D&D General Social Pillar Mechanics: Where do you stand?

[CreamCloud0]

This suggests that RPGs are meant to be "won" and only the most effective action is an acceptable one, and frankly I neither like nor agree with that idea. Playing RPGs is a fundamentally a different experience than playing a co-op board game or whatever, and suboptimal choices are sometimes, in fact, optimal for fun.

i'm not saying that they're meant to be won, but failure feels bad and a very good chunk of the time your players are going to take a tried and tested reliably effective option over the situationally flavourful one, 'optimising the fun out of the game' is a phenomena for a reason.

 

[Vaalingrade]

This suggests that RPGs are meant to be "won" and only the most effective action is an acceptable one, and frankly I neither like nor agree with that idea. Playing RPGs is a fundamentally a different experience than playing a co-op board game or whatever, and suboptimal choices are sometimes, in fact, optimal for fun.

Here's the issue though.

If you fail over and over again, you become disincentivized to not try anymore. The game trains people to stop attempting, therefore hedging them out of the spotlight.

'Winning' isn't the issue here, it's the psychological fact that active frustration through constant failure is demoralizing for most people.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

The definition i understand for "spotlight" does not have anything to do with mechanical or combat effectiveness, but is about the attention of the group and the story on that person. I think ensemble TV is the most applicable analogy from media for what happens at the table, and in ensemble TV the "less powerful" characters get spotlight time on the regular.

Then what, on earth, does it have to do with "balance"?

The "spotlight" you're referring to is literally just...letting everyone at the table participate at all.

I should think a game which didn't permit that would not get played very much!

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Then what, on earth, does it have to do with "balance"?

The "spotlight" you're referring to is literally just...letting everyone at the table participate at all.

I should think a game which didn't permit that would not get played very much!

Spotlight balance means.. well balancing the spotlight time. The time itself could be about getting to use you cool abilities or meeting an NPC that is related to your tragic backstory so that you can roleplay an emotional scene. It has really nothing to do with "winning," it is about every character having interesting moments that are particularly relevant to them.

 

[Umbran]

I can't see Swarmkeeper's posts, but I'll definitely quibble with part of their definition of "balance."

Mod note:
Could you not, please?

Someone has gone out of their way to not interact with you. You should honor that. But, you insist anyway, as if you have entitlement, or something.

That lack of basic acceptance of agency pretty much proves they had good reason to avoid you.

So, in the future, don't ignore it. Don't work around it. Accept it with some measure of good grace.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Spotlight balance means.. well balancing the spotlight time. The time itself could be about getting to use you cool abilities or meeting an NPC that is related to your tragic backstory so that you can roleplay an emotional scene. It has really nothing to do with "winning," it is about every character having interesting moments that are particularly relevant to them.

Did I use the word "winning" at any point? The answer may surprise you--particularly since you put it in quotes.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Did I use the word "winning" at any point? The answer may surprise you--particularly since you put it in quotes.

You didn't, but you seemed to think that balance related to succeeding at tasks and such, i.e. "winning," whilst it didn't.

 

[Shardstone]

For big important political social encounters, I find Opposition Research and using Inspiration/Action Points for flashbacks to be super useful.

The smart guy characters can have actually looked into the area and relevant situations and practices. The strong guys can have turned out to have gone out to the pubs with the guy's bodyguards the previous nights and overheard choice bits of his current situations. The sneaky ones can have broken into their office and gotten a look at their papers. Then all of those help change the DC or roll in the present, making it so even if not everyone is speaking in the moment, they all got to contribute.

OH man, I use flashbacks but I never thought about it like this. Genius post. Your best yet. Stealing, ty!

 

[Reynard]

Then what, on earth, does it have to do with "balance"?

Literally nothing. That's my point.

 

[GrimCo]

I'll just throw this out here.

For some people, social pillar is one where they actually role play as it leaves most room to free form. Robust mechanics for social interactions is viewed as gamefication. Combat itself is already gamefied pillar. It's pretty much all mechanics dependant with little room for free forming. Turning social pillar into social combat with robust mechanical sub system where you can settle everything via dice or character abilities, just makes it more like co operative board game. And to be honest, some old adventures are pretty much boardgames (looking at you Tomb of Horrors).