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<blockquote data-quote="Silvercat Moonpaw" data-source="post: 4678912" data-attributes="member: 46652">I see the &quot;mechanics / roleplaying&quot; issue this way:If the concept has a part that should (by concept) be able to meaningfully effect the game world then it is important that options be open in the game to allow it that effect.Let's use a slightly weird but illustrative example:The character concept calls for having hair that is always perfect and can come to life to pick up things.&nbsp; &quot;Always perfect hair&quot; doesn't affect the game world in any meaningful way, so there does not need to exist an option to ensure that it has an effect.&nbsp; The prehensile hair, however, might have a meaningful impact, such as untying the ropes binding my wrists or slipping an important document off a table behind me while my hands are in plain view.&nbsp; So in that case there needs to be some assurance somewhere that is impact will be allowed.In modern games that assurance is generally in the form of some mechanical option, maybe in this case the &quot;extra prehensile limb&quot; feat.&nbsp; Perhaps when players focus a whole lot on the mechanics of their characters they feel they don't have this assurance in any other way, the assurance that part of their concept that would have a mechanical impact will be allowed to have that impact.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Silvercat Moonpaw, post: 4678912, member: 46652"] I see the "mechanics / roleplaying" issue this way: [b]If the concept has a part that should (by concept) be able to meaningfully effect the game world then it is important that options be open in the game to allow it that effect.[/b] Let's use a slightly weird but illustrative example: The character concept calls for having hair that is always perfect and can come to life to pick up things. "Always perfect hair" doesn't affect the game world in any meaningful way, so there does not need to exist an option to ensure that it has an effect. The prehensile hair, however, might have a meaningful impact, such as untying the ropes binding my wrists or slipping an important document off a table behind me while my hands are in plain view. So in that case there needs to be some assurance somewhere that is impact will be allowed. In modern games that assurance is generally in the form of some mechanical option, maybe in this case the "extra prehensile limb" feat. Perhaps when players focus a whole lot on the mechanics of their characters they feel they don't have this assurance in any other way, the assurance that part of their concept that would have a mechanical impact will be allowed to have that impact. [/QUOTE]

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