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<blockquote data-quote="Janx" data-source="post: 5809898" data-attributes="member: 8835">By Danny's example, I may know how to speak politely and convincingly.&nbsp; I may even have watched a couple episodes of The Tudors.But do I REALLY know the proper forms of speech when addressing the king?Does the GM know if I screwed up and said &quot;Your Majesty&quot; instead of the standard &quot;Your Grace&quot;?For immersion purposes, it may be sufficient that I spoke eloquently.&nbsp; But if you want to nitpick, I said it wrong as a player, because I do not actually know the actual social rules that you use when addressing true royalty.Thats where the skill check transforms my intent into intepretation in the game world.&nbsp; I roll high, the GM says I said it right and did not offend the king.&nbsp; I roll low, the GM says that my low-birth and poor upbringing was offensive in my address and that the king will not help us.Basically, the idea of &quot;if you say it, your PC says it&quot; is incorrect because your PC cannot really be saying it.&nbsp; He's speaking an alien language and following alien social customs.&nbsp; We can translate a real world attempt to what happened in the game world, but it's not literal.Since it's not literal, there is clear justification for resolving it mechanically.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Janx, post: 5809898, member: 8835"] By Danny's example, I may know how to speak politely and convincingly. I may even have watched a couple episodes of The Tudors. But do I REALLY know the proper forms of speech when addressing the king? Does the GM know if I screwed up and said "Your Majesty" instead of the standard "Your Grace"? For immersion purposes, it may be sufficient that I spoke eloquently. But if you want to nitpick, I said it wrong as a player, because I do not actually know the actual social rules that you use when addressing true royalty. Thats where the skill check transforms my intent into intepretation in the game world. I roll high, the GM says I said it right and did not offend the king. I roll low, the GM says that my low-birth and poor upbringing was offensive in my address and that the king will not help us. Basically, the idea of "if you say it, your PC says it" is incorrect because your PC cannot really be saying it. He's speaking an alien language and following alien social customs. We can translate a real world attempt to what happened in the game world, but it's not literal. Since it's not literal, there is clear justification for resolving it mechanically. [/QUOTE]

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