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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 8940703" data-attributes="member: 6785785">Trust in what sense? Again, stats... in the form of attributes, skills, tags, whatever... help the GM decide how to play the guard. They determine how effective the guard may be at something. Perhaps the guard can spot a bluff a mile away, but is susceptible to a pretty face, or a handful of coins.There are several ways we can do this. We can use stats to tell us how good the guard may be at resisting any given approach, but then leave the results up to the dice.Or the GM can just decide these things ahead of time. Which I think starts to lean into a railroad.... the GM is deciding how this obstacle must be dealt with. There's a "key" to this specific "lock" and nothing else will work. This becomes more about guessing at the GM's solution. Combined with the idea that the GM doesn't want to run a ball scene... this just seems like GM forcing the game to go the way he wants.Or it can be left up to freeform roleplay, as you mention. And if this is the method and everyone is on board, then of course it's fine. My concern with it is that, from a game point of view, it really is removed from the characters. It's similar to the problem with the GM deciding the one solution ahead of time, except in this case, he's deciding in the moment of play, and it's based on my performance versus my play.If the ball isn't something the GM wants to run, why is it even in the game? If it was a player idea along the lines of "maybe there's a formal ball going on where we can mingle with some of the upper crust to try and get some info" and that's not something the GM wants or is prepared to run, then he should simply say "no, there's no such ball... but maybe..." and prompt the players towards something he is prepared to run.If the ball was something the GM introduced, why would he do so if he didn't want to deal with it?Again, this feels more and more like a railroad to me.While I accept that's your preference, mine is that there shouldn't ever really be a need for the mechanics to get out of the way. That doesn't mean I want them to be in the way, mind you, but rather that I want them to support the fiction. I want to engage with the mechanics in a way that helps the fiction move along. I want there to be roleplay, yes, but also a game.I don’t think that’s entirely true. Depending on the circumstances and what’s already been established, we may have a good idea about chances. I at least may know that my +8 to Bluff is a pretty strong indicator that I’ve got a good shot in all but the most extreme cases. At the very least. It’s related to the whole idea of players making informed decisions. The more player facing the rules and mechanics, the more informed the players are. For a game, I think that’s important. Sure, but there are also times where the roleplay needs to get out of the way. Like, is this scene with the guard meant tobe meaningful? Okay, cue that to the players and we can zoom in on it a bit. If not, then let’s just bang it out with an action and a die roll and get to the good stuff.</blockquote>

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