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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Greenstone.Walker" data-source="post: 8951579" data-attributes="member: 6788312">I think we have different definitions of roleplaying, because to me making a charisma check is roleplaying. Or rather, is part of roleplaying.There is no such thing as a social encounter. There is also no such thing as a combat encounter. There are only obstacles and ways to overcome them. Social activities are just possible methods to overcome obstacles (along with stealth and violence <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":-)" title="Smile    :-)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":-)" />.Roleplaying is when a player decides, "What method would this character choose to overcome this obstacle?"Why is the character swimming the river? Because they want to get to the other side. There are many ways they could do this (bridge, boat, raft, fly, swim, polymorph into a fish, teleport, water walk, and so on). These all have various costs, requirements, consequences, and chances of success. In this case, the player chooses "swim". Now the GM has to determine if success is automatic ("you do it!") or impossible ("you don't do it!") or variable ("roll some dice!"). Why is the character persuading a guard? Because they want to get into the prison. There are many ways they could do this (fly, tunnel, climb walls, bribe a guard, teleport, persuade a guard, threaten a guard, impersonate a guard, get arrested themself, and so on). In this case the player chooses "threaten the guard". Now the GM has to determine success, the same as any other obstacle.I'm also a big fan of character skill over player skill because I don't like it when charismatic and manupilative players dump charisma and then expect to overcome every social challenge because of their personal persuasion skills. I've seen it done a few times, always very dliberately, and I don't like it. I don't expect players to have swordfighting skills or lockpicking skills to be able to play a fighter or rogue; the same goes for social skills.</blockquote>

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