Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="clearstream" data-source="post: 8474876" data-attributes="member: 71699">That's an effective way to put your position, albeit making a great deal out of what might be more accurately described - in context - as a definition of roleplaying for the purposes of 5th edition.Roleplaying is one aspect of a social interaction. Ability checks is another aspect. Both are equal (both primary.)When I am not determining how my character thinks, acts, and talks, I am not roleplaying. Hence we join in a roleplaying game. The tension between concession of authority to rules, and deeply valuing roleplaying, is a long-standing one. I need not always be roleplaying, or always be roleplaying to its fullest extent, while playing. Indeed, there are many circumstances where I need to selectively suspend roleplaying or incorporate mechanical facts into it.When a DM rules that the outcome of a social interaction with a PC is uncertain, they are suspending roleplaying. Baseline D&D entrusts DMs with significant power, and suspending roleplaying isn't an all or nothing proposition. A DM can suspend roleplaying in a limited way, or along specific dimensions. They must do so, for the game to operate as a game. Many examples have already been given.If a DM decides that in a given case they wish to suspend roleplaying in whole or part, they can deem the outcome of social interaction with a PC uncertain. Not only does nothing prevent that, but a DM must do it almost incessantly for the game to operate as a game. It's worth re-emphasising that it is not all or nothing. A silence spell might suspend a PCs ability to talk: they can continue roleplaying along all other dimensions.A counter-argument could be to point to "roleplaying is part of every aspect of the game". It is grasping roleplaying as all or nothing that might give that the appearance of that being problematic.  Roleplaying is not given primacy over ability checks - both are primary - and roleplaying is something that can "come to the fore" implying that it can also subside to the background. It is multi-faceted: not just one thing.</blockquote>

Verification