Swanosaurus
Adventurer
While I'm inclined to chime in with pretty much all of the other responses, maybe there's a little caveat to be found here ...
While I am very opposed to the notion that the GM should judge "good roleplay", I do enjoy players coming up with fun bits of roleplaying - not necessarily great, rousing speaches, just all those small and big moments when someone came up with something funny or memorable. Normally, I think, there's no need to incentivize this, people will do it anyway. Still, I don't like the idea of "just skipping to the roll." Also, I suspect that someone who wants to play the Face of the group probably actually wants to find opportunities to shine not only by rolling dice, but also by coming up with something cool and memorable once in a while.
However, there is a lot of ways to achieve that without the GM applying some arbitraty standards of "Good Roleplaying".
The most obvious solution has already been mentioned: the player just states what they want to achieve and how, in broad terms, they're going about it. That in itself can create memorable moments if the GM and the rest of the group chime in with ideas of how exactly that went down: ("Have you seen his smug face when our bard buttered him up? Priceless!")
Also, Charisma is basically telling you how likely you are to achieve what you want, socially. You modus operandi for that could be all kinds of things. Yes, it could be holding rousing speeches or being really good at fast-talking people. But you could also be the inspector Columbo type, who acts all stammering and clueless, so that others will do exactly what you want out of arrogance - just to prove to you how easy it is to them. You could just have that irresistible smile that melts people's heart. If the GM works with the player, I'm sure they'll be able to come up with something that fits their role-playing style and is fun for everyone.
Having some pre-conceived notion of how a player should depict their charismatic character certainly is not the way (which is also a more general truth about GMing: If you have some preconceived notion of how your players should do something and regard all other courses of action as wrong ... well, you'll probably run out of players pretty fast).
While I am very opposed to the notion that the GM should judge "good roleplay", I do enjoy players coming up with fun bits of roleplaying - not necessarily great, rousing speaches, just all those small and big moments when someone came up with something funny or memorable. Normally, I think, there's no need to incentivize this, people will do it anyway. Still, I don't like the idea of "just skipping to the roll." Also, I suspect that someone who wants to play the Face of the group probably actually wants to find opportunities to shine not only by rolling dice, but also by coming up with something cool and memorable once in a while.
However, there is a lot of ways to achieve that without the GM applying some arbitraty standards of "Good Roleplaying".
The most obvious solution has already been mentioned: the player just states what they want to achieve and how, in broad terms, they're going about it. That in itself can create memorable moments if the GM and the rest of the group chime in with ideas of how exactly that went down: ("Have you seen his smug face when our bard buttered him up? Priceless!")
Also, Charisma is basically telling you how likely you are to achieve what you want, socially. You modus operandi for that could be all kinds of things. Yes, it could be holding rousing speeches or being really good at fast-talking people. But you could also be the inspector Columbo type, who acts all stammering and clueless, so that others will do exactly what you want out of arrogance - just to prove to you how easy it is to them. You could just have that irresistible smile that melts people's heart. If the GM works with the player, I'm sure they'll be able to come up with something that fits their role-playing style and is fun for everyone.
Having some pre-conceived notion of how a player should depict their charismatic character certainly is not the way (which is also a more general truth about GMing: If you have some preconceived notion of how your players should do something and regard all other courses of action as wrong ... well, you'll probably run out of players pretty fast).
Last edited: