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<blockquote data-quote="Tilenas" data-source="post: 5694278" data-attributes="member: 71414"><p>That's probably the most common way of looking at it, the tactical wargame approach. In RPGs however, it bothers me that players take forever asking questions about all the details of the locale which their characters would never figure out in one single round. As a player, I try to pay attention to what everyone else does, and when it's my turn I make my move quickly, and restrict myself to tactics my character has a chance to actually come up with.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>That's what I was getting at with the OP. My stance would be that you as the player have to have this coherent image of the character, with all her merits and flaws. What you do then in the game is a) Allocate game resources like ability scores, skill points, etc. to make your vision of your character work within the framework of the game system, and b) behave like your character would. If you do both things consistently, it doesn't matter that much whether the game relegates the exploration of a dungeon chamber to a series of dice rolls, or whether players are expected to do that work via role-playing, with the caveat that there should be some assistance from the DM to model character abilities that player's simply cannot accomodate (like having a flash of insight).</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>It's probably the same involvement actors have with their roles. It's just that some people can have a lot of fun in this way, and others look for different forms of engagement.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The focus of the game is probably already established in whether it's rules-heavy or rules-light. Rules-heavy systems are about character challenges, but tend to paradoxically encourage the disconnect between player and character, as there is a lot more to gain from metagaming.</p><p>Rules-light systems seem to be more focused on player challenges, but in my view, they also make it easier for players to simply play out their characters the way they imagine them.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The troll dilemma is a basic test for how you want to play the game. Either you can stand to be attacked by the same monster again and again because no character knows how to make it stay dead, or you can't.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tilenas, post: 5694278, member: 71414"] That's probably the most common way of looking at it, the tactical wargame approach. In RPGs however, it bothers me that players take forever asking questions about all the details of the locale which their characters would never figure out in one single round. As a player, I try to pay attention to what everyone else does, and when it's my turn I make my move quickly, and restrict myself to tactics my character has a chance to actually come up with. That's what I was getting at with the OP. My stance would be that you as the player have to have this coherent image of the character, with all her merits and flaws. What you do then in the game is a) Allocate game resources like ability scores, skill points, etc. to make your vision of your character work within the framework of the game system, and b) behave like your character would. If you do both things consistently, it doesn't matter that much whether the game relegates the exploration of a dungeon chamber to a series of dice rolls, or whether players are expected to do that work via role-playing, with the caveat that there should be some assistance from the DM to model character abilities that player's simply cannot accomodate (like having a flash of insight). It's probably the same involvement actors have with their roles. It's just that some people can have a lot of fun in this way, and others look for different forms of engagement. The focus of the game is probably already established in whether it's rules-heavy or rules-light. Rules-heavy systems are about character challenges, but tend to paradoxically encourage the disconnect between player and character, as there is a lot more to gain from metagaming. Rules-light systems seem to be more focused on player challenges, but in my view, they also make it easier for players to simply play out their characters the way they imagine them. The troll dilemma is a basic test for how you want to play the game. Either you can stand to be attacked by the same monster again and again because no character knows how to make it stay dead, or you can't. [/QUOTE]
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