SPOILERS

My campaign is starting Mask and I just have a couple of quick social questions

My PC's are a very skeptical people. Venlana has a very straight forward approach, so I hope this diverts questions of her loyalty. I will try my best. In the group, we have a 'gentleman' thief, ex-Imperial interrogation droid, a beautiful Twi'lek, along with three others. Just a naturally skeptical group, always rolling Perception and Streetwise (even if one of them has no skill in it.)

Anywho, hit may not even come up but how will I get them from just discovering the whole plot from the get-go if they decide to delve into it? If they push the roll then they kind of deduce their is something to hide in the first place. They know my rules in meta-gaming and walk a fine line in not crossing it (with more rolls.)

My second question is not so Pirate Queen but a Negotiation question:

If the PC's are a bartering with a NPC for an item, and the NPC has a friend/partner/helper with them. If the PC's try to low-ball the deal, do you make them roll against two separate rolls or use disadvantage for the 2nd PC?

Thank you for time.

StG

1 hour ago, Shaheed the Gand said:

My second question is not so Pirate Queen but a Negotiation question:

If the PC's are a bartering with a NPC for an item, and the NPC has a friend/partner/helper with them. If the PC's try to low-ball the deal, do you make them roll against two separate rolls or use disadvantage for the 2nd PC?

Thank you for time.

StG

It's one negotiation so one roll. The two NPCs could offer each other skilled assistance on the Negotiation (or Cool to resist) check.

I wouldn't worry too much about your players figuring out if Venlana is lying to them. Looking at what she brings to the table, her part of the Deception check is going to P-R-R-R. Thats a pretty tough pool to beat. Im not saying it won't happen, but the players had better roll some pretty impressive dice. And if you want, burn a Dark Side point to upgrade the difficulty to R-R-R-R. The other part of this is that the players are going to be trying to decide if shes lying or not. A Discipline check would tell them if shes telling the truth, or lying through her teeth. What it WON'T do is tell the players what her motives really are.
If nothing else, keep this in mind: Not all social situations have to involve dice rolls. If nothing else, tell your players 'Alright gang...we're going to RP this one. Dice down for this scene.'

12 minutes ago, LugWrench said:

If nothing else, keep this in mind: Not all social situations have to involve dice rolls. If nothing else, tell your players 'Alright gang...we're going to RP this one. Dice down for this scene.'

I wouldn't single out social encounters in this way. Dice should be just as important for social encounters as in combat or in other skill areas (like computers, mechanics, or medicine). Otherwise, the characters' stats start to matter less than the "stats" of the players, and that is an ugly path.

1 minute ago, HappyDaze said:

I wouldn't single out social encounters in this way. Dice should be just as important for social encounters as in combat or in other skill areas (like computers, mechanics, or medicine). Otherwise, the characters' stats start to matter less than the "stats" of the players, and that is an ugly path.

Well, notice that I did say 'not all'. And you are right, dice should be important. However, I've seen more than a few players max out their social abilities, then derail entire modules by rolling dice to discern if an NPC is lying/up to something. In a sense, they make the dice rolls a type of 'cheat code'. "Ha..I rolled THAT. Plus THIS bonus...means I know if they're lying or not."

5 minutes ago, LugWrench said:

Well, notice that I did say 'not all'. And you are right, dice should be important. However, I've seen more than a few players max out their social abilities, then derail entire modules by rolling dice to discern if an NPC is lying/up to something. In a sense, they make the dice rolls a type of 'cheat code'. "Ha..I rolled THAT. Plus THIS bonus...means I know if they're lying or not."

You know how many times I've seen players ramp up their combat abilities and derail entire modules? Possibly way more...

1 minute ago, HappyDaze said:

You know how many times I've seen players ramp up their combat abilities and derail entire modules? Possibly way more...

Been there, seen that, kiddo. Thankfully, I have a few Dastardly GM Tricks up my sleeve to mitigate those, somewhat. For the social situations, role play works nicely.