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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Negflar2099" data-source="post: 4718511" data-attributes="member: 65944">In my opinion the problem with a question like this is that it misses the point. A better question might be should a roleplaying game encourage roleplaying in the first place? It would seem the answer is an obviously yes and in fact it seems so obvious that people skip over the question but I would submit to you that things are not so clear cut as they seem. What does it mean to encourage roleplaying? How do we define those terms? In my experience I've found that people that are new to the game can be very introverted and nervous. Sure you occasionally get some people who are natural improversationists but not everyone has those talents. Most of us feel very self-conscious about acting out like this in front of a group. For a game to encourage roleplaying that implies a reward/failure system centered around the ability of the player to act as their character. That means that those who are less shy and self-conscious will be rewarded while those who are nervous and afraid will be punished (or at least denied the reward which amounts to the same thing). If a system doesn't do that then it's not really "encouraging roleplaying" in any meaningful way. Then there's the people who are good at improv. Let me tell those people don't need any encouragement to get into character or act out. They just need an excuse and by its very nature an RPG already provides that excuse. For many of them a system of rewards is just not necessary to compel them to roleplay. It might seem on paper to be a noble goal for a roleplaying game to encourage roleplaying but it does so only at the risk of alienating some players without adding anything significant to the others, except rewarding them for what they would have already done anyway. In my experience the #1 most successful way to encourage the shy and timid to roleplay is by having other people roleplay at the table. Once they see that it's okay to talk in character or act out they tend to feel less self-conscious and more open to roleplaying. A system can't really force that to happen. It has to happen on its own.</blockquote>

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