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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7917305" data-attributes="member: 42582">You've had some replies to this. Here's mine - it has some similarities to [USER=6785785]@hawkeyefan[/USER]'s and more, I think to [USER=6696971]@Manbearcat[/USER]'s, but also hopefully is interesting in itself.My response to this has two parts.The first goes back to the fundamentals of RPGing: there is more than one author of the fiction. Which means we may have to resolve disagreements between them. The need to do so can become particularly pressing when the structure of the game gives one partiuclar participant - the player - a special interest in respect of one particular component of the ficiton - his/her character.The best statement of this point I know of is <a href="http://lumpley.com/hardcore.html" target="_blank">here, from Vincent Baker</a>: RPGing is negotiated imagination, and mechanics exist to ease and constrain real-world social negotiation between the players at the table.The second part of my response goes to what is particular about the OP in this thread: [USER=85870]@innerdude[/USER] wants character-driven play. And as [USER=16814]@Ovinomancer[/USER] said, this means that the character has to be at risk. The player deciding without constraint what happens to his/her PC eliminates that element of risk.That doesn't mean there have to be PC-impacting social mechanics to have character-driven play: you can do it where all the risk to the character is external - losing money, losing status, losing friends etc. I've done this in Rolemaster, and to a lesser extent in 4e D&D. But PC-impacing social/emotional mechanics open up new dramatic possibiities.I do think that it is almost impossible to have character-driven play if there are no mechanics that allow the players, through resolution of their PCs' actions, to impose social/emotional consequences on NPCs. Without those, whether a PC loses or keeps his/her friends, or his/her status, is purely a matter of GM decision.Well there's probably nothing in RPGing that's necessary as such. It's all relative to goals of play. For the reasons I've just given, I think it's virtually impossible to have characterdriven play if the outcome for NPCs of their social interactions with PCs is entirely the GM's choice. And I think there are reasons why games that are aimed at this sort of play often allow the outcome for PCs of their social interactions with other characters to be determined by means other than player choice.</blockquote>

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