A social conflict that consists of one die roll is like a fight that only lasts one round . The latter certainly happens , although it ' s almost never very important . It ' s usually a trivial random encounter or a lucky surprise attack on an otherwise average encounter . Doing things like lying your way past a guard or haggling with a merchant should only be one or two die rolls . If there ' s a social conflict that could turn the tables of an adventure , it should be structured like a fullfledged encounter , with each successful skill check merely being one step on the path to winning the encounter . But yeah , in general social conflict is much simpler than physical combat in most RPGs , probably because it ' s more abstract . It ' s easier to improvise , though .