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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ovinomancer" data-source="post: 7635986" data-attributes="member: 16814">Wait, you're asking what detriment exists if you don't gate everything through the GM's approval?I'm going to need to sit down awhile on that one.  I mean... but... really?  This is, well, a bit philosophically confused.  I'll let [MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION] bring the big words, but you're doing a decent job pointing out that what happens in game is a fiction and therefore different from what happens in the real world.  You break up a bit when you assume that roleplaying a character has anything like the fidelity of being a Real Boy or that the roleplaying game can present a world as rich and uncertain as the real world.  The mechanics don't exist because dice are cool (but, you know, they are) but because of that lack of fidelity.  The game is a model of a world (fantastical, even) and, as such, it cannot be true to the real world.  Further, we are each our own island -- no man can know another and all that.  So, assuming that you, a person, can perfectly render a fictional character that is not you with any real fidelity is a bit silly-sounding.  We do our best, but for those cases where it's murky because of the lack of fidelity there are mechanics.Otherwise, there's absolutely no need for any social mechanics in D&D -- no persuasion, no deception, no insight, heck, no Charm Person saving throws!  All of these things can be roleplayed, right, and roleplaying without dice is as faithful a rendering as possible because it uses the human decision machine, which never has a bias or agenda other than that of roleplaying the character to the fullest!  Ok, bit of snark there, but I really find this argument absolutely silly -- it's an attempt to lionize free-form roleplaying as the best form of role-playing.  And it's cool to do so, and all, but you've just said that kids playing cops-and-robbers are peak roleplayers because it's freeform.And, all of that said, perhaps a player wishes to NOT be the sole arbiter and knower of their character, but might want to be occasionally surprised by this thing they're playing because that spurs them to even more imaginative levels by trying to reconcile the before and after of a change.  I know, heresy -- character concepts spring forth from the head of the slain GM fully formed and perfect.</blockquote>

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