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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rod Staffwand" data-source="post: 6358157" data-attributes="member: 6776279">I voted for "both equally" since it's usually a hybrid process with me. The idea of playing a certain archetype might appeal to me (say a warrior), but I'm mostly motivated by WYA rather than WYCD.On a system level, I don't much care for WYA mechanics. On some level, I think adding mechanical weight to 'role-playing' stomps on the nuance and the beauty of it. Your character's thoughts and feelings may spur them to action, which might require a system to adjudicate success or failure, but I don't think a system to govern thoughts and feelings (or to give bonuses or penalties when acting on them) is needed. In some cases, it may undercut the actual power of role-playing.Example: say you're playing a character that believes human life should be protected and cherished at all costs. A situation occurs in which several people are trapped in a car that is being washed down some rapids towards a waterfall, spelling certain doom for all inside. Your character, on the banks, might be able to commandeer a tractor-trailer, race ahead to the waterfall and, in a feat of derring-do, wedge the truck on the rocks above the waterfall to form a blockade (just go with the premise, it's an RPG after all). If successful, the car will crash into the truck and can use the tractor-trailer to get to safety before everything crashes over. If not successful, everyone dies.Now that's a long setup for the essential point. You are RPing your character and, thus, want to save those people. You decide that your character is willing to risk their life to do so. To do otherwise would feel false or wrong. Your character couldn't live with themselves afterwards. If the system encouraged you to follow your character's beliefs by improving the odds of success or mitigating the dangers, the choice is weakened: "I have to save those people! Good thing I'm getting a +3 conviction bonus or else this would be suicide!" The mechanics are rewarding you for playing to your character's ideals but not actually asking you to have them live up to them. If you are not rewarded by the system you might consider the save attempt to risky. You might let the people die. In which case, you've learned something about your character's limits and can explore new ground (what happens when your character chickens out).</blockquote>

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