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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 8653300" data-attributes="member: 29398">I think this depends on how one defines character growth, and whether said growth needs to be reflected in/by the game's mechanics.  Here, your example with the improving lock skills is something that by default has to rely on system abstraction and thus mechanics.  But if my character's growth lies in her maturation from a naive young thing to a more worldly woman, mechanics are neither required nor necessary.True.  Magic is something else that has to rely on abstraction.Perhaps, but IMO this one's fuzzier in that one can always choose to roleplay a character who has lost most of its hit points as being badly hurt. (this is one place where D&D really falls down, in not even suggesting this as an option)It's all down to the roleplay.  Character bonds have no mechanical weight and thus dice need never touch them; but they do (or should!) have role-play weight and ideally are played to with integrity.  If my character has stage fright it's down to me to roleplay it properly if it somehow finds itself on a stage.To a point, I get this; as some things have to be abstracted.  But even there, roleplay can do what mechanics might not; e.g. in the example of the getting-better-with-locks chap, you might roleplay his growing confidence and swagger as he gets more and more practiced at picking locks, even though the underlying mechanics never change and in fact he still blows it just as often as he did when he started.  If the game mechanics happen to back this up it's a bonus, but not IMO entirely necessary.Edit to add: interesting how when I break up your list to quote the separate parts it renumbers each element to '1'.</blockquote>

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