 Let's talk about conflict in role-playing games because the conflict between the characters and the conflict between the players are both very important So my PC runs into a guy trying to sell, I guess, some sort of cat and a guy's got a bowl stuck on his head It looks more like an art mark kind of thing without a big nose This guy might be an astronaut I really want that head bowl, the head bowl is released Alright, so we want the head bowl. Now, maybe the guy doesn't want to give us the head bowl Well, what are we gonna do here? We can buy it from him Now, maybe we're gonna start role-playing, but again, that's not the game. We just start talking in character And don't start telling me that D&D says, make up your own rules, right? I can probably make up your own rules and write on like the last page of the Monopoly instruction manual. That doesn't mean anything So if my character is just that character sheet, and I'm confronted with this, what does the game try to tell me to do? Well, if all I have is a hammer, then a bunch of people are gonna end up dead Everything highlighted in red only applies to killing people with swords and hammers And magic There are other parts here that are also used in combat, but they can theoretically be used for non-combat in a few situations That red stuff, just fine I mean, your rope skill can be used to kill people, but also to get over a trap that's not killing anyone So basically, the game is giving me all these great tools. If I want to fight with these guys and kill them and smash that bowl It's gonna be way fun. We're gonna get to use all these fun stuff in the D&D book like, oh my god, I get to kill someone Look at all these spunky dice, I get to roll all the air I'm rolling tons of dice and using all this stuff on my character sheet, and a bunch of people die I got a bolt in that from my head But if I want to talk to the guy, maybe I roll a diplomacy check One line on the whole sheet How satisfying is that? I roll one dice, he gives you the ball in the head, roll one dice, he doesn't give you the ball in the head And if we just roll play it out, which a lot of GMs are like, oh, just roll play it out and see where it goes And what if we need any of this page for, we could just not play this game and just roll play it out And more importantly, that moves the context up. It's not just character versus character, it ends up being player versus player You've all been in this boat. The guy has a three charisma, and yet somehow he's always getting everything he wants all the time Because in the real world, he has charisma, right? Your real world charisma matters when the game doesn't make it not matter Your real world intelligence in solving puzzles matters when the game doesn't make your low intelligence in the game matter