The Tortuous Hell of Social Interaction

 

I absolutely detest being put in the position of having to interact with NPCs when I'm playing in a TTRPG. I'd say that I'm not wholly unintelligent, and I'm capable of the occasional flash of wit in real life, but require me to come up with something to say to an NPC to convince them to go along with the wishes of the party, and my brain just disappears.

I know that some people just absolutely love this sort of thing, and more power to them, but I find it actively unpleasant, and it destroys any enjoyment I may be having in the game at that moment. It may be lame of me, but when it comes to this sort of thing I'd much rather just rely on whatever social skills (or lack thereof) are written down on my character sheet and roll some dice.

When it becomes really irritating to me though is when the games master just ignores the character's supposed abilities. If I have a character with a high charisma, or a whole bunch of levels in skills like persuasion or intimidation or just plain outright fibbing, I expect to be able to get some benefit from those stats. Otherwise, why have them at all?