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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6960827" data-attributes="member: 42582">The proper interpretation of that passage has been discussed at some length in <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?498572-What-is-the-quot-role-quot-in-roleplaying" target="_blank">this recent thread</a>.Nowhere, anywhere else, does Gygax's PHB talk about playing a PC, in the sense of developing and expressing a distinct personality or characterisation. The advice on pp 107 and 109 of the PHB about how to prepare for a session assume that the only considerations are efficiency and effectiveness across the party (there is not the least hint there that, for instance, the Mistress of Magic might refuse to memorise fire spells because "that's not what my character would do!").And when, in his DMG, Gygax talks about good roleplaying (in the context of experience points and level gain), it is all by reference to class functions, not to character personality. (The nearest thing to an exception is the reference to alignment.)At the time the 1st ed AD&D rules were written, I don't think the books were talking about roleplaying in the sense of creating a character's personality. Whereas the 2nd ed AD&D PHB puts this front and centre. The contrast between the way the two sets of books present the point of the game, and what it is to play a PC, is very marked.That's not to say that people weren't doing it the "2nd ed" way before 2nd ed was published. The 2nd ed rulebooks were following, not leading. But I don't think the 1st ed PHB addressed this issue of PC personality in any serious fashion.I don't agree with your reading of Moldvay. (I've never read Mentzer.)For instance, when Black Dougal dies, all that happens is that one of the other PCs takes his pack and the cleric player says "I give him the last rites of my church." There is no genuine sense of PC personality. (Again, with alignment as an exception in the context of Morgan Ironwolf being healed by the cleric.)Contrast the 2nd ed PHB, which talks about creating a unique and memorable personalilty for one's PC. Nothing in Moldvay says anything like this; in this respect, Moldvay resembles Gygax's PHB.EDIT: The importance of imagination in RPGing is independent of the idea of roleplaying in the sense of character personality.Because what distinguishes a RPG from a boardgame is that the fiction matters to action resolution, imagination is absolutely crucial. Eg in the example of play in Gygax's DMG, the players come up with ideas like using a pole to poke in the stream, or forming a human pyramid to investigate the holes in wall that lead up to the secret door with the ghouls behind it.But - as the Gygax exmaple itself shows, with character absolutely devoid of roleplaying in the characterisationse sense - you can exercise this sort of imagination without developing a distinct or unique personality for your PC.</blockquote>

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