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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9566999" data-attributes="member: 42582">I don't think this claim is true, actually - assuming it's meant to be a general proposition. (Of course we can all imagine circumstances in which "can I roll a big number" is not a compelling character moment - eg playing a 15th level AD&D PC who finds themself having to roll a saving throw against a 5d6 fireball. In most cases, that will be a merely bookkeeping moment.)I mean, suppose that my character is supposed to be the toughest guy around. Perhaps I (as my character) boast and swagger. Perhaps I am implacable. However I portray it, my portrayal conveys not to be messed with.And then a NPC (or even another PC) messes with me. And so the question arises, in play, am I really so tough, so implacable, so not to be messed with? Or is it just an empty claim?In every RPG that I can think of, this physical contest will be resolved via mechanics, not simply via talking it out. It may end up turning on whether a single roll is high or low. That wouldn't stop it being a compelling character moment.Here's another example, one I already posted upthread I think, from my own BW play:That was a compelling character moment. Thurgon fully committed - including paying his Will to Live - and his faith was rewarded.Had it gone the other way, the effects on Thurgon and on Aramina would have obviously been very different, and as characters they would have developed in quite different ways.Obviously it would be possible to have a system in which the prayer is resolved by the player (as the PC) and the GM (as the deity) debating the PC's faith, the appropriateness of granting the prayer, etc. I can't see how that would make for a more compelling moment of play than what actually happened at my table.And here's another series of example, less high stakes but still pretty intense at the time:Each of the rolls to kidnap someone, to sing, to meet an Etharch, and to kidnap George, was (for me, at least) a compelling character moment. The signing and the Circles both had the possibility of turning Aedhros away from his sordid world of service to a necromancer. But the final, successful kidnapping instead enmeshed him further into that world.</blockquote>

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