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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 7637875" data-attributes="member: 996">I was searching for some way of making a statement general enough to avoid implying any specific system or set of assumptions.But, y'know, RPGing is something we all do.  Any time we do that, is an 'instance,' right?  So, in any given instance, we might decide to go beyond the scope of the system we're using, or even merely the scope of what it does well.  And, /if/ we're a group with a good dynamic, we may even be able to get away with it and produce a given hypothetical experience.  It's an idea that's positively tautological.  You have an imagination?  You can roleplay!  The scope of roleplaying in that naïve sense is prettymuch limitless.  And, you can, hypothetically, always fall back on that.So if you're trying to discuss differences among some systems, and you say "you can't roleplay in that system" or "it's impossible to do inveigle a framistatt in that system" or whatever makes you feel good about your this system that isn't that system, the fans of that system are going to be able to come back and say "sure I can! I just did a week ago last Tuesday!"It won't help, but OK...Yippee.  In a given hypothetical instance of play under either system, they might stand and fight, or lay down a suppressive fire with their incinerators and fall back by squads, or break and run, or try to negotiate, or something else.  It's just that, in one system, the result of a resolution mechanic will give them tools to determine that, and, in the other, they'll fall back on whatever conventions, habits, or consensus they can come to without those tools.  OK, that's not in the example, but I can see how it might've been implied. If they wait too long, it may not do them any good to retreat in good order, or they still might well not do so for whatever reason under their version of the freestyling they fall back on when the system offers them nothing.Nod. You're talking about the experience of using the system, not the experience of the roleplaying activity.  And, yes, you're trivially right that using a system is a different experience from not using one.  Yet, I'm also trivially right (to just as little purpose) in saying that you can generate the same roleplaying experience in the absence of a system..</blockquote>

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