Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Gothmog" data-source="post: 1378447" data-attributes="member: 317"><p>Hmm, you have a point, but I think there is a distinction you are missing.&nbsp; D&amp;D and RPGs in general are SOCIAL games.&nbsp; You get together, play with friends, and have some human interaction.&nbsp; Knowledge skills are based on what the character knows (or IRL, what you know), and about such fictional things are magic, monsters, and world lore, are more appropriate to rolling to determine success, since a player won't know every detail their character will.&nbsp; Social skills like Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, etc are things real-life people have some experience with, so I don't think its out of line to require the player to make SOME effort to justify their using the skill.&nbsp; Granted, a player might not be a master orator (lord knows I'm not), but as long as he makes some effort, most DMs would give the player the benefit of the doubt.&nbsp; Without the RPing requirement, D&amp;D might as well be like Baldur's Gate or a CRPG with scripted events and dialogue, and based solely on the mathematical probabilities.&nbsp; This is where I begin to see the powergamer emerge- someone who refuses to engage in roleplaying their character and instead focuses on the numbers and rules to maximize the benefit they receive while playing.&nbsp; I'm not saying all people who focus on the numbers are like this, but its a trend I have seen dozens of times over the years.</p></blockquote><p></p>

[QUOTE="Gothmog, post: 1378447, member: 317"] Hmm, you have a point, but I think there is a distinction you are missing. D&D and RPGs in general are SOCIAL games. You get together, play with friends, and have some human interaction. Knowledge skills are based on what the character knows (or IRL, what you know), and about such fictional things are magic, monsters, and world lore, are more appropriate to rolling to determine success, since a player won't know every detail their character will. Social skills like Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, etc are things real-life people have some experience with, so I don't think its out of line to require the player to make SOME effort to justify their using the skill. Granted, a player might not be a master orator (lord knows I'm not), but as long as he makes some effort, most DMs would give the player the benefit of the doubt. Without the RPing requirement, D&D might as well be like Baldur's Gate or a CRPG with scripted events and dialogue, and based solely on the mathematical probabilities. This is where I begin to see the powergamer emerge- someone who refuses to engage in roleplaying their character and instead focuses on the numbers and rules to maximize the benefit they receive while playing. I'm not saying all people who focus on the numbers are like this, but its a trend I have seen dozens of times over the years. [/QUOTE]

Verification