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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 8247082" data-attributes="member: 6785785">Yeah, there is a range of possibilities with D&D when it comes to that because there are so many editions, and it's been around so long that many folks have kind of used different bits from different editions to kind of craft their own version of the game. What almost every edition lacks, though, is any kind of robust system for promoting roleplay. It's something that's always been left up to the participants to decide.Well with this I think there are two ways to look at it, as far as the role of the GM as interface with the world. Your character reaches a new town and passes through the gates, and he looks around.....what does he see? It makes sense that he may not know, and the GM shares what he sees. But what about what your character knows? You start play with a person who's likely a young adult or older.....so they have experiences that have already happened. They should KNOW things about themselves and about the world. Certainly, some of this knowledge may be limited, but where do you draw the line? While my PC may not know who is the king of all the orcs, he would know who his family and friends are, he would have some general knowledge about the world. For many, having to rely on someone else to act as interface for these internal things that are a part of the character is disruptive to immersion. It depends, I think. In Blades, each PC has 3 XP Triggers, for each of which they can get up to 2 XP per session. This is what they look like:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Addressing a challenge with your specialty (each class has this, so the fighter type gets it for addressing a challenge with violence, and the thief type for addressing with stealth, etc.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Portaying your beliefs, drives, heritage, or background</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Struggled with issues from your vice or traumas during the session</li> </ul>So the game rewards the player depicting a character. It isn't limited to the accumulation of wealth (like early D&D with XP for gold) or the killing of enemies (like 5E D&D), but the system actually may reward those kinds of actions. What happens is that these characters become very vividly depicted, even with a player who speaks entirely third person and rarely actually acts in character. They still have a strong idea of who this person is.  Sure, I imagine many D&D games to play this way. Most of my own games probably fit your concept at least pretty well. I think the thing with D&D is that there's some incoherence as it has changed over editions. Early versions were about a very specific mode of play. That mode has loosened over editions, or become only part of a bigger picture, and as that's happened, some rules have fallen out of use and others have come along, and they've never again added up to as coherent a whole as they did in early D&D. But, having said that, I've had very satisfactory games across all editions, with plenty of role playing and plenty of interesting things happening. It's never something the game can't handle, it just doesn't promote it.</blockquote>

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