RPGs - Social Combat

[1st_law]

My players have been pushing me to include more rules involving social skills in my table top RPG rules system because otherwise social skills are just "useless". Admittedly I have never called a Conversation (the system's equivalent of diplomacy) roll in 4 years, so possibly this is more a failing of me as a GM than the system in general

Comments

[omniscient_fool]

In my opinion I don't like too many rules and dice roles for social skills, although they are useful for short-cutting less interesting negotiations like haggling or low level information gathering. I think the argument of social skills being a waste sounds like a bit of a power gamer/munchkin response. Stats aren't all about dice rolls, but are a guide for the nature of your PC. Even if you are an intelligent and silver tongued player, your character shouldn't use those sorts of wiles unless you've spent points on the relevant skills/base stats. On the flip side, even if you're not rolling dice for it, the GM should be silently modifying the likely success of a social action depending on that character's sheet (as well as their actual performance), which helps compensate in situations where the player doesn't necessarily have the same attributes/knowledge as their character and struggles with some of the roleplay elements. If you have a group who are really numbers and dice roll obsessed, you can always just roll a few dice for your

[1st_law]

I'm with you on the don't roll but take it into account front. However this player is a pretty heavy duty powergamer. It's good to have him along because he stress tests everything I write pretty thoroughly

[1st_law]

Rules re-post

[1st_law]

I've just added the line:

While Intimidate and Connive attempts can rely on body language the target of Gibe must be able to hear and understand the attacker.

In response to your comment. Thanks for the input.