I see a lot of topics about social mechanics vs role play and stuff and it got me thinking. Does anyone have cases in their games where a significant encounter, not necessarily the BBEG but something of importance, was negated through roleplay?
Bump of mild interest
I played a short campaign where our party accicently signed a contract with a demon to free him from his containment.
The method for this was destroying some stone monolith located in some ancient ruins, which were now used as a bandit-hideout.
The GM later told us it was intended as a sneaking-mission and a confrontation with the demon.
We told the bandits we were treasure hunters/archaeologists and had reliable information about some artifact in the ruins.
After negotiating a split that was profitable for both parties, they allowed us in under heavy supervision.
We found said monolith shortly thereafter and freed the demon.
Turned out he was much stronger than expected - an arch-demon rivaling the powers of the gods of the setting.
As he was still bound by the contract, this played into our hands:
We wished for him to turn back time to before we even formed the contract.
We didn't roll for stealth or combat the entire session, and a lot of fun was had.
The question seems pretty vague, so I hope I'm not getting the wrong impression of what you're asking here. I don't really see how that couldn't be the case if you've been playing RPGs for long enough. It would take some seriously dedicated railroading or un-dedicated players to never have something important negated by saying the right word, bringing the right item, setting the coal mine on fire, etc
I have played with GMs that utterly hate the idea ("Oh you prepared for that? It doesn't work"), and I've also played with players that try to do that sort of thing the wrong way (like bringing a giant literal powder keg with them into a dangerous area and whining when things go wrong). I would describe both as bad
Idk if it's taboo to bring Le D&D Shows into discussion or not, but going through Critical Role, I will say it's somewhat satisfying when, after negotiating through a situation and the episode has ended, Matt Mercer (DM) holds up a map and goes "and this is the battle map we WOULD have used..."
If that's the sort of thing you mean, like using diplomacy or discussion when the situation was originally intended to be a battle?
Social encounters can be interesting with the right rules and stakes at hand.
Your problem is that if someone starts blasting or smacking or what have you, then you've turned the encounter into a combat encounter.
(unless the GM ensures this is a social encounter by making weaponry useless)
>>47692082
/tg/ has always had that sad breed that have never actually played an RPG but post anyway. I guess those who listen to /TV/-related podcasts and post are the next iteration.
Not taboo, but go out and play RPGs and get your own experiences, anon
>>47690166
>if you've been playing RPGs for long enough
Pretty much this. Unless you have an extreme railroady GM all sorts of "planned" things get sidestepped by PC actions. Its most the definition of "not getting railroaded'
The party woke up in the middle of the night to find an orc witch and her minions on the deck of their ship.
The party face yelled "welcome aboard, honored guests! Steward, bring wine and rum, bread and cheese for our visitors."
It was a smart move. They'd dealt with witches before and knew that guest rights and traditional hospitality were important to them. I had planned a combat encounter, but we never rolled initiative. There were some tense negotiations (including consulting with a duke via sending spell,) and the orcish warband wound up as allies against the bbeg.
>>47692161
Way to project, they didn't say they don't play anything, just that since /tg/ will raeg at anything, they'll probably raeg at the sheer mention of a "popular" example of an RPG.
The part was going to help the city of elves, which if I recall was going to become a buke or something and blow up if they didnt stop a demon lord who had moved in to the south.
The demon lord had made his home in the keep on the shore of a fishing village. The villagers there were completely and utterly mind-fucked to where they were kind of working off of base desires and living in shacks a quarter of a mile from the keep instead of the village they had up the road.
The party entered the keep which was unlocked and made their way through the seemingly neverending amount of rooms. All in all it was home to sone will-o-wisps, some of the maids and workers turned into whites, a couple of ghosts, and some shadow people.
Eventually they made their way to the throne room of the keep where the demon sat on a throne covered in succubi just kind if enjoying himself.
I was planning on having them fight him, but to my surprise they just spoke to him. He said he was wreaking havok because he was bored of the hellscape his grandfather, asmodius himself, kept him in. His dad had sent him to fuck over the elves, but he just kept feeding his dad lies about how he couldnt nuke them just yet because reasons (so he could spend more time with his slut hoard in the material world.) Turns out being demon nobility is quite boring and if you do anything yourself youre seen as not respected by those below you. So he came her himself, fucked some bitches, and made trouble while he was at it.
He offers to trade. The party is composed of 3 people, one of which's backstory was that he had lost his soul to a demon before and was looking to get it back. The other two though were ripe for the picking. He asked them to give their souls and one of them refused. This made him kind of angry so the one who agreed he asked him to give his soul and the soul of his next 3 descendants. He did so.
Drell became a re-occuring NPC, helping the party every now and then.
>>47692787
Later on in the campaign the party fought !Bladerunner Warforged who looked like humans and were pissed that they didnt have a reason to live anymore. They cut down all but the warforged leader who retreated out of the city to a small monestary.
One of the PC's killed the driver of the carriage they took to chase after the leader because he was incompetent and the PC had literally had enough of his shit. I shifted his alignment for that one, which he didnt deny.
But this woke some children of the corn demons for spilling blood on the harvest, which turns out is a big no-no. But we'll get to that in a second.
They go to the monestary, in the middle of the corn field, and find that the leader guy is holed up in there conducting some demonic rituals to fuck over everyone since he is wounded and cant fight. He summons a demon for which i used the concept art of that one armed angel thing with a sword in its chest that floats around here a lot in concept art threads.
After fighting that thing and BARELY winning rhe warforged is still in the room but while they were busy fighting has had plenty of time to make a summoning sign far more intricate fmthan the one before. This time with his blood as a catalyst. So he has a few words about how they've lost and they have no hope of defeating what hes about to summon. The party stood in horror as he completed the ritual and black smoke came from the circle revealing Drell who immediately after seeing the party, crushed the head of the warforged with his foot and then asked th party which one of them summoned him. When the party rogue replied "that guy whose head you just crushed." Drell responded "...No shit? Well damn, I hope no one hears about this."
Around this time children of the corn are getting through the doors and are in full party murder mode. The party asks Drell if he can help any and he absconds away with the party to hell to escape. And thats how the party ended up in hell.
>>47686937
>Does anyone have cases in their games where a significant encounter, not necessarily the BBEG but something of importance, was negated through roleplay?
One time I successfully intimidated a space pirate captain (in a system without the Intimidation skill) because I made the GM think I was going to ram our (tiny) spaceship into their (large) spaceship.
>>47690166
I think op was talking specifically about social stuff if that clears anything up
