Campbell
Relaxed Intensity
I have already spoken on how social mechanics can serve as an immersion tool to help players feel what their characters should be feeling in the moment.
Another crucial function can be to deliberately welcome the wholly unwelcome. It introduces outcomes which no one at the table would deliberately choose, but are nonetheless compelling. Vincent Baker calls this the fundamental purpose of RPG mechanics. Like as a GM and a player you are fond of this character. You like want the best for them, but in order for dramatic tension to exist there needs to exist the possibility things will not turn out the way you hope. Think of it like PC death in combat.
With the sort of character focused play I am talking about here character concept as an idealized version of who your character is and how you expect their story to play out has absolutely no place. Your job is to play a character. Not a concept. We're creative collaborators. The expectation is that our contributions will impact each other.
I also think there is a measure of talking past each other because most people are viewing social mechanics through the specter of charm person and 3e's horrible Diplomacy rules. I personally favor games where player choice of decisions is preserved as much as possible, but where those decisions are colored by the mechanical impact of social mechanics. This weekend I'll get into details from actual games.
Another crucial function can be to deliberately welcome the wholly unwelcome. It introduces outcomes which no one at the table would deliberately choose, but are nonetheless compelling. Vincent Baker calls this the fundamental purpose of RPG mechanics. Like as a GM and a player you are fond of this character. You like want the best for them, but in order for dramatic tension to exist there needs to exist the possibility things will not turn out the way you hope. Think of it like PC death in combat.
With the sort of character focused play I am talking about here character concept as an idealized version of who your character is and how you expect their story to play out has absolutely no place. Your job is to play a character. Not a concept. We're creative collaborators. The expectation is that our contributions will impact each other.
I also think there is a measure of talking past each other because most people are viewing social mechanics through the specter of charm person and 3e's horrible Diplomacy rules. I personally favor games where player choice of decisions is preserved as much as possible, but where those decisions are colored by the mechanical impact of social mechanics. This weekend I'll get into details from actual games.