What exactly is "Roleplaying", Do We Think?

[pemerton]

Pemerton, thanks for the in depth response. At this stage, i think it is clear we are coming at the game from very different perspectives and syles, so rather than create an en endless back and forth, i will let your responses be the last word on my position (unless someone else wants to react to my posts)

I couldn't XP you, so though I should at least post an acknowledgement of receipt!

I can see how some would argue or feel skill challenges are a more realistic way to handle non combat challenges, i just dont find this to be the case when i have encountered them as a player, read about the in the core books, or seen them in a module.

<snip>

To me the issue is it feels like a minigame that takes my focus away from the interaction with setting and characters, and it doesn't always feel like it connects well to what is going on in the game.

Just to be clear, i am not suggesting that others should feel the way i do, ust giving my opinion, so pemerton can have a better understanding of what I want in a game.

Obviously my experience is a bit different. And I think there are GMing techniques (which WotC has not explained, but which other authors have) that can make the "minigame non-interaction" thing go away, at least for some players. The main technique I have in mind is to make the "keeping score", and the related need for the players (and PCs) to keep going at it, a function of the fiction in the game (ie piling on the pressure via complications), not just of the dice.

But there is no getting around the fact that when playing through a skill challenge there is an obvious mechanical explanation for why the GM is piling on the pressure. It is GM metagaming. So this technique is perhaps not going to help for those of very deep simulationist/immersive sensibilities, of which I get the impression that you may be one.

 

[Niccodaemus]

I just put up a post on my blog regarding "roleplaying" as one of the "three pillars" of D&D

Shatterworld: Behind the Scenes: Three Pillars of D&D

Basically, I think as one of the three pillars, "roleplaying" means social interaction of characters. ROLEPLAYING, however, is the foundation upon which all three pillars stand.