at the risk of sounding like a raving lunatic, i think one of my favorite trekkie memes/posts is that one where someone comments on a screenshot of tos and asks if sulu is texting, because it PERFECTLY encapsulates star trek’s strange little place at the intersection of pop culture and the tech world:
like listen… 55+ years ago a bunch of actors had to use a mix of existing habits and wild imagination to come up with what they felt would be believable movements and muscle-memory for someone using completely unbelievable tech a few hundred years in the future. like tv had less than ten channels and the screen was a foot across, and they had to go “ok how would someone who’s used to a tiny wireless gadget with a screen hold it and use it? how would they talk to a computer? how would the computer sound when she talked back?”
and over half a century later our own tech has surpassed the clunky retrofuture gizmos in so many ways, no doubt inspired by it, that now someone two decades into the 21st century sees an actor in the 60s holding some tiny rectangular plastic prop in both hands and immediately recognizes it as “oh, sulu’s texting!” now THAT is a called shot. hell, that’s putting your money on a roulette wheel in a casino that hasn’t been built yet. i LOVE it. it’s so star trek. sulu is absolutely texting.
Apparently some people on the internet are talking about Charisma checks and how it’s bad to ask that people roleplay their social interactions when you wouldn’t ask someone to roleplay their Strength check and like it’s on of those things that sounds sensible on the surface but I have a few problems with it
I think Charisma checks are perfectly valid, but just like with any other check the check is a way to resolve an ACTION. The GM needs to know what the action is that is being attempted before they can call for a check.
“Can I Charisma the guards to let me past?” isn’t describing an action. “I ask the guards to let me past because we have news for their boss” is perfectly valid. If a player isn’t comfortable with speaking in character that’s all that’s needed. The GM just needs at minimum a description of your argument to make a decision as to a) whether it could even work theoretically and b) to set a DC.
This does also apply to Strength checks: lifting a portcullis vs. bending the bars on the portcullis have two very different results and whether you choose to bend the bars or lift the gate is an important consideration. They might also have different DCs.
So yeah, if you assume that “roleplaying a Charisma check” literally means having to talk to the GM in character in first person then no I wouldn’t ask anyone to do that. But for a broader definition of “roleplaying” (i.e. describe what your character is doing) then yes, I would like for players to roleplay their Charisma and Strength checks.
Important addendum: just like it might be impossible for a character without, like, superheroic Strength to bend the bars on a portcullis, some actions that would merit a Charisma check to resolve shouldn’t even be rolled (because the DC should be out of the character’s reach)
But the DC should obviously be dependent on the context: asking an NPC guard captain whom you’ve caused nothing but trouble for throughout the campaign to release you just because you promise you’ll stop doing crimes? Not gonna happen. Asking them to release you because they can literally see a demon portal to the Hell Dimension opening up above their city and look even THEY know that you’re the only one who can fix it as much as they hate you? That’s worthy of a roll and both results are interesting (the captain decides that yeah, you ARE the only one who can fix it, and now you have started an enemies to lovers slow burn romance with them, OR the captain lets their pride have the better of them and won’t release you and now it’s a jailbreak story)
Apparently some people on the internet are talking about Charisma checks and how it’s bad to ask that people roleplay their social interactions when you wouldn’t ask someone to roleplay their Strength check and like it’s on of those things that sounds sensible on the surface but I have a few problems with it
I think Charisma checks are perfectly valid, but just like with any other check the check is a way to resolve an ACTION. The GM needs to know what the action is that is being attempted before they can call for a check.
“Can I Charisma the guards to let me past?” isn’t describing an action. “I ask the guards to let me past because we have news for their boss” is perfectly valid. If a player isn’t comfortable with speaking in character that’s all that’s needed. The GM just needs at minimum a description of your argument to make a decision as to a) whether it could even work theoretically and b) to set a DC.
This does also apply to Strength checks: lifting a portcullis vs. bending the bars on the portcullis have two very different results and whether you choose to bend the bars or lift the gate is an important consideration. They might also have different DCs.
So yeah, if you assume that “roleplaying a Charisma check” literally means having to talk to the GM in character in first person then no I wouldn’t ask anyone to do that. But for a broader definition of “roleplaying” (i.e. describe what your character is doing) then yes, I would like for players to roleplay their Charisma and Strength checks.
Important addendum: just like it might be impossible for a character without, like, superheroic Strength to bend the bars on a portcullis, some actions that would merit a Charisma check to resolve shouldn’t even be rolled (because the DC should be out of the character’s reach)
But the DC should obviously be dependent on the context: asking an NPC guard captain whom you’ve caused nothing but trouble for throughout the campaign to release you just because you promise you’ll stop doing crimes? Not gonna happen. Asking them to release you because they can literally see a demon portal to the Hell Dimension opening up above their city and look even THEY know that you’re the only one who can fix it as much as they hate you? That’s worthy of a roll and both results are interesting (the captain decides that yeah, you ARE the only one who can fix it, and now you have started an enemies to lovers slow burn romance with them, OR the captain lets their pride have the better of them and won’t release you and now it’s a jailbreak story)
‘germanic warrior with helmet’ - osmar schindler (1902)
The second best thing about erotic art is seeing people reject their initial reaction to it. The comments are full of people saying “oh my first thought was,” and, yeah, your first thought was right. The barbarian youth is sexually dominating the old Roman order. If you actually could get your mind out of the gutter you’d be the first animal to ever do so.
