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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8149156" data-attributes="member: 82106">It doesn't have to be 'mechanical', it just has to 'have consequence'. If it doesn't impose some sort of condition on the transition to a new game state, then it doesn't have any salience. It is, at best, color. There's nothing WRONG with color, and I'm not knocking it at all, but color is not the same as substance in the game. It is like saying you can RP Monopoly because you can talk like a real estate tycoon. Yes, it is RP, but it isn't part of the game. It has no salience. Even if the player now explains his further actions on the basis of that color, that's just a preference he has for what his next move is. IMHO at least, 'RPG' means the RP part has salience in the G part, it matters. If the Player just says "My character lusts after the Queen, so he leaves court." that's fine, but its color. By the rules of the game he can just come back and forget about it, or just imagine resisting his own impulses. There's no condition here, either a genre rule nor a mechanic, which gives it salience. It attains salience if, for example, the GM rules that when he comes back he has to overcome a 'lust check' or else he's going to lose control! Now something is at stake! There's a condition, an actual thing in the game that makes his choice matter, just like if he ran into a wall, he'd have to choose how to negotiate that, and climbing it might involve some risk.</blockquote>

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