Bluffing

[Demons_eye]

So I have a question about the ability of bluff.

In a game I was playing I was playing changling for a race and he got board so he changed into an old man to tell stories about when he was a kid. The DM straight told me:

"And I'm going to assume [Character] is just showing off his shapechanging and improv abilities, since there aren't anywhere near enough people on the airship for him to make anything close to an effective disguise"

And I did not understand so I asked "What I don’t get it?"

His reply was "On the disguise issue: The problem with you attempting a disguise is everyone's accounted for, and people don't come and go on the small ship as they please. So, when the Changling is missing, and suddenly there's an old dude with only a 26-year scope of the world, there's no secret as to whom he really is... No Disguise check can pull that off."

And I did not understand. I only changed into an old man to make it more believable that I was one. What did my life span/Disguise check have to do with me lying about some old guy telling random stories?

If his sole Problem was eery one was accounted for I would still have a small one but would go along with it. As it was his main problem, IMHO, was that I could not lie without living to be an old man.
Was I to over the top and pushed the fabrics of lying or was I right that your "scope of the world" has nothing to do with lying?

[Sstoopidtallkid]

I'm a bit confused as to what the problem you have is. If you were just showing off, that's fine, but he's saying that since people can't come and go on the ship, no matter how disguised you were everyone will know who you are unless you disguise yourself as a person on the ship.

[Demons_eye]

"suddenly there's an old dude with only a 26-year scope of the world, there's no secret as to whom he really is... No Disguise check can pull that off"

That was my problem. What would my scope of the world have to do anything. That and he fact everyone seemed to know my race before I told them

[Riffington]

I have a really hard time telling how old people* on the internet are.


*who have IQs above 120 or so. Below that, and it's much easier.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

The race part is just the fact that your gaming group has trouble keeping in-character and ooc info separate, that's not the DM's fault.

The 'scope of the world' line seems to indicate that it would be obvious that your character wasn't that old due to lack of knowledge about the events before you were born and a lack of old-dude wisdom. IMHO that would be a combination of Bluff and a possible Know:History check, but he may have ruled differently for some reason.

[BRC]

"suddenly there's an old dude with only a 26-year scope of the world, there's no secret as to whom he really is... No Disguise check can pull that off"

That was my problem. What would my scope of the world have to do anything. That and he fact everyone seemed to know my race before I told them

I think the "Scope of the World" thing was just your DM embellishing his argument. The main point was that, if the changeling vanishes, and an old man nobody has seen before appears, people are going to assume the Changeling is the old man. No disguise check could make people think that this old man has been there the entire time.

[Demons_eye]

My point was that if I was bluffing then it would not matter. If I was gone for an entire day and then I was talking to the captain, ya I see the point, but I was only turning into an old man to bluff to random people for a little while. I did not think people would notice if suddenly that the chanling was gone, if they did not care, and if they did they would expect the old man they have not meet yet to be him. Sense I was bluffing as an old man, and not a 26 year old, I would think people would believe it better and again bluff about the past of the old man, not the world, would mean he would not need to be old to do so.

Thanks for the response and it looks like I have my answer as it looks like I did just take it the wrong way.

[erikun]

I think the DM's point was that there were no "random people" on the boat. As you said, it's a small boat, and nobody was getting on or leaving. Everyone on the boat knew who was there, so if an old man suddenly appeared, it will be assumed that he is one of the other people on the boat, in disguise.

If it was a larger boat, like a luxury liner, then running into someone you hadn't seen before would be normal. On a small ship with about 10 people, though, the whole crew would be familiar with everyone onboard.