Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="soviet" data-source="post: 9527564" data-attributes="member: 6925338">I reject the idea that we can play out social situation for real, or even anything close to that. I'm sure many of us here have been involved in lots of online discussions. How often is it that someone is convinced of something and changes their mind? It's not common. The reason is that we are strangers to each other and there are no social pressures like risk of embarassment, risk of looking obstructive, risk of escalation, etc. There are no stakes. The same is true in the game. In real life, where those factors do exist, in meetings at work, in conversations with family, and in arguments with strangers, we all the time see people go along with things they fundamentally disagree with because of social pressure, compromise on things for the sake of a quiet life, or back down for fear of wider consequences. There are real stakes.  Now, I enjoy playing out these conversations. I think it's a fun part of play. And how the player approaches that conversation should absolutely influence the outcome in the form of bonuses to the dice roll, or even automatic successes (or automatic failures, potentially, if a very wrong approach is taken). But it's not because 'wow, the player really did convince me'. It's because the player made an effort and added something extra to the game by contributing colourful dialogue, good acting, a clever approach, or whatever else. They were plausible. I don't think there's any real reason that this approach can't be applied to other things like combat. Combat doesn't have to be a mechanical process of initiative and to-hit rolls. Or not exclusively so. Imagine a game where instead of all that, the GM said 'OK, the orc lunges at you with a wild swing of his greatsword'. And the player responded by describing how they tried to sidestep the blow and knock the orc off balance, or block it with their gauntleted hand and go for the disarm, or go under it and stab at the orc's throat, or whatever else. And maybe some of those things result in an automatic success, or an automatic defeat, or a bonus, or a penalty. For the round or for the fight or whatever. Yes, we (most of us) don't know a lot about real melee combat. We're describing things that seem plausible or cool and hoping that the GM or other players agree. Similarly, I don't know much about persuading angels to sacrifice themselves, intimidating robbers into backing down, or deceiving guards into letting me past. I'm describing approaches or speaking words of improvised dialogue that seem plausible or cool and hoping the GM or other players agree. The social interactions we pretend to have are no more real than the fights.</blockquote>

Verification