SpaceYeti
Prolific Member
As JW said, it really depends on the group. My group generally roleplays in and out of character discussion. You could describe what you're character's doing or saying, or say what your character's saying word for word. If you laugh at something that happens in game, you might say your character also laughs, etc. There's an ebb and flow, alternating between in-game hi-jinx and out of character BSing. Sometimes what you're doing in character requires some kind of skill roll, sometimes you're just in-game talking with other characters and do not need to roll anything, other times you're in an intense "social combat", trying to convince the king and his advisers that your cause is just and you need their help, requiring multiple rolls along multiple lines of dialogue.
Also, since I run very sandboxy games, I tend not to plan specific challenges, but rely on the players to come up with plans wherein they get challenged. I mean, they could sit around and talk between themselves all day, too, but they wouldn't accomplish anything that way. It'd also mean they're ignoring plot hooks, which my groups tend not to do. If they decide to ask the king for help, it's up to them to get an audience and convince the king of whatever they're trying to convince him, or to get the farmer to listen to why they need to hide there and use his house to ambush the bandits from, or whatever they're doing to attempt to handle whatever the problem is.