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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7514229" data-attributes="member: 42582">Whose theory?That's the whole point of my post, which is an elaboration of one aspect of what (I take it to be that) [MENTION=5142]Aldarc[/MENTION] is saying. Some people like to play a RPG in which the GM decides everything that happens except (perhaps, if there is no fudging of the combat rules) who gets beaten in fights. Others don't. And it's hardly a new idea. I already cited Classic Traveller which has rules which allow the players to declare actions which result in NPCs acting one way or another. Moldvay Basic also includes reaction rules, and examples of the players declaring actions which are intended - as mediated by those reaction rules - to determine the behaviour of  NPCs (some hobgoblins).Both Classic Traveller and Moldvay Basic also have morale rules, which are another set of mechanics for determining NPC behaviour.As a general rule it is the purview of the GM in the same way that it is the purview of the GM to decide what a NPC does in combat.But if a NPC is dead, the GM is bound by that. If a NPC is subject to a Suggestion spell, the GM is bound by that. If a NPC is persuaded by a PC, the GM is bound by that.The whole function of mechanics is to constrain, and establish, the content of the shared fiction.What do you mean by "the odds" here?</blockquote>