Social Skills in 3.X

[DarkMaster]

In the group I DMed the two most persuasive PC, the rogue and the sorcerer, are the least social skilled player but they have a blast playing those high charisma player, with a scheme were I would force them to bluff me in order for the bluff to work they would not be allowed to play those characters, or in a do as you like solution would be penalised because they have spend points in those skills to compensate for their lack of them in real life.

What about if they want to decorate their armor, My wife who plays the thief is extremely good at craft but her PC has no skill in craft. Should I allow her to decorate her armor with taste if she at home decorate an armor or whatever. Allowing the Player to do things they would not be able to do otherwise is what I call role playing, I think you are confusing role playing and theatre.

Just my opinion, not the absolute thruth

 

[Hypersmurf]

I prefer to have someone roll the die first, then start talking... and do their best to represent the total of the roll.

If their Diplomacy roll is a 3, I expect them to accurately portray the fact that an average person talking normally has a total of 10, and their effort is less than half as polite. I expect some lapses in manners, mangled titles, and at least one major faux pas.

If their Bluff roll is a 37, then I expect the player to do his damnedest to make me believe that black is white.

And for high rolls like that, I don't mind some cooperation among the players. The Int 11 player with the Int 21 wizard PC might not come up with brilliant ideas all that often... but the PC should. So if the Int 16 player with the Int 6 barbarian sees the solution to a puzzle, I'd prefer he pass it on to the wizard's player... so that the intelligent PC comes up with the bright idea, even though it didn't originate with that PC's player. The character's high mental stats are reflected by the collective consciousness of the player group. Likewise, if the guy who just rolled a 37 on his Bluff check is having trouble coming up with ideas, I don't mind some "table talk" to prompt him... without insisting that the characters of the prompting players are whispering in the Bluffing PC's ear.

-Hyp.

 

[frankthedm]

What's funny is when someone makes a perfectly reasonable-sounding spiel, and then rolls a 3 on their Diplomacy check.

I normally treat that as taking 10.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I normally treat that as taking 10.

Yeah, but if they want to risk trying for a 15 - if they're concerned 10 won't be enough - they also risk rolling a 5. Or a 3.

-Hyp.

 

[Bagpuss]

I use to play that good roleplayed excuse modified the dice roll. But I've started to come round to just using the dice and then asking the player to roleplay the result of the roll. Then some fighter that has used Cha as a dump stat is still roleplaying but they are roleplaying that design choice.