Hey all, I wasn’t really a contributor over at r/dndmemes, but I was there at the end. Yikes. Anyway, here’s a small contribution to help this place grow.
Context (possible spoilers for Waterdeep: Dragon Heist):
Our party was trying to get information out of a locksmith about the installation locations of some extremely elaborate locks and generally not getting anywhere. Locksmith says something to the effect of making locks that “his type” (gestures to my Rogue) can’t get past.
I’m an introvert at a table with multiple extroverts that normally dominate the role play. I’m generally okay with it, but this is my moment and I’m taking it!
“Wanna bet?” I ask.
Locksmith looks at me.
“Bring me your best lock. If I can pick it, you tell us what we want to know. If I can’t, I’ll give you 10 gold”.
Challenge accepted! My Rogue has 20 DEX and proficiency in Thieves’ Tools, so I’m sitting at a comfy +8 to lockpicking challenges.
Natural. 1. FML.
The consequence was I broke my lock picks. So not only did I not get the info and had to pay the wager, I had to buy new lock picks.
Fortunately, this lock was in a test-bench type setup, and the locksmith was able to eject the broken pieces of my
pridelock picks.It doesn’t sound like an introvert extrovert problem. It sounds like a you’re being a bad player problem. Things going your way shouldn’t be the prerequisite for you to engage in the game.
No need to be a dick; improv can have a steep learning curve, because to get experience you have to, especially as an introvert, come out of your comfort zone. If they’re the planning type, they’ll have had an idea of how the interaction would go and have prepared for it, so to have the rug pulled out from under you is a hard thing to learn to roll with.
We should be encouraging people who struggle with role playing, not telling them they’re a bad player.
Since when does “not being comfortable role-playing” make you a bad player?
Don’t listen to the other commenter; role playing and theatre in general can be really hard to get the hang of if you’re not naturally confident. Good on you for giving it a go, and next time you’ll be more prepared to roll with the punches and use it in the storytelling (maybe your rogue then thinks the smith used subterfuge or magic to snap the picks, or maybe it leads your character to have a small crisis of confidence). Happy playing!
Role playing and creative problem solving IS the game. It’s not about being an introvert or extrovert. And your description of what happened screams red flag personally. You tried something. The dice weren’t in your favor. Your DM gave you the (imo totally reasonable and engaging) consequences. And you run to make a meme complaining that… what, the dice gods prevented you from role playing because you’re an introvert? What does being an introvert have to do with not being able to deal with your character rolling a 1?