It’s late on Monday night, and my weekend is over. Actually it was over last night, but I’m just catching up on writing about it. I’ve still got about eight session reports to write; I guess I’ll get to them tomorrow.

Those are boardgame session reports, btw. I haven’t really been writing up my RPG session reports lately, because I don’t really have a great forum for them. Occasionally I might post one here, but I forget to do so for a couple of weeks, and then the thread is lost. 🙁

One thing: I really hate running a game on a Saturday, or a Sunday after a BGD. I really need a day at home to prepare for them, and I don’t like preparing a week in advance.

One of the drawbacks of D&D comes from it being a roleplaying game, and there are times when I’m really not in a roleplaying mood; this is more of a problem when you’re the DM (as I normally am) than a player, let me tell you! You see, it’s easy to prep for combat, but roleplaying is a different kettle of fish. It involves a lot of preparation (or improvisation) that requires a totally different part of my mind. If I don’t have a character’s goals and personality in my head… urgh.

Even with dice, you need to actually know what the NPC will tell the characters. There’s a really great encounter coming up with the Lord of the Grey Realm – who my Ulek campaign PCs have just rescued – and I really need to work out what he’s going to do. He’s this incredibly powerful being who has just been freed from these even more powerful villains… he’d better be impressive in conversation! Let’s face it; I invented him three or four years ago, and I’ve been building up the mystery since then.

One of the other problems with D&D is how it resolves roleplaying. It’s confused on the issue. Hey, it’s been confused ever since AD&D and before that! If you really read the AD&D rules, it seems that you’re meant to make an initial attempt to parlay (that is,actually role-play it out), then roll the dice to see the monster’s reaction to you. After that, you’re on your own.

D&D 3e? Monster has an initial reaction to you. You roleplay a bit, then roll the dice. And, given the wonders of the d20, it’s very easy for your bard to roll a natural 1, score a total of 14, and completely ruin the diplomacy attempt… even if the player has done a good job of roleplaying it. Of course, if the player in question doesn’t roleplay very well, should they be penalised for that? Shouldn’t the stats mean something?

There are times when a single roll really, really doesn’t work. You need a combination of things. More dice? They’re good. Dave Noonan notes in his blog that they’re changing how resolving roleplaying encounters works in 4e. Such encounters will require more dice-rolling, or less, depending on how you handle it.

Just a note: Sarah tends to play character with good social skills. (So do I, actually, which is why I’m dying in Martin’s Iron Heroes game where he’s given me a PC with a 10 Charisma!) Sarah is also really, really good at rolling natural 1s when making Diplomacy checks. Her current PC in my Ulek campaign, a 13th level Fochluchan Lyrist, has a +29 Diplomacy now, so will never completely blow a Diplomacy check. That makes me happy, if a little worried by the numbers.

She was also casting glibness before an encounter last session… oh boy.

For those who read books by Steven Erikson, my inspiration for the Lord of the Grey Realm was the Rope. Personality-wise, anyway. I’ve got a problem in that the Lord also sort of fills the place that the Umbral Lord (Lord of the Shadowplane) does in my version of Greyhawk, so I’ll have to distinguish him a little more.

Wanting better diplomacy rules in 4e? Absolutely. We might be getting them. Cool.