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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 3316425" data-attributes="member: 22779">Y'know, this got buried WAY back, but I think it bears repeating.  There's a very, very good reason to use dice to decide social interactions and theemrys has put his finger on it nicely.Randomness.  If we go by the DM judging the player's performance, we pretty much remove any random element from the situation.  For the most part, people who can talk well will talk well and those that can't, won't.  Any social interaction which is based purely on player performance will almost certainly be a forgone conclusion.  Add in bad DMing where it doesn't matter what you say, the answer will again be a forgone conclusion and any social situation becomes pretty meaningless.For example, if the DM wants you to know that Jeoffry Bloggins is holed up in the old mansion, then, he's going to tell you that information regardless of what you say.  But, if you rely on the dice to give direction, then the DM is somewhat constrained and the story that develops isn't entirely dependent on what the DM wants.With social skills, it becomes another tool by which the players can affect the story.  In theemrys' example above, most DM's, lacking a social mechanic, would never let the character pass.  But, the dice say that he does.  And it becomes a memorable moment.  I've had similar examples in my games as well.  The paladin character opens the door to the room full of goblins, mumbles something, but makes a good diplomacy role.  The gobbies stand down and it turns into a pretty decent rp session.  Not what I had intended - I figured it was going to be a fight and was pretty surprised when the paly player talked first.  But, hey, it became a better scene because of it.Honestly, using dice, IMHO, makes for better scenes.</blockquote>

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