Recent content by pemerton

I think the ones I've mentioned in this thread are: *Classic Traveller (morale); *Burning Wheel (Steel; compromises in Duel of Wits); *Torchbearer 2e (compromises in social conflict; also twists for failure in social context, as per my example upthread of Lareth goading Telemere, and...

When I play, as opposed to GM - and these days that is primarily playing in Burning Wheel - I want to inhabit my character. One reason why I play Burning Wheel is because it makes my character so real, and the inhabitation so visceral and compelling. To me, that doesn't sound all that...

But who in this thread - other than you - is describing, or proposing, a RPG which involves dice rolls for your PC to keep/lose their cool in non-dramatic, non-impactful contexts?

What game are you talking about here? As in, what game involves dice rolls for your PC to keep/lose their cool in non-dramatic, non-impactful contexts?

I enjoy lots of different RPGs! I can't think of one that doesn't have some sort of social aspect (even AD&D has reaction rolls, loyalty etc); and most have social aspects that affect PCs, but they're all different. (Even some fairly similar one - eg Burning Wheel has Steel; Torchbearer...

Here's an instance of play, from Torchbearer 2e: So there are three failures here: * The failed test to purchase the holy water; * The failed test to buy the rope; * The failed test to buy the shovel. On the first failure, I (as GM) opt for success (ie the holy water is acquired) with a...

I think I posted the example, upthread, of a RPG that still uses obstacles/DCs, but that uses a non-random-in-the-moment mechanic: perhaps the player has to spend enough points to match the DC (Fate tends in this direction), or spends cards/dice from a pre-dealt hand (like Saga or DitV). This...

I think the notion that the dice represent unspecified elements of the fiction - which I've heard a bit, certainly not just from @Thomas Shey - pushes strongly towards a "task resolution" approach to action resolution. For the reasons I gave upthread, it is a confusing issue even within...

I don't feel that I've misunderstood. You assert that the randomisation represents causal elements in the fiction that have not been detailed. I think that that is true only for a small range of RPGing, and as per my post upthread (#308) even in those RPGs it's far from straightforward (because...

There's been a lot of that in this thread - making up terrible (hypothetical) systems, then showing with great fanfare that they're terrible, as if that somehow tells us something about the actual RPGing that some actual RPGers are doing.

Speaking for myself at least, this has nothing to do with why I play RPGs that include social resolution systems.

The Obstacle represents this; not the roll of the dice. As I posted upthread, in the post that you replied to: These are the representational components of play. Not the rolling of the dice. Consider: things could work just as I described, up to the moment of resolution. Instead of rolling...

For me, RPGing is not a poor cousin to virtual reality. It's a creative, imaginative activity. The various resolution systems in a RPG are ways to establish, shape, constrain etc what it is that we imagine together. This is as true of social resolution systems, as it is of other resolution...

I don't know what you mean. In Burning Wheel and Torchbearer, the Obstacle is representational. The rulebooks are clear about this, and BW in particular offers a lot of GM commentary on how to use Obstacle numbers to convey important features of the setting. The roll of the dice is not...

Here's an example, from the last Torchbearer 2e game that I GMed: The PCs are in a room which has many weapons, of various sorts and degrees of quality, on its walls. Player of the Elven Dreamwalker, who is proficient only in the use of the half-moon glaive, and who lost her half-moon glaive...