> Mikko Rintasaari <rintasaa_at_mail.student.oulu.fi> replied:
[quite understandably, BTW]
> hmm... I hope I'm getting something wrong here, but...
> What is so great about having mechanics for persuasion, bargaining,
> Debating(!), etc...
> One rarely needs dice for such. Surely these things are handled by
> roleplaying... If my character tries to convince somebody about something
> or haggle with a merchant, I'll be very surprised if a GM tells me to roll
> some dice instead of _having_the_conversation_ with my character, in the
> person of the NPC.
I have to agree. I've almost never applied or used bargaining skills for instance in the RQ games I've run (or indeed any other games) Admittedly, Some of my players, less eloquent than their characters, are a little frustrated at being unable to convince anyone of anything, but that's difficult to get around. ("Give me a great deal", "Why", "Cos I have bargaining at 50%", "You'll have to do better than that", "But I rolled a success!". - sigh)
What I've started doing is figuring out what the NPC is leaning towards (say a secret roll on the characters applicable bargaining or oratory vs the NPC) and then talk it through. I don't care what your bargaining roll is, if you start by insulting the Merchant, and the merchant has another potential buyer, then they won't be in a hurry to sell you anything, especially not at a good rate.
A Critical roll on a bargaining attempt might predispose the NPC to sell at a good price, but this can still be ruined by the Player's skilful commentary. Likewise a Failed roll can be saved through good roleplaying.
The problem here is that it feels like I'm penalising a character because the player is socially inept, rather than the character being socially inept. At the same time rolling dice to decide social interactions is distinctly unsatisfying.
> *sigh* It's getting late, and I don't even have a spellchecker handy. I
> hope somebody could make out what I was on about.
Hey, Much better than an american I had to answer support email for this week. Don't worry about it.
Steve Rennell
End of The Glorantha Digest V6 #237
Powered by hypermail