Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 4978885" data-attributes="member: 58197">I don't think RP disadvantages (personal fears, acting dumb, et cetera) should exist in a mechanical form at all. Playing up a personality quirk is its own reward, and if you don't enjoy it, the rules should not push you to do it by dangling the carrot of greater mechanical effectiveness. Balance mechanics against other mechanics, not against RP.A better approach would be to work out a system that helps players develop and realize a vision for a character's personality, without trying to tie it into the world-interaction mechanics. This could be as simple as making a list of personality traits - some good, some bad - and saying, &quot;Choose 3 or more of the following and write them on the back of your character sheet, with a one-sentence description of this facet of your character's personality.&quot;If somebody wants to pick all &quot;helpful&quot; traits - &quot;works efficiently,&quot; &quot;thinks logically,&quot; &quot;puts practical necessity first,&quot; say - then so be it. I think you'd find, though, that people often took flaws, and had a lot of fun playing up those flaws, because they were chosen freely instead of imposed as a cost of buying the abilities the player wanted.And if the flaws eventually go away, for whatever reason - the character learns to use his brain, gets over his fears, et cetera - that's okay too. You can encourage good roleplaying, but you can't enforce it. And characters should grow and change over time.Exactly what I was trying to get at above.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Dausuul, post: 4978885, member: 58197"] I don't think RP disadvantages (personal fears, acting dumb, et cetera) should exist in a mechanical form at all. Playing up a personality quirk is its own reward, and if you don't enjoy it, the rules should not push you to do it by dangling the carrot of greater mechanical effectiveness. Balance mechanics against other mechanics, not against RP. A better approach would be to work out a system that helps players develop and realize a vision for a character's personality, without trying to tie it into the world-interaction mechanics. This could be as simple as making a list of personality traits - some good, some bad - and saying, "Choose 3 or more of the following and write them on the back of your character sheet, with a one-sentence description of this facet of your character's personality." If somebody wants to pick all "helpful" traits - "works efficiently," "thinks logically," "puts practical necessity first," say - then so be it. I think you'd find, though, that people often took flaws, and had a lot of fun playing up those flaws, because they were chosen freely instead of imposed as a cost of buying the abilities the player wanted. And if the flaws eventually go away, for whatever reason - the character learns to use his brain, gets over his fears, et cetera - that's okay too. You can encourage good roleplaying, but you can't enforce it. And characters [I]should[/I] grow and change over time. Exactly what I was trying to get at above. [/QUOTE]

Verification