Voadam
Legend
Absolutely.Is that relevant in an RPG discussion though?
A character in an RPG can be roleplayed according to a player's determined concept of their character; to the stats on the character sheet (int, wis, cha, alignment, skills, background, bond, ideals, flaws, etc.); or to outside direction.
These are all different options for roleplaying in an RPG.
The interplay of character with the setting and the other characters can be explored whether the player has complete autonomy on determining their thoughts and actions or not.Sure, an actor's ACTING OUT A ROLE includes the conveying of emotional states and other information about the role to the audience and presumably evoking some sort of sympathy. That is different from deciding the character's actions.
I don't think that RPGs generally are PRIMARILY concerned with this sort of thing. They are more about exploring the interplay of character with the setting and the other characters, and finding out what happens.
There is a big difference in zero input and complete autonomy with a range in between.IMHO that cannot meaningfully happen where the player isn't able to have input into his character's actions, although I guess you could have SOMETHING.
This happens in D&D with charms and mind control. You roleplay your character with the directions from the spell whether it is charm person's regard them as a friendly acquaintance or the more directed or open ended effect of a suggestion spell.It wouldn't resemble any RPGs I'm familiar with, though there are games like Paranoia where the PCs do have very limited autonomy.
My personal preference as both a player and a DM is for player autonomy in running their characters, but I have had fun as a player roleplaying out a situation where my demon hunter was charmed by a demon, and I can understand that people can enjoy RPG/D&D roleplaying to their character stats or to an outside mechanical or narrative direction.
I've heard people describe D&D games where they roll for persuasion/diplomacy or whatever first and then roleplay out the results of the roll and particularly having fun when they flub the roll and narrate how they get to failure.