Mind showing me where I said anything about running a drama school?
Do I expect smooth talking eloquence every time out of the face player's mouth? Of course not.
However if the GM is in NPC mode trying to get something from the face player and all the GM get's in return is..."I um..I roll Con". You just failed. It's a role playing game. To us that means you roleplay. If we want to just roll dice and compare defenses we can pull out a miniature game and do that.
If that makes some of you uncomfortable, that's on you not us. Our group is not going to stop playing the way we prefer because some here feel it's badwrongfun.
I'm not really sure where the hostile tone in this is coming from. I never said what you're doing is bad, wrong, or ...unfun? I'm trying to figure out what the "badwrongfun" means. My whole point was that there are players who want to be
that guy, who is smooth-talking, glib, and daring. And very,
very few people that I've met in my decades of GMing have ever been able to pull that off. This means dice rolls anyway. But please note that I did say that I encourage roleplaying still - and not just from the face. Everyone should be a good roleplayer, but it takes time for most people to get to the point where they are comfortable with it (not to mention good at it). Perhaps this is because I do a lot of demos with people who have little to no experience, but I would never require a player to do something he's bad at just because the character is supposed to be good at it. The whole element of playing something fantastic disappears in that scenario.
You are correct we don't require the Mage to be able to cast real spells or the Rigger to be able to jack into their vehicle in real life. Those are fantasy elements from the game. However, the Face being able to talk in character is something that can be done in real life. We see no reason why that cannot be accomplished.
A good face generally knows people - body language, facial expressions, languages, psychology, etc. Those are part of their skill set. They're all knowledge-based elements that are derived from years of training, innate talent, and good luck. The same could be said for any character's skill set. Do you ask that your street samurai be able to know how to fire a gun or swing a sword? These are skills that are legitimate and real in the real world, much like the face skills. No fantasy. I can tell you that the overwhelming majority of people think that shooting a gun is as simple as "point and squeeze." They couldn't be more wrong if they tried. Firing a gun is a complicated process that, to do correctly, requires a lot of training and practice to develop these minute details into muscle memory. The same could be said for a person who is good at talking their way out of a traffic ticket, or convincing the girl at the bar to go to bed with them. The confidence and grace of these skills are developed over time, and not everyone will have them - many people will not have these skills.
What you're saying, as I see it, is that you penalize the player of the face for not being able to be a face in real life. If that's not true, I humbly admit my mistake and ask for clarification. What system do you use at your table for determining if a player has sufficiently roleplayed their part? Do you provide bonuses for exceptional roleplaying? If so, how?
I'm not really sure why there's this tone of hostility - from the start, I might add. I simply extrapolated information from what you had given me, which was very little. Now, I'm asking for more information so that those of us not at your table can figure out how you do it. Many of the posters in this thread have given real-world examples of their actions in use. Please provide us with the same, so that we can have more understanding.
Remember what the OP asked?
So I have this tendancy to play high charisma characters even though I'm terrible at being a face. I can never think of anything witty or useful to say when put on the spot. Anyone have tips on how to be an effective face?
I pointed the OP to a thread on the same topic, which had a lot of useful information. I also provided him with, what I think, is the most helpful tip of all: you can always let the dice speak for you. No one should be afraid to try something new, especially in a roleplaying game. Since there are rules for handling social interaction with dice rolls, I'd say it's a legitimate answer to the OP to say that the dice can resolve the scenarios that his roleplaying skills cannot.
