Everyman is a World-Class Sprinter

[LoneWolf]

I never understood the idea that you had to try and act out social interactions that your character should be able to do, but you cannot.  That is not role playing, that is using your own skills in place of those of your characters.   That is in fact the exact opposite of what good role playing should be.   I am an engineer with decades of experience with computers, but I don’t force my non-technical players to give me detailed descriptions when they try to “hack” into a system.  What I will do is after the roll come up with a reasonable description of how they did it.  

 

Real role playing would be to make the roll and then play out the results.  For example, if the player is good at making speeches and fails his roll by a huge amount, they should start spouting of absolute garbage that is going to totally screw up the situation.  That is role playing, not trying to salvage the situation.   If the player makes the role give some suggestion on how they did it and maybe change their wording to something that actually sounds reasonable.  
 

[Hugh Neilson]

I played a game with an excellent GM not that long ago.  When characters failed skill rolls in areas of focus, he narrated a reason for the failure that did not reflect incompetence by the character, but how the situation, combined with luck factors outside of the character's control, contributed to a less than ideal implementation by a competent character.

[Gauntlet]

A good GM will make it a combination of the two. In this case failure can be a benefit. Should your character just be bad at talking to other people, give them some advantages by roleplaying it properly. I many times have as a GM given XP to characters who failed in the game because their failure was due to their character's personalities, not based on rolls. They roleplayed the character based on their personality, not based on their statistics.

Edited October 29, 2023 by Gauntlet

[LoneWolf]

Role playing to me is taking on the role of the character and playing that.  A huge part of the character is the skills and stats the player purchased when they created the character.   When your character with no social skills and a PRE of 8 tries to make eloquent speeches to get people to agree with him that is not role playing, especially when he rolls an 18 for his persuasion.  

 

I have seen one person do this properly. It was in a Pathfinder game and the player was playing an elf with a low CHA (7 if I remember), and rolls a -1 for his diplomacy check.   The character was an elf who was  somewhat racist and believed that elves were better than other races.  He was in a bar filled with humans trying to diffuse a bad situation.  The player starts calling the humans in the bar something that would probably get me a warning on these boards.  That is role playing.  
 

[Hugh Neilson]

Following on Lone Wolf:

 

Overconfident character's player: "If I can avoid Firewing's Ph 12 attack, I'll get a recovery and I can hold him off another couple of phases.  Can I make an EGO roll at -3 to bring myself to believe he really CAN beat me?"

 

Same player/character:

 

GM - what's your DCV?

Player - ummm....4

Other player:  WHAT? 4?? What's your DEX??

Player: "23...but I have never even HEARD of this guy - clearly he is no threat.  DCV 4 as I don't make any real effort to avoid his attack."

 

Different player; character with "Impatient, impulsive and impetuous" Use my Explosion.  Oops - that will catch my flying ally.  Well, he goes with the first thing he thinks of.  Explosion.

"Swap VPP into complex UAA on Others Teleport with AoE, Selective and AoE accurate.  We go five km due north.  Except we just got here and I don't know which way "north" is, so go ahead and roll at random which way he thinks is 'north'".

On arrival, we splash into a bay.  Well, they do, he can fly.  The rest of the group starts discussing what we should do now.  "I can 'port us again!"  Every other player at the table chorused "NO!" in unison.

 

D&D game; character is a superstitious believer in old wives' tales and a warrior first, last and always. We encounter what is clearly an Umber Hulk. [SPOILER: Umber Hulks' gaze causes Confusion]

"OK, my turn - move to melee with the Umber Hulk".

GM: How are you approaching and looking at the Umber Hulk"

"As ANY true warrior would - looking it straight in the eyes so it knows I do not fear it!"

 

The GM allowed a save.  The dice understood what was going on and came up '1'.

 

In a role playing game, characters have personalities, strengths and weaknesses.  In a roll playing game, characters are bundles of stats represented by pawns on the board, and always seek the best possible tactical choice; they are efficiency ciphers,