with non-optimal choices in order to have more fun. This may sound odd, but it's more satisfying (to me only!) to have my PC's exist as slightly flawed characters that make mistakes, and to avoid meta-gaming as much as possible. Going back to the Spot/Listen examples, if S'mon asks for a Spot check and I fail it (which happens a lot with my Fighter) then I'm happy to leave it at that and get ambushed. I didn't build a character that's good at spotting stuff, I built a character that's good at fighting stuff. If every time I fail a spot roll I get paranoid, then it stops being so much fun. I let other players have fun by shouting warnings. As far as Sense Motive goes, it tends to be all in the context. NPC's never exist in a vacuum, they're always rooted in the world. So, if I'm talking to a merchant, I'd probably want to Sense Motive on him because everyone knows merchants are always trying to take you for a ride. Same with politicians that I don't know that well. However, random person on the street? No point SMing him, since he's got no great reason to lie to me. It could be that he's an agent of the bad guys, but hopefully I'll be offered a visual clue to help me with that and thus lead me to suspect him to be lying. Going back to the "Which way did he go?", well, if the NPC in question is someone we've never met before I'm likely to believe him without a roll. However, if (by the rules) he's making a bluff check to lie to us, then I'd hope for a Sense Motive check to oppose it and tell. Still, if him lying to us and us not noticing leads to a good story, it's not exactly going to worry me. In an attempt to draw some sort of conclusion to this post which is probably far too long and doesn't explain myself very well at all, I've played under both S'mon and SB, and never had any problems with what's happened as far as all forms of social interaction goes.</blockquote>

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