D&D 5E On rulings, rules, and Twitter, or: How Sage Advice Changed

[Lord Mhoram]

You're never thinking as the character, though, this is impossible. If you're actually trying to play a character that isn't just a version of you, then you should constantly be having to consider actions from outside yourself. I understand the comfort of being solidly in the zone, but it's a mistake to suggest that this is really being in tune with a character not yourself instead of just you being immersed in the fiction. It's a myth used to discount play approaches.

I don't use it to discount play approaches, just as an approach on why I don't like certain play approaches. And every character has some element of me in them somewhere in personality - but when I am "in the zone" there are times I emotionally forget I am in the game and all I am thinking and feeling are what my character experiences. I don't forget that I am in the room with friends.. but that is almost a secondary thing going on.

I mostly was using that example, not as a way someone should play, but as a way that some do, and why those who play like me may not like personality or roleplaying mechanics.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

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[TwoSix]

Man, going from Dodgeball (one of the most quotable movies of all time) to Starsky and Hutch is quite a letdown.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Man, going from Dodgeball (one of the most quotable movies of all time) to Starsky and Hutch is quite a letdown.

Bad movie ... but perfect scene.

 

[Charlaquin]

In my experience over the years, its even worse when its baked into the experience system. Its very common and I stopped using what I think of as social-engineering experience many years ago because I concluded the malign elements outweighed the benign ones.

Oh, god, yeah. Meta-currencies are bad enough, but awarding XP or equivalent for whatever the GM decides counts as “good Roleplaying” is the actual worst.

 

[TwoSix]

Bad movie ... but perfect scene.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Oh, god, yeah. Meta-currencies are bad enough, but awarding XP or equivalent for whatever the GM decides counts as “good Roleplaying” is the actual worst.

Yeah, took me years to conclude that. And I'm not allergic to things that encourage distinction and characters that have negative traits, even if bribery is necessary, but making it into an exercise in the GM deciding if that's sufficient as a constant and ongoing process just doesn't seem benign.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I don't have a problem with it. Any assessment requires an assumption that there are some objective standards to measure against. Would you want to read a column of film criticism constantly caveated with "But that's just my opinion, man, maybe you'll really like this movie I think is hot garbage?"

Except if you want to claim an objective standard, you have to show your work. Otherwise it just a claim.

 

[Charlaquin]

Yeah, took me years to conclude that. And I'm not allergic to things that encourage distinction and characters that have negative traits, even if bribery is necessary, but making it into an exercise in the GM deciding if that's sufficient as a constant and ongoing process just doesn't seem benign.

Agreed. This is one of the many reasons I think, if you’re going to have Background Characteristics grant Inspiration in 5e, it should be the player’s call what counts instead of the DM’s. A simple “once per characteristic per session, you can claim Inspiration when you feel you’ve acted in accordance with that characteristic” suffices. It lightens the cognitive load on the DM having to remember all those things, and it removes the RP-policing element.

 

[Ovinomancer]

I don't use it to discount play approaches, just as an approach on why I don't like certain play approaches. And every character has some element of me in them somewhere in personality - but when I am "in the zone" there are times I emotionally forget I am in the game and all I am thinking and feeling are what my character experiences. I don't forget that I am in the room with friends.. but that is almost a secondary thing going on.

I mostly was using that example, not as a way someone should play, but as a way that some do, and why those who play like me may not like personality or roleplaying mechanics.

And you've played lots of games with mechanics attached to character traits and this never happened? Because, in my experience, the times I'm heavily investing in my character are moments when play is about that character, who they are, what they want, hard choices between these. In a game that has no way for me to make play about my character (lack of mechanics) then I have to hope the GM chooses to do so, and how the GM chooses to do so aligns with my ability to sink in. Mechanics here, just like rolling to hit, aren't about divorcing your from play, but giving tools to engage with and make play into something that actually aligns with your character.