Roleplaying in D&D is a core component to the adventure and every player will find themselves talking, insulting, flattering and befriending NPCs. However the issues with dice rolls sometimes is that despite a good back and forth between a player and an NPC the conversation can end in a single roll to derail everything.
Ontop of the issue of a single dice roll determining everything, players with high charisma tend to be the only talkers for the whole group in order to achieve higher dice rolls. This more often than not leads to uneventful, uninspired, and downright “groanable” outcomes.
Here we will change how these social interactions work by changing how important one single roll is when interacting with vital NPCs in the campaign.
Understanding how an NPC works can be as simple as understanding their motivations and pitfalls. Every living being is different and what they value and dislike are all different. Rather than worrying entirely on a high roll. the conversation should be a tug of war on the NPCs motivations and pitfalls. These two traits are quite similar to the Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws of D&D, but are a bit more expanded and easier to understand.
Each Important NPC will carry easy to understand motivations and easy to understand pitfalls. it is up to the player to figure those out and use that knowledge to their benefits. These are found through normal means of information gathering about the NPC and insight checks on the NPC.
Each interaction will start from a 0-5 scale on Interest and Patience These are determined at the start of the conversation and are based on factors the NPC will have towards the group.
- Interest is described by how convinced the NPC is with the group. Getting to 5 is the best outcome, The NPC accepts to what the group has to offer. Getting to 0 means its time to pack up the bags and leave, The NPC is done with this conversation.
- Patience is described by the amount of time they wish to keep talking. Every time an argument is made the patience goes down. The group doesn’t have an unlimited amount of tries or unlimited time with the conversation at hand.
The conclusion of the negotiation comes to when patience hits 0 and where Interest has landed. Some Examples of this system include
- The Group has a prearranged meeting with a noble. The noble desires something the group has. Interest starts at 4 and Patience at 5. Meaning it isnt difficult to achieve a positive outcome with the noble and perhaps reaching 5, the noble will sweeten the deal.
- The group managed to say something to pause a dragon from devouring them. The dragon has stopped. Interest starts at 1 and patience starts at 1. Meaning the group has one chance to convenience the dragon not to eat them, but perhaps go away.
So what does this mean for persuasion and deception? Is Charisma still the only way to achieve positive outcomes?
To tackle the dominance of Charisma rolls for conversations; instead characters can use Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma when the DM calls for it. This brings in everyone else into the conversation rather than one character being the spokesperson time and time again.
While it makes perfect sense that someone with a high charisma score can talk their way around circles. It generally detracts from the other players experience as they know that with their lower Charisma score, they don’t get to interact, they just sit by and hope for the best. This becomes an issue in a party where their class doesnt even prioritize charisma, thus the party can all choose to have low charisma scores.
Does this system get applied to every single npc and conversation? No, not at all. Instead this system is reserved for those very important, story changing conversations where it matters how the conversation goes.
What is considered an Important NPC? Simply, does the NPC have something to do with a main quest or not. If the NPC has the power to change how a quest goes determined by the conversation. They are considered Important.