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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Guest 6801328" data-source="post: 7742343">Well, sure, if the player always does the exact same thing then I agree that's boring.  Again, I'm counting on the player to actually enjoy playing the game.Fair enough.  I particularly had the scenario in my head where an NPC is trying to persuade the PC of something.  It doesn't take superhuman resolve to resist being persuaded of something to which you are adamantly opposed (unless the persuasion itself is somehow also superhuman).  If, by choosing your own DC, you are modeling your initial receptiveness/opposition to an idea, then you shouldn't be spending any real resource to do so.  Therefore any resource would be a metagame resource, which becomes hard to explain as a real thing.Am I making any sense at all?  I promise you it makes complete sense to me.  (So I got that going for me.  Which is nice.)Example: the hag is trying to persuade the characters to drink the ensorcelled beer.  One player claims his character hates beer, and would much prefer a Chardonnay.  The DM says, "Ok, spend 1 Willpower Point to increase the DC to persuade you."  Why would that cost a resource?  The character isn't trying extra hard to resist; he just hates beer.  On the other hand, if it's "You may invoke a detail about your character to increase the DC to be persuaded or intimidated.  You may do this as many times as your Wisdom modifier per short rest" then that's fine and fair, but that also makes it a metagame resource not a real resource.  And, sure, we can always come up with some justification for why a metagame resource is rooted in some kind of reality, but there wouldn't be huge forum battles raging about martial abilities if there wasn't at least something dissonant about it.Yeah I'm not sure my characterization does justice to the reality, but at least it distinguishes between 1 and 2.  And I agree about 1.Yes, it is hard to actually scare somebody, although some amount of worry for your character can at least provide a hint of the fear that your character feels (one reason I miss the old days of investing years into a character; I don't love the rapid leveling of 5e.)The kind of immersion I'm talking about is challenging to achieve, and you don't spend an entire game in that state, but to me it's an ever-present goal to strive for.  When the NPC betrays you, you should feel genuinely shocked and betrayed.  An hour or two of "roll playing" is worth the build up for a great roleplaying denouement.Or think about the scene in Stranger Things when Mike drops the Demogorgon on them.  Those kids are immersed.   (Which is ironic, I suppose, since they are only pretending to be immersed....)</blockquote>

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