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What is a Social challenge, anyways?
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<blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 8951854" data-attributes="member: 6696971"><p>Good post.</p><p></p><p>Its not clear your age, but its my guess is you at least weren't playing D&D in the late 80s or early 90s when the epithet "roll-players" came into use in the (not-so) great "role-playing vs roll-playing" wars? What happened is a certain cohort of AD&D 2e players and WoD players made it very well known that they thought the brand of D&D I had been running (basically Pawn Stance hexcrawls and dungeon crawls where NPCs actions were informed by Reaction Rolls/Morale Checks and PCs made moves with coinciding action resolution rolls; 1d6/hit on 1-2 & maybe AbMod or the Expert Saving Throw as Ability Check Model; 1d20/roll under) was lowbrow or even illegitimate; "boardgame-ey" (you saw this same epithet re-emerge during the 4e Edition Wars). In other words, it was culture war nonsense.</p><p></p><p>Obviously, it still survives today!</p><p></p><p>On your 2nd paragraph, I (clearly, given what I write on the subject) agree with you that social resolution mechanics don't impede your ability to roleplay! Not only that, when systematized well and handled deftly by all table participants, it serves as a nice system of discovery of what happens when sentient creatures are put under the varying forms of duress (as happens in all situations that matter, social situations certainly not exempt!) that ride shotgun with meaningful conflict. Take a look at the Dogs in the Vineyard excerpt I relayed above. The two PCs in question had a very intense social conflict where they (the players) learned a host of things about their characters in a dangerous crucible (that turned violent) whereby words turned frosty, which turned to veiled threats, which turned into real threats, which then manifested as someone getting slugged in the face (the kind of punch that can kill a person). Ceremony and alleviating emotional suffering is proven the apex priority in a calamitous situation and a "simple" tree (which happens to be an iconic symbol of The Faith in that game) becomes a battleground for pragmatism and utility vs faithfulness and honoring the loved and lost.</p><p></p><p>I didn't know where the characters would come down on this before this social conflict and neither did their players. The dice and the resolution mechanics played a key role in facilitating this discovery in a high-stakes, high-duress situation.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Manbearcat, post: 8951854, member: 6696971"] Good post. Its not clear your age, but its my guess is you at least weren't playing D&D in the late 80s or early 90s when the epithet "roll-players" came into use in the (not-so) great "role-playing vs roll-playing" wars? What happened is a certain cohort of AD&D 2e players and WoD players made it very well known that they thought the brand of D&D I had been running (basically Pawn Stance hexcrawls and dungeon crawls where NPCs actions were informed by Reaction Rolls/Morale Checks and PCs made moves with coinciding action resolution rolls; 1d6/hit on 1-2 & maybe AbMod or the Expert Saving Throw as Ability Check Model; 1d20/roll under) was lowbrow or even illegitimate; "boardgame-ey" (you saw this same epithet re-emerge during the 4e Edition Wars). In other words, it was culture war nonsense. Obviously, it still survives today! On your 2nd paragraph, I (clearly, given what I write on the subject) agree with you that social resolution mechanics don't impede your ability to roleplay! Not only that, when systematized well and handled deftly by all table participants, it serves as a nice system of discovery of what happens when sentient creatures are put under the varying forms of duress (as happens in all situations that matter, social situations certainly not exempt!) that ride shotgun with meaningful conflict. Take a look at the Dogs in the Vineyard excerpt I relayed above. The two PCs in question had a very intense social conflict where they (the players) learned a host of things about their characters in a dangerous crucible (that turned violent) whereby words turned frosty, which turned to veiled threats, which turned into real threats, which then manifested as someone getting slugged in the face (the kind of punch that can kill a person). Ceremony and alleviating emotional suffering is proven the apex priority in a calamitous situation and a "simple" tree (which happens to be an iconic symbol of The Faith in that game) becomes a battleground for pragmatism and utility vs faithfulness and honoring the loved and lost. I didn't know where the characters would come down on this before this social conflict and neither did their players. The dice and the resolution mechanics played a key role in facilitating this discovery in a high-stakes, high-duress situation. [/QUOTE]
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