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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 7742131" data-attributes="member: 996">You said:  It sounds like dealing with this distinction in the way you want ('meaningful & immersive') would be something you wouldn't actually do.  So you want it, but you don't want to do it, which sounded conflicted to me. If the resolution of the action is abstract enough, sure, it's going to model thinking on the part of the character beyond that done by the player, and relying on the character's imagined capabilities in that area.  A player may know nothing about swordplay, but his character, a master fencer, knows just when to feint/parry/riposte.  A game that were to model fencing down to a level of detail that the player makes all those decisions would both be unwieldy, and substitute the player's mastery of the system for the character's mastery of fencing. The risk of death, for instance, sure.  What is not different is that both are tasks being accomplished by the character, based on the character's abilities, and opposed by the abilities of another (presumably an NPC under the DMs control, but not necessarily always).   I'd be surprised if D&D-style quasi-Bancian wizardry took place in the same part of the brain as swordplay or barbarian rage.  Do want to memorize spells, yourself, and recite them letter-perfect in order for your character to cast them?   The distinction isn't unclear, it's just not very relevant nor is it very constructive to try to deal with.  What you want could be delivered by some sort of cyberpunk VR game.  You load your consciousness into a virtual body with the simulated physical abilities and supernatural powers of your character and have at it the virtual world controlled by your DM/AI.  It's not compatible with playing a character with different mental/social capabilities from yourself.  But if you want to play Den (or whatever name your initials would spell out) from Heavy Metal, or, well, a lot of others - 20th-century schmuck transported into a fantasy world is a sub-genre unto itself, really - a system to do that wouldn't be unfeasible, and, it would reasonably abstain from statting out or resolving knowledge, IQ, 'cleverness,' knowledge, charisma and the like, since you'll be providing all that (filtered through the lens of your GMs perceptions/judgements, of course).The much more important distinction, IMHO, in between character abilities (imagined by the player in general, hopefully genre-appropriate terms, and modeled by the game mechanics) and player abilities (which can include system mastery, and probably don't include swordplay, spellcasting, spelunking, finding & disarming intricate pseudo-medieval traps, elven court etiquette, hiring half-orcish assassins on the mean streets of Balder's Gate,  or the like).  The player should make decisions - set goals, attempt tasks - for his character, the resolution of those actions should come down to the characters' abilities.  The player should decide to negotiate, threaten, cajole, fight or flee, the abilities of the character should be what weigh in to the resolution of that via mechanics (diplomacy, intimidate, bluff, combat, or pursuit & evasion).</blockquote>

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