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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Voadam" data-source="post: 8960649" data-attributes="member: 2209">Right and for a lot of people the player doing these things (thinking things through, deciding how to explore, making decisions in the situation, socially interacting with NPCS) is part of the fun.I reject this framing about roleplaying entirely.There is a difference between not using an intelligence stat as your roleplay guide and not roleplaying.Take Moldvay basic where int has two mechanical effects, how many extra languages a character knows, and whether they get bonus xp in certain classes.I have no problem saying that a character who only knows their native language can be really smart.You can be really into roleplaying and not care about the stats on the sheet. You can base your roleplay on a character concept.If you want to play a Sherlock Holmes characterization concept you approach things with observations and talk through deductions and work on details. Maybe you have some arrogance. If you do not have enough to figure something out you talk about how you can't make bricks without clay.Roleplay in my opinion is more about characterization and approach, not about success or failure at smarts or social interaction.Aesthetically as a play experience as a player and a DM I much prefer people focus on characterization roleplay than on stat emulation. I generally want a player to play something fun for them to play and for others to interact with. I could care less if that roleplay characterization reflects stats on a sheet.Choosing to roleplay a neutral, 8 intelligence, 15 charisma concept is fine as your goal for characterization, I just do not think it is superior to basing roleplay off of a concept of "Gimle from the lord of the rings movies" or "angry guy who is fed up with crap".If you treat the mental stats as mechanics the way you do physical ones (strength gives you a +1 to hit and damage in melee, int gives you +1 language) you are not treating them differently. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />I like your original suggestion of things like pick uncouth as a trait and get a benefit (inspiration, action point, xp, whatever) when you roleplay it or if it is a negative when it comes up to your detriment. A number of games do this and I think it can be a good mechanical approach if you want to encourage some roleplay from stuff on the sheet.</blockquote>

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