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Message: <blockquote data-quote="billd91" data-source="post: 6306129" data-attributes="member: 3400">In some cases, this may be how they are learning about the campaign's in-game values. In other cases, showing up to town covered in orc blood and reeking of owlbear urine will get them in to see someone - like the barbarian chieftain. You're making an assumption (wild guess, really) PCs showing up unready to meet the king don't care about in-game consistency but that may not be true. I never said they couldn't. I said there may be times in which it is a foregone conclusion that they can't use diplomacy to get past the chamberlain to see the king. There may be other times in which it is not impossible. There may be other avenues to get in to see the king or obtain an audience. There may be ways to blackmail or bribe the chamberlain into setting up the audience. But those methods may take a little research and work on the PCs' part.Because I would rather the PC's choose to do what they want to do, even if impossible, and play through the encounter than brush them off it. Plus, they may learn something from it. Personality. Accomplishments. Reputation. Backstory. They stuff that goes beyond mechanics and makes a character come to life.There are a lot of things we don't bother using dice for. They play out what they want to to, I play out the response, and we go from there. Maybe there's a die roll involved, but many times there isn't."Those things" that shouldn't be violated, in your statement above, are the framing and resolution mechanics? If that's the case, we seem to approach the game from the opposite perspectives. I couldn't care if the action declarations violate the framing/building mechanics or resolution mechanics. I care more that the action doesn't violate our notions of reality save where the genre violates them - then fit the best mechanic to them. In-character perspective first - mechanics last.But the players don't always know the full fiction. They don't know, without interacting with him, that the chamberlain is a particularly effete snob. Or that the king has recently been threatened with a secretive assassination attempt. Or that he has be prophesied to be murdered by a dwarf. So they don't know that the blood-covered dwarf assassin in the party is going to scotch the attempt to convince the chamberlain to let them in. Yet. Once they do meet with him, they may be able to figure that out and that gives them more tools to use in removing that obstacle or bypassing it.</blockquote>

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