The Lamentation of Lolth - OoC VI

[Verbatim]

After going through the past couple of days worth of posts, I guess its time for me to throw in my unwanted/asked for two coppers.

I personally like the way that Sarlis is being played. In all but two series of books, priests of Lathander are the most arrogant and full of themselves clerics that walk the face of Faerun. The fact that their is friction, or was, showed that we were playing it like a "real" thing.

Now as to the constantly using skills on us, I am iffy on that, as it does take some of the personalization out of things, and almost makes it seem that we "have" to accept something or believe something. However, that is just a me thing..

On StormArmour being arrogant...the sword is a dwarven soul in steel...what you see as arrogance, I see as a dwarf talking to an elf. It is like you talking to a three year old child. You know it knows the words, you just can't be sure it is getting the meaning of them. Not arrogance, just a different mindset...

In order to not hold things up anymore, consider Ayden's playing/singing to have been going on while you guys were talking/plotting/thinking...

 

[DarkMaster]

Verbatim, perhaps but I needed to tone it down a little as I feel Sarlis was becoming disruptive to this game.

I am not saying that your character should believe or accept something. All I wanted to say was that Sarlis has +21 diplomacy. But English has most have probably notice is not my first language, I am not the most skilled writer (even in french), and body language, intonations are difficult to reflect in your post and finally I probably don't have 21 in diplomacy myself.

Like Hippo doesn't actually have to physically battle a dragon for Calenthagh to kill it, I think it's fair that I don't have to personally have 21 in diplomacy to play such a character. Of course if I say that your character is an idiot, I shouldn't expect him to smile back at me.

Sarlis has 10 in bluff, so he should be able to hide somehow his true intention from people not skilled at detecting lyie even if they are PC.

So if Sarlis judge someone in his head, it shouldn't be automatically reflecting on his face.

If Sarlis starts to act nice on Sielwoodan why would he have any reason to mistrust him? I am not saying that he has to trust him, simply that the PC, unless the player is meta-gaming has no argument to mistrust the priest.

Like if Sarlis is trying to climb a wall, he doesn't have the skill to climb a DC 25 walls, so why wood the PC with sense motive 2 have the skill to see through Sarlis +21 diplomatic act. Sarlis in his speech shouldn't offer Sielwoodan any opportunity to doubt what he says, unless of course he act unaccordingly to what he says.

 

[Dhes]

Sorry I had to help my mother's mother move to a pensioners home.

Here is my 2 cents if anyone is interested (I’m sure you’re not and only wanne get on with the game, so if you do please don’t read this and say to yourself why should I read this, that Dhes only has an int of 5 and a wis of 2 in real life.)

I for one don’t like using “Skills” in PC/PC interaction, using skills in that way sounds too much like we are playing against one another and not with each other. It also restricts role playing. If you have some intent with an action or narration, or if you want to know something in particular you can always just add a small OOC or like Verbatim does, add some internal monologue. This will tell people what it is you wanne know and most people won’t meta-game with it.

If you wanne know anything about Dunstand's actions, Sarlis can just ask. He won’t try to hide anything that is relevant to the situation, and if he keeps something hidden for character development, I would still tell you and tell you why Dunstand is keeping silent.
We are a group so there is no reason why Dunstand wound not trust Sarlis (I’m not saying like, just trust).

 

[kirinke]

On StormArmour being arrogant...the sword is a dwarven soul in steel...what you see as arrogance, I see as a dwarf talking to an elf. It is like you talking to a three year old child. You know it knows the words, you just can't be sure it is getting the meaning of them. Not arrogance, just a different mindset...

Well. Teleri thinks that it is arrogance, though pardonable arrogance. She knows quite well that StormArmour is a very powerful artifact and in life held high rank. In her eyes, this migates that arrogance somewhat, because in a way, it is a kind of pride she can understand.

And she also knows that StormArmour has her best interests in heart, for if she were evil or domineering, she would have tried to take Teleri over long before now. Instead, the sword is allowing her to make her own mistakes and generally adding bits of advice/observations when Teleri needs it.

In return, Teleri treats her as a person and not as a nifty, magical sharp pointy thing. I think that Teleri is starting to value the sword's experience and wisdom more than the potential defense the blade can provide.

Though she isn't going to sniff at the extra magical goodies the blade graces her with either. She is practical after all.

 

[DarkMaster]

Dhes,
In my game I actually sometimes uses skills in PC to PC interaction to prevent never ending arguments when a PC tries for example to lie to the rest of the party.

That way it's clear, the PC lied and the other believed it or not and have to role play accordingly from there. I hate "Pow Pow your dead, no I am not" situations.

But I usually prefer not having to go there and let the Players play accordingly to the strenght/weakness of each of the PCs. Using die roll only against NPC.

I am not saying that this is what I expect in this game, just that it's the way I run games.

 

[Velmont]

Did Sielwoodan just give a compliment to Ayden?

 

[Majin]

I tend to side with Verbatim/Dhes and those that feel that skills for the most part shouldn't be used against other PC's. Generally when this is done, I've seen that games can turn into one PC with dominant social skills "ordering" around the other players, and all in all stunting the other PC's ability to roleplay their characters in a given situation. I realize this might not be the most realistic way to play things, game mechanic-wise, but I feel that it is more important to allow each PC to keep hold of their individuality and let them decide how they react to another player's actions. This is of course to assume that each player is keeping in mind the relative skills/abilities of those PC's around him/her, and their personalities, and acting accordingly.

With Sarlis for instance, I totally agree that even if that character's diplomacy is extremely high, it does not mean that he can change a fellow PC's mind with the simple roll of a die, (or lack there of, given the fact that his skill in diplomacy happens to be as high as it is, making rolling just about useless to everyone else.) Again, to reiterate, the main purpose of the game is to tell a story, and for everyone to have fun while doing it. In order to do this, any one skill cannot dominate the direction and flow of gameplay. Therefore, I would decide that skill checks against other PC's should not be allowed, but I would still like to stress, in Sarlis' case in particular, for everyone to take note of your group's inherant skills & abilities. Realize what each of them is good at, and in cases where Sarlis speaks to the group, if there is no immediate reason why the party should not take his words into consideration, what he says should be given a second look by all party members, unless it is in their nature not to care about things such as diplomacy.

DarkMaster should keep in mind, as it seems he has from his recent postings, that there are those out there, (members of this very party ) that would not be swayed by diplomacy, taking a very stoic approach to that whole concept. <Steps off soapbox> Remember to play nice.

 

[kirinke]

Remember to play nice.

Aye dad... We'll play nice.

 

[DarkMaster]

Hey Majin, I think you just rolled a 20 on your diplomacy check

 

[kirinke]

Hey Majin, I think you just rolled a 20 on your diplomacy check

He who holds the dice, can take 20 on his rolls.