I ran the first part of the Marsh Bell this week (we ended with the Troll encounter). Things went quite well and everyone seemed to have a good time but I did struggle with Tolerance.

With both Gloin and Galion, if you have a mixed culture party (not all humans) of starting characters (Valour 2 and Status 0), it is highly likely that both major NPC encounters will have a Tolerance of only 1. That means that the first blown roll ends getting anything useful out of the encounter per the rules. This is with brand new TOR players, who of course all walk into Gloin's place and want to introduce themselves separately (which the adventure assigns TN 16 - 90% fail at skill 1, 75% fail at skill 2, 50% at skill 3) and you are pretty much guaranteed they are going to blow the meeting.

I of course just played out his disappointment and impatience with the blown rolls, but I can see fudging this a lot with new characters, and even with more powerful characters.

I didn't let the players in on what was going on behind the curtain (the Tolerance limit of failed skill rolls). I'm considering mentioning this for the future games so that the heroes without Awe, Courtesy, or Persuade will keep their mouths shut, but on the other hand, I don't want to stifle the roleplaying that went on, which was enjoyable.

I certainly know how to work around it (semi-ignore the Tolerance level and just wing it), but since the system is there, I'd like to give using it a chance. I'd be interested to hear some thoughts on this aspect of the rules.

I think you need to let your players know how the system works - introducing yourself to someone is an important and significant event, and has its own rules in this game. That's why you get all of this "son of ... son of ..." as characters establish their lineage and their right to be taken seriously.

Relying on dice for social encounters is always problematic in any game.

I apply modifiers to the difficulty based on what the player says and how he says it.

Also, I would not consider the introduction as a total failure, unless everyone failed the Courtesy check! But I would discourage those that failed the check from taking part in the following conversation by ignoring them or talking about them, not to them!

Perhaps you'd care to muzzle the dwarf... before I do it!

However, there is one overriding rule... go with your gut! If blowing the encounter ruins the game and/or the fun, find a way to work around it, which is what you did by the sounds of it. The game is supposed to be fun!

You may find the ideas here of use: http://cubicle7.clicdev.com/f/index.php?tr...&showtopic=2152

I use Prolonged Test rules for Courtesy in Encounters, so a TN of 16 for 6 PCs became 10. Each failure is still a failure but the advantage of acting as a group is recognised.

Social encounters are odd beasts. I agree with Garbar and I would adjust or modify the TN (or apply bonuses or penalties to the roll) based on what the player said their character was doing.

Thanks for the comments. I had missed the Encounters thread somehow but it was very helpful.