Should players have to switch between skills during an Encounter?

What if they have 3 or more levels in a particular skill and they just make back-to-back rolls until they have racked up enough successes? Is this reasonable?

I was thinking about this after teaching a friend how to play the game the other day. His character had 3 levels in Persuade, but his other social skills were lacking. He just continued making points using Persuade and never failed a roll before getting 7 successes. That was easy!

In addition to triggering Encounter Gaffes (see the thread 'Making Encounters Fun And Difficult'), I'm thinking of taking a cue from the Battle Events presented in Tales from Wilderland to develop Encounter Interruptions.

So, if the heroes are meeting the Master of Lake-town, maybe there could be 3-4 special interruptions planned that the Loremaster can insert at his or her own discretion. They should be helpful in forcing the players to use a variety of skills. Here are a few examples:

• The Master of Lake-town interrupts the heroes to ask a special question to test their knowledge on a particular subject. They must make a roll of Lore to get the answer right.
• A poor stranger interrupts the gathering to beg the heroes for money or help with something. The heroes must show Courtesy to properly handle themselves.
• The Master of Lake-town uses a trick question to test their Insight and motives.

Summary:

• Plan 3-4 Encounter Interruptions for each Encounter to force players into a variety of skill uses, making the Encounter more interesting.
• When heroes fail a skill roll, it is recommended they use a different skill for their next roll after the Loremaster narrates the host's response to their failure.
• When heroes fail a skill roll with an Eye, an Encounter Gaffe is triggered and the next pre-determined skill roll must be made at a higher TN to overcome the social blunder.

I think it's fine that a character can blow through one encounter because they have a high skill. They invested the points there because they wanted to be competent and to have those cool "social monster" moments.

You just have to make sure that different encounters require different skills. Maybe Persuade is great when dealing with the Laketown merchants, but those same honeyed words fall flat when speaking with the Beornings (who prefer Awe or Inspire).

I think the Tales from Wilderland adventure Kinslaying and Dark Tidings handled this best. Each encounter had certain skills which work great, and others that are either incredibly difficult to use, or just fail outright.


That said, I like the interruption idea.

My take - each skill has a different purpose, and trying to use one skill for something that it's not intended means a very high TN.

Persuade's all about one- on-one wheedling and argument. It requires a lot of time and a personal connection. The big benefit of Persuade is that you can argue people around to agreeing with you.

Courtesy is being formal and polite. It's suited for groups, and especially suited for high society, civilised cultures. It's best used for peaceful conversations.

Awe's about boasting and being bombastic or even intimidating. It works equally well in groups or one-on-one, but it's more limited in terms of what you can discuss. Awe's great for shouting "it is time for war!", but not great at asking for favours or convincing people to like you.

Riddle is used for small talk. You really can't persuade anyone with Riddle, and you can't chat freely to a whole crowd. However, Riddle's great for gathering information, and people who don't have Riddle come across as, well, boring. You know how Butterbur thought the Rangers were strange and off-putting, even though Aragorn doubtless has lots of Awe, Courtesy and Inspire? That's what having no Riddle does.

Like the previous poster mentioned, I think someone who wants to have a particular monster social skill should be able to do that and be dominant in some situations. Stephen Hawking probably has a great persuade skill, not so much at awe, and probably a good inspire. Dick Cheney can persuade like hell but inspires and awes no one.

As experienced RPG gamers, we probably have a lot of skill at designing and implementing combat encounters. Why not give as much thought to diplomatic ones? A character might be great at Inspire or Persuade...but until he has someone's attention (Courtesy or Awe) he'll never get the chance to impress them. You could set up some social skills as almost like "Armor Class" (what you have to penetrate) and other social skills are the weapons that do damage (Persuade or Inspire...to get your audience to do what you want).

I think the trick is to know what you want to happen in advance, and give the players enough clues as to how things should happen so they don't blow it.