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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9547857" data-attributes="member: 42582">Whether my Torchbeaer 2e play is "deeper" I can't judge - I do think it is fun, and has memorable and colourful characters (PCs and NPCs) who have memorable and colourful moments.I also think some of those moments would be less likely to occur in a game without social mechanics. Here's one example:I think resolving being led by a Troll deep into the swamp, while escaping its clutches by stumping it with a question about "Whose keys do I have in my pockets?" - as it happened, two keys collected by the PC during his adventures - would not be straightforward in a system that (i) used player declarations about hex facings to resolve movement, and (ii) that relied on the players actually being tricked by the GM (eg describing intriguing noises in front of the PCs, or scary noises behind them).Here's another example, and I'll explain what is significant about it below:I think the way that TB2e social conflicts produce compromises - concessions to the losing side, that reflect the way the fiction unfolded during the resolution of the conflict - does tend to produce more colour than a simple back-and-forth between players and GM which comes to an end when the GM decides that their NPC is done (one way or the other).But the reason I wanted to mention this is because of the binding nature of the outcome on the players - having lost the conflict against the bandits, they are bound by the outcome, which in the example I've given was surrender. In effect, the players' loss in the conflict gives the GM licence to frame a new scene in which the PCs are in the dungeons (and we also had some narration leading up to that, which gave the players a bit of information about the Moathouse). I think the binding nature of the social resolution tends to permit a wider range of scenes to be framed than would otherwise be the case; which is part of what produces memorable and colourful experiences during play.</blockquote>

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