TTRPG Judge advice: Role play not roll play!

 

During my long, deep and rapid delve into the OSR I came across a style of play that brought all progress to a screeching halt. A way of communicating with my players that I honestly hadn't tried before, had no real experience with and that I instantly loved.

Role play rather than roll play. What do I mean by this? Well, most newer editions of TTRPGs tend to have systems in place for social interactions. Most of these systems have the character rather than the player use skill checks or rolls to determine an in game conversation. 

I was used to running games that used a similar system (truthfully I was pretty fed up with it). I even had players that would use great arguments but roll badly and in my pig headed ways would go with the dice results.

The first time I read the role play not roll play section in the Old School Primer by Matthew Finch it clicked. The very next game I tried it out, a PC walked into a shop and we discussed the price for treasure they wanted to sell. It was a tense back and forth with a lot of hand waving, funny accents and promises of repayments but a deal was struck!

Currently the shop salesman is a recurring character that always tries to get a better deal from the PC, it formed a bond between the two characters based on an actual physical social interaction rather than someone rolling dice and getting an eighteen. 

Did it take longer? Yes. Did the player have more fun? Definitely. Did it add another layer of depth to my fantasy world? It did! Will I continue to use this system? God yes.

Learn from my stubbornness, take the mildly longer route and have your players actually haggle over the price of the chicken and oil sacks.