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<blockquote data-quote="Bill Zebub" data-source="post: 9126070" data-attributes="member: 7031982">We may be talking past each other if you're assuming I'm talking about the &quot;quality of the performance.&quot;&nbsp; I'm not.&nbsp; I don't care if a character action is narrated in monotone 3rd person, or voice-acted brilliantly in 1st person.&nbsp; (And, to be honest, the whole voice acting thing tends to annoy the s**t out of me.&nbsp; Nobody I play with is as good at it as they think.). What I'm talking about is cleverness, creativity, narrative impact.&nbsp; Whether it's combat, social interaction, or exploration.&nbsp; And, yes, that leaves the individual judgment to the DM.&nbsp; My brilliant scheme may be your stupid idea.&nbsp; But I'd rather grant DMs that power than turn RPGs into a game of strict dice rolling.Now, I can imagine a counterargument of &quot;But DMs are too easily swayed by fast-talking voice actors, such that That One Guy always gets his way.&quot;&nbsp; Maybe some are.&nbsp; But that phenomenon...the DM who lets one player always get their way...shows up in lots of forms.&nbsp; I think the way to address that is to choose who you play with, not straitjacket the game by resolving everything with dice.There are lots of valid ways to define &quot;roleplaying&quot; in an RPG, and we each choose the form that is most interesting/fun for us.&nbsp; I personally don't get very excited by the version that constrains me to the abilities and numbers on my character sheet.&nbsp; I like the cooperative games Forbidden Island and Forbidden Desert, where each player is assigned a role (&quot;Explorer&quot;, &quot;Messenger&quot;, &quot;Pilot&quot;, etc.) with distinct abilities.&nbsp; I play those games according to the abilities on my card.&nbsp; But I don't think of it as &quot;roleplaying&quot;, even if I am, in some sense, &quot;playing the role&quot; of an Explorer, Messenger, or Pilot.Here's a recent post from the Shadowdark Discord:Yeah, that.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Bill Zebub, post: 9126070, member: 7031982"] We may be talking past each other if you're assuming I'm talking about the "quality of the performance." I'm not. I don't care if a character action is narrated in monotone 3rd person, or voice-acted brilliantly in 1st person. (And, to be honest, the whole voice acting thing tends to annoy the s**t out of me. Nobody I play with is as good at it as they think.). What I'm talking about is cleverness, creativity, narrative impact. Whether it's combat, social interaction, or exploration. And, yes, that leaves the individual judgment to the DM. My brilliant scheme may be your stupid idea. But I'd rather grant DMs that power than turn RPGs into a game of strict dice rolling. Now, I can imagine a counterargument of "But DMs are too easily swayed by fast-talking voice actors, such that That One Guy always gets his way." Maybe some are. But that phenomenon...the DM who lets one player always get their way...shows up in lots of forms. I think the way to address that is to choose who you play with, not straitjacket the game by resolving everything with dice. There are lots of valid ways to define "roleplaying" in an RPG, and we each choose the form that is most interesting/fun for us. I personally don't get very excited by the version that constrains me to the abilities and numbers on my character sheet. I like the cooperative games Forbidden Island and Forbidden Desert, where each player is assigned a role ("Explorer", "Messenger", "Pilot", etc.) with distinct abilities. I play those games according to the abilities on my card. But I don't think of it as "roleplaying", even if I am, in some sense, "playing the role" of an Explorer, Messenger, or Pilot. Here's a recent post from the Shadowdark Discord: Yeah, that. [/QUOTE]

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