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View Full Version : Player Help Question involving bartering and deals made between PC's



Eonn
2015-02-14, 09:51 PM
Recently I played a game with a group I just joined. The group itself is made up of fairly new players, including myself. Besides the normal problems with just starting and not understanding all the rules, everything went fine. At least until we got loot.

So what the DM did was have a treasury/armory with a chest with random content for each player. Some people got potions, one got a wand, but I found full plate armor. I'm a Kobold with 7 STR, I'd be nearly unable to carry it if it was the only thing I owned. But Kobolds always find a way! I turned to the orc barbarian who was sitting pretty with 20 STR (but 5 INT) and offered him a portion of the sale price if he carried it to town for me.

He said he'd do it for half the sale price, and before I could interject rolled a diplomacy check I would be hard-pressed to match.

About this time, the DM realized he had us rolling off the wrong chart and did everything over. But this left me with a few questions.

Would failing the diplomacy check railroad me in to the deal?

Does a diplomacy roll even have a place in deals between PCs?

Kid Jake
2015-02-14, 09:56 PM
I find that it's a bad idea to ever turn social skills on PCs; I'd have had you just hash it out until you came to an agreement or he left you there with your unmovable booty.

neonchameleon
2015-02-14, 09:59 PM
1: There's no RAW for opposed diplomacy checks between PCs. (As a rule there are very few RPGs where you should be turning social skills against other PCs)
2: "I'm going to screw you financially" is not in any way, shape, or form diplomatic so it shouldn't have been a diplomacy roll.
3: Don't sweat the small stuff.

Eonn
2015-02-14, 11:07 PM
3: Don't sweat the small stuff.

True enough. I just wanted to be sure there wasn't something I overlooked. Thank you!

Gritmonger
2015-02-15, 12:43 AM
A five int barbarian? He wouldn't know what half was.

Tell him he'll get a shiny if he loads it on a mule for you.

Kid Jake
2015-02-15, 01:05 AM
A five int barbarian? He wouldn't know what half was.

Tell him he'll get a shiny if he loads it on a mule for you.

A 5 in Intelligence is stupid, not severely retarded. You may be able to confuse him by piling up his 'half' with copper and other lower value coins to give it the appearance of being the larger sum, but "Take a shiny for your trouble." seems like a good way to invite orc related injuries.

Mastikator
2015-02-15, 04:56 AM
AFAIK diplomacy doesn't work on PC. Doesn't matter if he rolls a thousand on the diplomacy roll, you can just say no.

Friv
2015-02-16, 03:44 PM
Assuming that this is a 3.x question, since Diplomacy was mentioned...

My IC response to that would probably be to say "my character starts crying, because his good friend is trying to extort him and he doesn't know what to do now." See what the orc does now that he's making his buddies cry.

Or alternately, the kobold laughs and says, "Okay, good point, we both take half of each others' treasure. I'll carry your wand, you carry my armor."

Diplomacy serves to make people like you, it's not mind control. There are a lot of things I won't do for someone who I like, and one of those things is give them all my money for no good reason. And that's without the "don't roll social skills against other players" issue, which is generally a good rule in D&D. And both of those are without the fact that usually you want some kind of party contract based around proper loot-splitting, rather than a first-come, first-serve method.