Thanks! I hope I explained what I was going for enough. I had more examples before I turned the camera on but in the middle of recording it felt a bit bogged down.
I definitely have a preference for role-play when GMing, especially with social encounters... going so far as to remove Charisma as a stat. Not saying it's for everybody but I'm a rather theatrical GM and I try to bring my NPCs to life, such that it feels icky for me to allow them to be manipulated by the roll of the dice (c.f. the outrage if a GM were to roll a Persuasion check against the PCs and expect them to abide by it). So I asked my players, "Do you want high-rez NPCs or do you want Charisma? Cause, to be fair to myself and the effort I put into prep, I can't let you have both." Now, knowing that not all players are comfortable with heavy role-play, I make some concessions... 1. Players may still use their mental stats to try and get hints. 2. Players may also "slip into exposition" (i.e. I lie to the shopkeeper, telling him that his sister was involved in an accident and urgently needs his help). There were some growing-pains but, after a few sessions, we don't miss CHA at all. That, at least, is what worked at my table! 🙂
I definitely understand the moment of, "I know you rolled high, but I can't abandon who this NPC is." I can see similarities of your comparison but I do think that the general default way of thinking about TTRPG social encounters has the play asymmetric where players are meant to roll against NPCs. A lot of games aren't designed for Players and GMs to truly have symmetric play mechanics. That said, if you have a table that is willing to let go of that mind set, that can be utterly fantastic. As for Slipping Into Exposition, that is another wonderful skill for tables to practice. There is always that weird moment of "Have I narrated too far?". GM's get more practice at it learning how much world action to do in exposition and the line of how close they can get to PCs before it becomes Player territory, but with time and an open table players can also find out how broad of a range is possible with shifting from in-character RP to exposition and back.
Great video! Very insightful
Thanks! I hope I explained what I was going for enough. I had more examples before I turned the camera on but in the middle of recording it felt a bit bogged down.
The Yin and Yang of the story telling games
I definitely have a preference for role-play when GMing, especially with social encounters... going so far as to remove Charisma as a stat. Not saying it's for everybody but I'm a rather theatrical GM and I try to bring my NPCs to life, such that it feels icky for me to allow them to be manipulated by the roll of the dice (c.f. the outrage if a GM were to roll a Persuasion check against the PCs and expect them to abide by it).
So I asked my players, "Do you want high-rez NPCs or do you want Charisma? Cause, to be fair to myself and the effort I put into prep, I can't let you have both."
Now, knowing that not all players are comfortable with heavy role-play, I make some concessions...
1. Players may still use their mental stats to try and get hints.
2. Players may also "slip into exposition" (i.e. I lie to the shopkeeper, telling him that his sister was involved in an accident and urgently needs his help).
There were some growing-pains but, after a few sessions, we don't miss CHA at all. That, at least, is what worked at my table! 🙂
I definitely understand the moment of, "I know you rolled high, but I can't abandon who this NPC is." I can see similarities of your comparison but I do think that the general default way of thinking about TTRPG social encounters has the play asymmetric where players are meant to roll against NPCs. A lot of games aren't designed for Players and GMs to truly have symmetric play mechanics. That said, if you have a table that is willing to let go of that mind set, that can be utterly fantastic.
As for Slipping Into Exposition, that is another wonderful skill for tables to practice. There is always that weird moment of "Have I narrated too far?". GM's get more practice at it learning how much world action to do in exposition and the line of how close they can get to PCs before it becomes Player territory, but with time and an open table players can also find out how broad of a range is possible with shifting from in-character RP to exposition and back.