Group problem, how to handle it?

[Jeremias]

Hallo to you all and Goodbye to my own players. This thread is not for you. ;)

I have a little problem and I wanted to ask for advice and experience from other GMs. Be careful, slight spoilers for Kingmaker may follow.

We play the famous Kingmaker AP with a group of four players. Two are playing druids, one plays a cavalier, the last one is a witch.
Druid 1 is a temperamentful player, who has somtimes a little trust issue with me (because of previous bad experience with other GMs) and has a great interest in epic stories. I know him for more than ten years, almost exclusively as a GM. Druid 2 is my girlfriend, who likes to play with cute animals (she just loves Perlivash and has a celestial wolf companion). The Cavalier plays a noble, slightly haughty scion of the house Surtova, him I know from the University, now for the last few years. The Witch player is a very good friend of mine, who is the most relaxed and easygoing person I know.

After many problems the group has completed the first book and is now trying to nurture their small kingdom.
Without any meddling from my side Druid 1 was deemed Marshal, the cavalier got to be general, the witch went on to be the Magister, and Druid 2 was elevated to ruler.
Druid 1 was once human but was killed in the final fight of book 1 and reincarnated as an orc.

Now, after muuuch backstory, my problem:
Druid 1 wants to slip into melancholy. He has a long-term love for druid 2, who is much less concerned with the Gozreh-appropriate balance between nature and civilization (she follows Desna). Druid 2 does not reciprocate his feelings. He feels misunderstood by all of his friends and allies and does not know what to do.
He wants to conceal his decline into melancholy before the other players and asked me to let them roll the dice to perceive it. He doesn't really want to play it out...

And now the core question: Should I let them roll and if yes, which skill and DC would be appropriate?

[Duderlybob]

Well, it'd be a contested Bluff-Sense Motive check if you do, but I'd try to encourage him to play it out. Since he's come up with his slide into melancholy, and is wanting rolls and what not for them there's obviously some desire for the RP/story to be there, but he's probably a little shy and awkward wanting to RP a tragic romance with his GM's girlfriend.

But if he doesn't budge after a while don't force it. All that'll have happen is cause him to feel either bullied into it, out just drop interest for it all together to get out of it.

[Jeremias]

Quote:

but he's probably a little shy and awkward wanting to RP a tragic romance with his GM's girlfriend.

Hmmm... Probably not. He is more than ten years older than me and is happily married and father to two kids. If someone is the prudish one, I would be it. :)

But maybe it is that. I cannot be sure.

[Duderlybob]

Well not awkward in the young and prudish sort of way, but it's still one of those social rules. For example, both me and one of my friends are married, we currently live in different states. We were talking about our respective significant others, and in asking for a description, I offered to just e-mail him a picture, to which he replied, "Sure, but make sure you're in it. I don't want a picture of your wife without you in it too. That'd just be weird to have." Now me personally, I found this reaction weirder than him just accepting the picture when offered (which would've probably had me in it anyway), but it was a weird respect thing... or something. Suffice it to say, either he's awkward about invading your turf, or he's just awkward about roleplay in general. But if he's that much older than you, I'm guessing he's got enough experience under his belt to not be that shy about RP anymore?

[Kolokotroni]

In terms of rules it would be bluff vs sense motive.

But the issue is, that asking for the checks during character interaction will tip your hand and make everyone suspicious. If you randomly ask for a sense motive check, people will wonder why, and if its while they are interacting with druid 1 (which would make sense) it would give away more then it should.

I would ask all the players to give you prerolled perception and sense motive checks at the start of the session. Say 10 of them. You can say, its for situations like this one where you need to have a chance to notice something, but if you miss it you shouldnt have anything given away. Then have druid one give you a bunch of secret bluff checks (away from the table so no one else knows). Then when a character interacts with Druid 1 every so often compare a bluff check to a sense motive check, if the druid succeeds, tick them off, and use the next checks for the next time. If the player beats the druid's bluff, give them some detail. 'You notice some redness in druid 1's eyes.' 'Druid 1 isnt walking quite as tall as he used to' stuff like that. Then see how it plays out.

[Jeremias]

Thanks Kolokotroni, that are great ideas!

[Ciaran Barnes]

I would let the players role-play it out without dice. Down the road, if the other players prove that they have their heads too far up their own bedrolls, then begin asking for periodic Sense Motive checks, but make sure its not when they are not in the middle of role-playing.