When to role play over Roll play??

[vanir]

Some terrific thread resurrections garkhal, always excellent points to refresh for veteran GMs as well as important ones to examine for new GMs.

Myself, I'm pretty generous with CP awards specifically for roleplaying your PC well, contributing to party goals and general social involvement and game immersion.
PC skills for good RP'ers goes up pretty quick at our table, everyone's an experienced RP'er and we like high level gaming. Not to be confused with metagaming, our rulesets become very expanded, elaborate and strict, starfighter combat like being on a flight sim, jedi combat is like attending a martial arts dojo...

In catering for a logically functioning SWU but yet which can cater to both beginning and high level PCs without changing the way it works for either, most competitive difficulty values are set by a base difficulty for the task plus an opposing roll.

How the PC does his roleplay directly affects base difficulty but not the opposing roll modifier.
eg. a smuggler cons a customs inspector, 4D con versus 4D willpower say. The base difficulty is set by the roleplay and adds to the opposed roll difficulty, so it's going to be pretty hard to con someone of equivalent skill and much easier against someone lesser skilled, and when you have a really good story.
Say the smuggler had a very sincere sounding con, "no really it isn't my ship you're after, look the transponder code's different and here's my (forged) ID papers, I only just entered the sector two days ago, someone else just has a similar ship.."
It might lower the difficulty to very easy being so convincing, with forged documents and the whole nine yards, but keep in mind the opposed willpower adds to it.
If his story was more like "I'm not saying it was me and I'm not saying it wasn't."
well the base difficulty with that argument might be pretty difficult to pull off to a customs inspector, which aren't famous for enjoying ambiguity. And that'd be on top of his willpower opposed roll.

Another benefit to the system is that an inexperienced PC can match a more experienced (higher CP/skills) one using much less skill by using really good RP.
Even in combat, you can modify some base difficulties with your RP style (how elaborately you describe physical PC combat actions), you might alter terrain difficulties, cover bonuses, surprise situations and many other combat modifiers just using good RP.
And get CP awards for it.

[Whill]

I consider both the roll and the roleplaying. If the roll is really high and I can get the general idea of the intended effect the player is going for, I can forgive less than stellar role-playing. But if what the player says is particularly stupid and/or horribly role-played, a spectacular role may still not succeed. I think the whole group prefers that the high Perception characters be played by the better role-players.
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[garhkal]

[Quetzacotl]

Personally, I would mainly look at the role. So no matter if he gave a good or a bad speech, the roll will determine the result, but the talking of the player adds to the atmosphere and the RP-Experience.

Why?
Because in RP I usually like to play something that I can't do in real live. So why should someone get punished for wanting to play someone who can talk himself out of every situation without being such a person himself? It's a game, we all want to have fun and that person wants to play that role. His Character IS good a talking, so why punish the player for something he can't really "control"?

The only thing that I do look at is, if he tried to persuade someone, if he gave me at least one argument that made sense. If he's just spouting nonsense, I wouldn't allow the roll, but if he can't articualte good (or at all) but has a point, then I will simply let the roll determine.
Just because I let the dice primarily speak doesn't mean that the players don't have to think at all.

[DougRed4]

Some game systems have actual bonuses based on the role-playing. I encourage good role-playing (and my players generally do it), but the main way they impact the game is when I award CPs. And unless somebody really makes the game difficult or spoils the experience, I reward the quiet, shier player as much as the gregarious, outgoing one.

It's an interesting concept, and I wonder why some (those who really get into the acting) reward their players so much for their Charisma (and in this game, Perception) skills - based on the player and not the character - but don't do the same for Knowledge-based skills, or Dexterity ones, or Technical, etc. etc.

Just as I wouldn't punish a player (whose PC has a high DEX) for being clumsy, or rule against a person who wasn't as sharp intellectually (who is playing someone with a high KNO), I don't put a ton of weight into the job the player does using Con or the like. One 'skill' that almost always gets "skipped over" quickly is Seduction (for those games that have it). It can end up being just like Con, but I've always been okay with the player just saying "My character attempts to seduce her", rather than forcing two people (often two guys) to role-play out something that would be awkward for everyone at the table (or cause everyone to laugh so hard they cry!).

Like I said, some games really encourage rewards or bonuses based on the game mechanics. And even though I've said I don't put a ton of weight behind it we still encourage role-playing. I might give a bonus when a player puts a lot of work into an impassioned speech, but for the most part it's the character (not the player) doing the work, so if the character is more silver tongued than the player, I'll generally let the dice roll take care of the attempt.
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Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

[griff]

I have a supplement that has Persuasion: Seduction and another Persuasion: Flirt. Can't remember which ones at the moment.
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"EXECUTE ORDER 67. Wait a minute, that doesn't sound like order 67..... No, wait. Yes, yes it does. EXECUTE ORDER 68" Palpatine's last moments - robot chicken.

[garhkal]