MD: Okay, um…give me a sec to figure something out.
Twilight Sparkle: Any cleaning supplies near the gym, perhaps?
MD: There’s probably a broom closet, sure. Yea, let’s start with trash detail, I guess. Let’s try collective rolls. Successes and failures pule up between all of you.
RT: So we’re going to clean, is it?
AJ: Well, you ain’t charmin’ yer way out of this one.
RT: Because the tricks only work on you, darling.
MD: For trash, let’s say half of you roll Strength, and half of you roll Dex. I’ll say if you pass.
RD: I call Dex! <roll> She shoots!
MD: She scores.
RT: Ah, Dexterity for me as well? <roll>
MD: Nope.
RT: Even fictional, this is dreadful.
PP: Strength for me, I guess! <roll>
MD: Not strong enough.
PP: I die as I lived: Covered in trash.
Twilight Sparkle: I’ll leave the last Dex roll for Fluttershy. <roll> Huh. Nat 20.
MD: Given that Strength is not a…strength of yours, I think your incredible effort gets some attention, and help.
AJ: How’s a 23 do?
MD: Well, it’s one away from your highest possible roll, so…It do very good. Everyone here is impressed and or scared of your mad lifts.
AJ: As they should be!
Guest Author's Note: "Despite all the general categories D&D skills give you, it sure does feel like they don't cover nearly enough. There are many a time where I'm DM-ing and a challenge comes up, and I have zero clue what the proper skill would actually be. It's even worse when the process is clearly something that requires some skill, and a raw stat is just not acceptable. It's one of those things that you have to sort of play by ear, and discuss with the players. It almost turns into a game in and of itself, sometimes. 'Can you justify to the DM why this is an Athletics check?' complete with point and counterpoint by the other players.
Honestly, I'm glad that those situations pop up, troublesome as they can be. They usually lead to interesting and or hilarious arguments. If nothing else, it gives you a chance to see how your players or DM think about the game world, and the mechanics.
Which is useful blackmail for future games!
Story Time: What's the worst justification you've seen for a skill being used on a check?"
Newbiespud's Note: After three months of insanity, I'm finally back in the GM seat for session two of our Stars Without Number campaign (with a twist), Voyages of the Takeout!
Session 2 - Weekend at Denny's: Podcast | Video
A guy trying to replace 'Knowledge(Nature)' to identify a monster with 'Ride' in Pathfinder. He justified it because the creature was described as 'horse-like'.
This is Maid the RPG in a nutshell. Every move the players do, demands from GM to decide what stat to use for the skill check. It work the other way: if players want to use a favorable stat, they need to be creative with their roleplay: "so, I'm cooking... (oh crap, my skill stat is garbage!)... I'm cooking with love. I... I make extra effort to decorate the dishes with cute hearts, and I write the master's name on it (please say I use charisma for that!)"
Why so hellbent on that, tho? There's always the "I try to use my strength to intimidate them" route. I guess some people don't like the idea of intimidation on paper even if they then practice it all the time; a "having the cake and eating it" kind of situation.
Intimidate is a different skill, and has a different tone than persuading someone to agree with your position. If you intimidate them into doing what you want, that can work short term and may be the best option in a given situation. But if this is a character you're going to be dealing with for a while, then there's a good chance it'll sour your ability to work with them in the future.
This is why fantasy flight Star Wars had a module with a unique ruling for those types of situations: In one of their modules, a person had to fly a ship in a search pattern. Typically, it'd be [Pilot: space] using [Agility]; however, in lieu of that, they use [pilot space] using [cunning], as it's not likely to be a difficult piloting check for maneuvering, but rather difficult to fly such precise lines without going astray.
Since then, I've used that type of logic. Want to intimidate, but have poor charisma? give me a reason why I should substitute another modifier. This line of thinking helps in those odd situations, such as ballet. It's a perform, but charisma is more of force of personality. So why not perform using the dex modifier instead?
I have to disagree. Hurting me until I say yes does get you what you want.
Next time you come to negotiate, though, I'll have someone "representing my interests" so to speak.
D&D 5E has a variant rule where you can add your proficiency if it's a logical skill you would have. If the fast talker can't get the NPC to agree, the barbarian will. A guy punching a hole in the wall is pretty intimidating if you ask me. Plus it adds some character to the... characters.
There's a reason Intimidate is a skill. It's easy to scare people, but scared people are stupid and unpredictable. They're less likely to do what you want, and more likely to behave erratically, lash out at you, actively do something they think is counter to your plan, etc. even if it is plainly not in their best interest to do so. Intimidate doesn't just scare them, it scares them into *compliance,* and that takes skill.
In my old group, our group failed every possible knowledge check while trying to identify a mysterious book we picked up in a dungeon, so our sorcerer tried to use Sense Motive on it.
I don't think even he had a justification for that other than desperation.
There have been a few times in 5e where I've missed 4e's "streetwise" checks. There isn't really a good equivalent for it in 5e's skills that I've found, so I usually end up going with perception or history, which isn't quite the same niche.
Dungeoneering, too. Like, sure, you could use Perception to find traps. But Dungeoneering would be the sort of thing you'd use to know _what kind_ of traps they _might_ be. You could use it for rope usage, or figuring out camping spots in caves, or cobbling together and using something to hit a switch on the ceiling, or all sorts of other general non-magic Adventurer-style stuff.
So, this was in a New World of Darkness homebrew Space Marines game, so a bit different, but I was playing a scientist with a mechanical specialty in Chemistry. Some situation came up where there was an NPC to be charmed / seduced over to our side, so I stated my intention to flirt with her and asked "Does my specialty in Chemistry apply?", with an eyebrow waggle and finger guns if I recall correctly. There was much groaning. I'm very proud of it because the moment has merited a re-telling at almost every other game I've been in with the same ST.
A DnD 4e podcast that I listen to has the players constantly trying to use skills for things they aren't designed for during skills challenges. They call it "diplomacizing the horses" after a player during a chase scene was wildly casting about for something effective to do on their turn during the chase scene...he wanted to use Diplomacy to encourage the horses to run faster. The DM didn't go for that.
The second most common attempt comes less from a player seeking something to do with unclear options and more from that player just REALLY wanting to use their History skill. To that effect, he is constantly trying to say he got some piece of knowledge or an ability to do a thing in his University days and wanting to roll history to remember that info or do that thing. At which point he is reminded that "History is not the same as memory."
I've watched two players manage to get a stalled car started with intimidation and Strength. Fists and insults apparently do work if you roll high enough!
Guest Author's Note: "Despite all the general categories D&D skills give you, it sure does feel like they don't cover nearly enough. There are many a time where I'm DM-ing and a challenge comes up, and I have zero clue what the proper skill would actually be. It's even worse when the process is clearly something that requires some skill, and a raw stat is just not acceptable. It's one of those things that you have to sort of play by ear, and discuss with the players. It almost turns into a game in and of itself, sometimes. 'Can you justify to the DM why this is an Athletics check?' complete with point and counterpoint by the other players.
Honestly, I'm glad that those situations pop up, troublesome as they can be. They usually lead to interesting and or hilarious arguments. If nothing else, it gives you a chance to see how your players or DM think about the game world, and the mechanics.
Which is useful blackmail for future games!
Story Time: What's the worst justification you've seen for a skill being used on a check?"
Newbiespud's Note: After three months of insanity, I'm finally back in the GM seat for session two of our Stars Without Number campaign (with a twist), Voyages of the Takeout!
Session 2 - Weekend at Denny's: Podcast | Video