Help: How To Do Better Non-Combat Encounters

I just got home from DMing a non combat session. My trick is try to get character development and get your players more involved in role playing. Add some political tension or something.

>>48582671
Don't have them roll unless the outcome could determine whether they live or die.

>>48582671
>- roll persuade on someone and get X
Try more direct speech. Not "What would my character do?" but "What would I do"
Try with small talk, start with a greeting, a compliment and then "by the way could you do me a favour?"
>- roll search and find X
Watch gamers 1 the part about the rogue in the dungeon. Something like that.
>- roll skill check to craft X
Difficult to answer, but how about you give more thought about the components?
Example arrow crafting:
Ask for allowing to make a knowledge check for wildness or ask someone with expertise about light but sturdy wood. Then go out into the woods gathering it. Make some roleplaying buying the metal for the arrowhead and shit.

>>48582671
A skill check does not solve a problem by itself. Skill checks measure how SUCCESSFUL an attempt to solve a problem by a particular means is. The player still has to say HOW they're going to try and accomplish a task - the check measures how skillfully they accomplish it (and if they mess up).

Examples
>roll persuade on someone and get X
Should be -
>Player: "I know this NPC is a good, selfless man, so I try to play on his better nature to let us have the thing we need, for the greater good"
>DM: "Okay, roll persuasion."
>Player: "With my Persuasion skill, that's a 19"
>DM: "He's moved by your words, and decides to give you the item you need."

>- roll search and find X
You can allow a general search roll to find things of interest in a room, but unless it's something you want to move on from quickly, have the roll only find points of possible interest and make them check each one individually, adding any additional checks you want in the process.

This forces players to actually think, while still making skill ranks matter - in the first instance, if the player had tried to, say, coerce or bribe the noble NPC, the DM could have levied a heavy penalty to his skill roll, since the NPC wouldn't be likely to be moved by such means.

Crafting is a little different, as the actual craft check is the least interesting part of crafting. That should be hunting down the necessary materials, which can be an adventure in its own right.

>>48584908
>>>48582671 (OP)
>Don't have them roll unless the outcome could determine whether they live or die.

Throw out persuade, investigation, and anything related to social interactions. Who fucking cares about that kind of shit hahahahah

>>48582671
>how do i improve my non combat encounters beyond rolling a simple skill check
do the action first, roll later to see if it worked.

The example ou showed is exactly this: you should NOT just roll to see how it is going to be, you 'persuade' and only then roll. If it doesn't make sense from the get-go, the dm can just not accept it.

>>48590226
...many times someone rolled persuasion/intimidation only to do nothing that is actually intimidating.

>>48582671
Well, you need to picture the scene before you run the game. And then you take brief notes about what is cool about the scene. When you roleplay interaction with an NPC, prepare a few notes on how you want the conversation to go. Have some fun, portraying that character. Roleplaying an NPC is a bit like imitating your teacher mockingly in school.

tl; dr = have fun describing cool stuff or taking on a given role

>>48586794
Yes. Totally agree, but then the DM has the dilemma whether to start arm-twisting a player who is otherwise unimaginative, shy, or self-conscious. but still trying to cooperate. :\

>This forces players to actually think,

Which is, of course, way easier to do with other people's friends.

>>48590451
Provide incentives and maluses depending on what they do. For example.
>Try to persuade the barbarian warlord
>Try to be sneaky and manipulate him and you will probably just piss him off giving a -X to your roll
>Try to be direct saying "we need X for Y reasons, if you help us you will get Z, are you in?" will be better giving a +X to your roll
If the players are unwilling to speak give them a bonus for doing any speaking and a bigger bonus if they do better than normal. In order to better motivate them you should make the rewards arbitrarily since experimentation shows humans and animals are more willing to do something if they get a sporadic reward than constantly being rewarded or rewarded at certain intervals.

>>48582671
This comic makes me angry, because it's obvious the author does not play tabletop games and has only read reddit tier le funny stories about it.

>>48590660
Then don't bump this shit thread.

>>48582671
>i need some help, how do i improve my non combat encounters beyond rolling a simple skill check to resolve it or going to fetch an item.
Picking the right system can help alot. If you're game has no social systems at all then its all on you.