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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Water Bob" data-source="post: 5605521" data-attributes="member: 92305">IMO, it totally depends on the GM, the group, and the type of game they enjoy.  People who just want to get into the action, find treasure, gain XP, and kill the draggy are sometimes not interested in those skills.  Those fighters look at CHA and WIS and their "dump" stats, where they put their low scores (unless CHA is important to them as a prerequisite for some Feat or Combat Maneuver, like Feint).     Then there are the roleplayers.  My group loves action, don't get me wrong.  There's nothing like an awesome combat encounter.  But, my group can also spend entire sessions in a town, just roleplaying at the inn or with the trader or smith--or maybe when buying a horse.  Our last two game sessions were like that, and we definitely made throws using the "social" skills. One of my players has aspirations of uniting the clans (It's a Barbarian themed game...even here, social skills are important), and he keeps his Diplomacy skill maxed out. So, my answer:  It depends on the group and what type of encounters they enjoy.        It's true that, with dice rolls, it's easy for GM's to forget roleplaying and completely let the dice decide everything. I might do that from time to time.  Let's say that the PC group decides that they want to send one character, maybe it's an NPC, to another clan to convince them to send warriors to help the PC do whatever it is that they're doing atm. Now, this could be the "focus" of the game, and if it is, I'll focus the game on the trials and tribulations of the PCs who went to convince the other clan to send people. But...let's say that's not the focus of the game.  Let's say that I want to keep the game focussed on the main PCs who are about to face overwhelming odds. All I want to do with the NPC (or even the PC) who left to go try and bring in the cavalry is wait an appropiate amount of time then make a roll to see if they were successful.     The encounter might play out like this: 1.  The PCs are worried.  There's a lot of bad guys out there.  Can we afford to send someone?  Yes.  We must.  Let's send the NPC henchman. 2.  I say the henchman leaves--a runner on a  journey to convince a rival clan to come help them.  But, I keep the action focussed on the PC party.  What preparations are you making for the imminent attack? 3.  The attack happens.  The PCs are taking a beating.  Hey, GM!  How's that runner doing?  Is he back yet?  Do we have an answer?  Nope.  Not yet. 4.  A breather in between attacks.  Man, we sure could use that runner returning with some help.  How'd he do with them?  You don't know.  He hasn't returned.  No sign of him. 5.  The bad guys attack again.  The first attack was just a probe.  This is an all-out assault.  The players are starting to feel like the GM is going to massacre them with all the NPC foes fighting them.  Where's that fu-blank-ing runner!  We need him NOW, or there's not going to be anybody left to miss him.  He's not back.  HE'S NOT BACK YET?  HOLY (CENSORED)!. 6.  It's a last ditch effort.  The PCs have no hope.  They're doing everything they can, but there are just too many bad guys out there.  GM says:   OK, let's see how the runner did.  Roll his Diplomacy skill.  It's tough task to convince the other clan to come, so he needs a 15 or better. 7.  The roll is successful!  YESSSSS!!!  OK, you see a banner on a spear cross the ridge behind you...now, there are horses, with men on them, as far as the eye can see.  Your runner rolled a natural 20 on the Diplomacy check, so he didn't only get the clan you sent him to get, he was able to convince their ally clan two.  You've got two clan's worth of allies now!  Let's continue the battle!     You see, there is a place for social dicing.     And, I use dicing to help me roll play as well.  Last game session, yesterday, the PC's had a foe they had captured tied up to a pole in the pig pen.  They were trying to interrogate him.  I had already decided that this NPC would be very tight lipped when he was captured, but the players were quite good and roleplaying the interrogation of him. Because of their roleplay, I decided to make a check to see if this dude would crack.  I asked the players who was doing the most roleplaying with the foe what his Interrogate skill was.  Then, I allowed a bonus from the second PC that was there, using the Aid Another rule.  Then, I threw in another bonus for the "scare" methods the players were using. This, I rolled as an Opposed Roll against the NPC's WILpower.  Or, in other words, the number that was thrown on the Interrogate skill became a DC that the NPC had to be as a WIL save. Well, the NPC beat it, rolling a total of 21! No matter what they did to him, that NPC wasn't going to open his mouth. And, these two checks--the Interrogate and the WIL save--I rolled behind the screen.  I didn't want the players knowing anything about the throws.  I would roleplay the results. It was a pretty fun encounter.  But, here is another example of how I use dice rolls with roleplaying. At first, the character were not going to even get a throw.  It was an entirely roleplayed encounter.  I didn't decide to bring out the dice until I saw that the players where both being persistent and pretty creative in their interrogation of the bad guy.  Because of their roleplay, I decided that they earned a throw. And, the throw didn't really decide things.  It just gave me a clue about how to play the NPC.  Was he giving in to the PC's techniques?  Or, did he have what it took to withstand what they were doing? The dice decided that part, and I just roleplayed the result with the NPC. The players could have continued and maybe have earned a new throw.  But, they became convinced that the NPC wasn't talking, and they were all honor-bound not to mess up the prisoner too much as he was do to fight for his life the next day in the arena.       Point of this long post?  There are times when I think it's appropriate to just let the dice decide a social interaction and be done with it.  And, there are times when roleplay is king, but I use the dice to help guide the roleplaying encounter. So my answer to the OP:  Yes, those skills are important, probably more to roleplayers than to people only interested in a Combat driven game.</blockquote>

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