Are there games that track what the PC knows/thinks rather than does?

[bsss]

My latest post in the "railroading" thread got me thinking, is there a game that captures specifically what the player characters think? A lot of traditional games like D&D run on an action-reaction cycle where what the character thinks is relegated to being (hopefully) a motivation coloring their action/reaction, and how the information provided at the table is used is largely left to the player themselves. When I look at that approach, it seems to both defend player agency and allow for an abstraction of social or knowledge mechanics and results --- the actions are what move the game forward. Is there a game where that's not the case? I can't think of one, even going down branches like GUMSHOE and Fiasco, but I suppose there's probably some indie (or not) game that might cover this?

It seems like accumulating truths vs. fictions or convictions vs. fears or something, and having it matter in a way that might lead to specific compelling actions or results, might be a situation where the game intentionally sacrifices agency in order to have some kind of mechanical narrative. I just can't think of one. Anyone got one?

 

[Morrus]

Not so much knowledge but more personality traits—Pendragon has your personality traits go up or down. Each trait is from 1-20 and is paired with its opposite trait, so the two will always add up to 20. Say honest 14, deceitful 6. (I can’t remember the exact traits but that sort of thing). There’s about a dozen pairs.

Generally you role play according to your traits but you might sometimes choose to roll to see what you would do.

 

[Brendan Byrd]

My latest post in the "railroading" thread got me thinking, is there a game that captures specifically what the player characters think?

Quite literally: in a PbP game on these boards, you can indicate what your character is thinking by using Italics.
(Optional)

There are Personality Traits in D&D’s The Northern Reaches (Gaz7). Those rules are optional and are a role-playing assist for your character. (NPC’s only for the DM)

I suppose Alignment / Allegiances / Philosophical Faction (Planescape) can indicate how a character thinks but not, as you ask, what the player character thinks.

It seems like accumulating truths vs. fictions or convictions vs. fears or something, and having it matter in a way that might lead to specific compelling actions or results, might be a situation where the game intentionally sacrifices agency in order to have some kind of mechanical narrative. I just can't think of one. Anyone got one?

Nope.

 

[bsss]

Yeah, I didn't mean track as in having record of, I meant track as in to follow. Bad word choice. Morrus's Pendragon roll example sounds close.

An example of what I hypothesized was a series of events in game where the players accumulated motes of truths and lies, all which their characters believe to be true. Roleplaying through scenarios, making checks, etc., but in the end, they have a "score" of understanding the situation. The climax of the adventure would not be a confrontation in any conventional sense, but rather "your overall understanding rating is X, you (succeed|fail) to discover the truth." I suppose in a Fiasco-style game, you would narrate how that result went down in terms of the overall narrative as you enter the denouement.

That's not the only way it could work, but I haven't seen the idea of knowledge bits as a game element in practice anywhere.