The social encounters are probably about right, but I think that the huge gap in social skills between the characters makes it a bit tricky. A skill check for a level 2 character is DC 15 – 25. Dexter, the face, has at least a 10 in his social skills, and can get up to a 19 in Bluff with the beguiling tongue warlock utility power. Besides one of the fighters having trained intimidate, I don’t believe there is much else in the way of social skills over 5 – some may be at a 0 modifier. This huge difference in skill levels make it hard to plan for even difficulty levels across the board – either Dexter blows through everything or the others don’t stand a chance in a social setting, which could stall things out and make for a boring game. Guy’s player has shown that given the opportunity to role play an investigation encounter rather than roll play. Unfortunately, this can slow down the game significantly for otherwise fairly insignificant encounters with minor PC’s. There are times when a die roll could suffice to keep the story moving (though I will happily note that Guy’s player did an outstanding job of really milking the NPC for information in character).

It’s just boiling down to balancing the time input for each of the encounters in order to keep the game moving and interesting for everyone. Also, splitting the party isn’t just confusing for the DM. It’s really hard to follow for the players, too. Of course, keeping us from splitting up is easier said than done.

One useful thing that I have done is to write down rotes for players that demonstrate what can be accomplished. You might benefit from doing the same– look at your character’s personality and see if there is magic that fits, that you’ll probably try often. [Sensing magic does well for detective types; fireballs for the combative, etc.] See if you can create the effect– which spheres it takes. If you can’t, see if there’s a different approach that leads to a similar end result. [Maybe you want a fireball, but you're no expert in forces. A good dose of Entropy might cause a nearby gas main to fail, or perhaps you could call a spirit of fire to immolate your opponents instead.]

The “play” of trying to do something and seeing how close you can come is a good way to stretch those mental muscles. Don’t worry though– everyone struggles at first!

I always wanted to try some Birthright, playing rulers always seemed like fun and there were some very neat ideas there. Hope you have a great time this weekend!
Sean Holland´s last blog: Game Theory – Moral Dilemmas: Playing Evil

If you’re going to go that route, a better idea may be to just tell your players to prepare lists of all the things they want to Wal-Mart and then have them show you the list before the game starts – you can yea or nay individual things on there, and you’re saving precious game-time.

I like the ‘make it interesting’ approach much better in general, but that’s because I’m an awful gamer (no head for numbers), and a much better roleplayer. I prefer non-combat play, and anything that gives me more of it is good.