Role Playing the Roll...

[nosig]

Here's a kind of "off-the-wall" suggestion for people to consider... (I know I'm planning to try it a few times).

Next time it comes to doing the Diplomacy thing, try switching the order many players seem to be doing it (and judges seem to expect it).

Roll the dice (or take ten or whatever), THEN do the role play. How good is your PC? Are you one "Smooth Talker"? or did ya roll a "1" and flub it? Make your Role Play match your roll... which means you need to know what your numbers are before you act in the Role...

Many times I've had a player give a speech that would have the Mooks handing over the loot and heal the PCs... only to watch him roll a "1" and get something like an 11. This is only slightly less disturbing then the player with the social skills of a toad, crassly hitting on the merchants daughter and then saying "I've got a 45 diplomacy check, to I get a discount on this right?"

Let's try it the other way around...

Roll the dice and get:

"1" + "10" skill, and leer at the NPC while commenting "I'm a Big Man, if you know what I mean!"

or

"20" +"10" skill, and smile at the NPC while commenting "I'm sure I could be of assistance in this little matter, perhaps we could discuss it over an ale?"

Just a suggestion...

(has anyone encountered this way of doing skill checks before? doing the Roll, then the Role?)

[incredilee]

I've thought about it, but it's hard for most players not good at acting & improv to roleplay well. It's pretty difficult to make a "20" worthy speech on the spot. What I usually do is I ask the player what he wants to say, then let them roll. I interpret the rolls result and narrate aloud what the player said ended up actually sounding like.

Ex: The player says "Where are the drugs going?!" like Batman

Gets a 6

"You patiently ask where are the drugs going with a faint awkward cough at the end" says the GM

[Andreas Forster]

I mostly have the players roleplay what they want their characters to say, then I interpret the roll as how well the NPCs receive the speech the player just gave.
If, for example, the player delivered a really good speech but rolled poorly, then the NPCs maybe just didn't get what he wanted to tell them, or maybe he encountered cultural differences he just didn't know about.

But still, I'd always recommend players to roleplay their diplomatic effords according to their Diplomacy modifier. If a character has a Diplomacy -2, he just isn't good at talking to people, and the player shouldn't roleplay eloquent speeches, because with an average result of 8, that will only cause confusion.

[4saken1]

That's a pretty good suggestion, nosig. Like Andreas Forster implied, though, the roll is often as much about how what's been said is inferred by the recipient of the message as it is about what is actually said. The same speech given to one individual can have vastly different results when given to another.

[Doyle Taghaur]

My hermean exile druid was at a party.

So, Doyle, how are the nobles back home different than the ones here in Absolom?

(10-2=8)"Well... they're not 300 feet long and scaly for one..."

"So , what do you think of this extravagant dinner?"

(1-2= -1) " I think its a shame. We're eating off gold plates. Down in the puddles the lucky ones are dining on rat. The unlucky ones are dying because its damp. Instead of fixing that, we spent money on a plate because its shiny."

Long moment of silence that icly and oocly ended the dinner early.