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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9557428" data-attributes="member: 42582">I've not said, nor implied, that inhabitation of character is impossible. I've repeatedly stated, including in this thread, that as a player it is my goal.If I am going to inhabit my character being moved in some non-chosen way then I am not looking to have to choose that - which would be self-defeating!I want the system itself to generate, concurrently in me as it does in my character, the response in question. Some of this comes from what the system tells me, where I can anticipate or follow along with that (much as how, eg, [USER=205]@TwoSix[/USER] describes being immersed in D&D combat, I'm guessing because similarly he can anticipate and follow along with what the mechanics are dictating). What the system tells me is, in turn, shaped by what I know about how the system picks up on, and develops, the established fiction.An example from Burning Wheel play:I built my character to be a would-be murderous rogue, but I also know the rules for Steel. The drawing of Heart-seeker and willingness to use it had already foregrounded a type of awful climax - Aedhros running the innkeeper through. I (the player) knew it was awful, and that it would be a terrible thing for Aedhros to do. The system dictates that Aedhros, too, knows it is awful - the system includes Traits that inure the character who has them to the awfulness of murder, but Aedhros does not have any such Trait.And then, when - at the call of the GM - I roll for Steel, the awfulness is brought home in mechanical terms. I look at the dice and know that I (as Aedhros) will hesitate, just as Aedhros - about to do the awful deed - hesitates for 4 heartbeats.This is one example of inhabitation.Here's another:Thurgon has Faith, but he knows that faith can falter, and is not always pure and strong enough for the divinity to hear the faithful's call. The system reflects this, via the system for tests on Faith.Thurgon is invested - and so am I, the player, as I put Thurgon's "will to live" Persona point into the dice pool. Thurgon wonders, will the Lord of Battle hear my prayer? And I roll the dice, wondering will Thurgon's prayer be answered? Will I get what I want for my PC?My sense of relief and elation when the 7 successes come up mirrors Thurgon's relief and elation that his prayer has indeed been heard and answered, so that his mother is now relieved of her burdens and is ready to join with him in liberating Auxol, their ancestral estate.I think both these examples are also relevant to posts I've made upthread, about the significance of the player establishing stakes. There is no arbitrary NPC ready to stab Aedhros or Thurgon, no random necromancer trying to persuade them to take up a fetch-quest for the Red Ruby of Doom - the situations they are confronting speak directly to thematic and dramatic concerns that are elements of the characters themselves. And this is not some sort of coincidence - this is the GM following the principles set out pretty straightforwardly in the BW rulebook. Here's a post that sets out the core of those principles, from a thread a couple of months ago that you participated in:</blockquote>

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