Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mallus" data-source="post: 2682259" data-attributes="member: 3887">Where I did I say that? All I ask as DM is that players actually try playing things out vis a vis NPC/social interaction. I take the characters social skills into account, too.  How?  I think you've got it backwards. By relying solely on skill checks for social interaction, you remove a vital part of the play experience; namely, the pleasure of coming up with a brilliant lie, clever ruse, etc. Make it all about the rolls and the only joy is scoring a natural 20... Now you're being silly...Now that's a good question. I don't really have an answer for it, except to say that I think things work best when a DM considers both the players and the characters abilities. That's not what I'm talking about. What if a tactical/strategic dunce wants to play a cross between Patton and Conan? Why ask them to pick any of their characters combat actions? Why not simply have them roll a skill check at the start of combat to see if they (automatically) do the optimal thing  --without additional player input?It all comes done to how you define 'play'. I want PC's to act out certain social scenes, I want them devise clever plans for overcoming obstacles, in other words, I want them to do something more than design killer PC builds and roll dice...If they don't want to do that, we might as well just play Yahtzee. Or better still, put the dice away and hit the nearest pub...</blockquote>