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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Reynard" data-source="post: 8319431" data-attributes="member: 467">The adventurers push open the ancient stone door, revealing a chamber thick with dust and the stench of decay. Pillars in the forms of twisted, grotesque beings hold up a vaulted ceiling glittering with cold light like distant stars. In the floor is a circle ten paces across, blood red metal inlaid in stone. Their breath itself seems to give life, or at least unholy awareness, to the circle. It begins to glow even as the figures of the columns begin to shift and stretch.That scene could happen in any number of RPGs. My thesis in this thread is that how the players react -- that is, how they role play their characters at this moment -- is as informed by the system of the game in which this occurs as it is their characters' backgrounds or established personality traits. Simply put, system matters for roleplaying. The most important aspect of this is that the system, as it is understood by the players, determines the natural laws of the game world,especially when talking about threat to life and limb (but not exclusively in relation to combat). In essence, the game rules will determine how "scared" the PCs should be regarding a scene such as the one described above.In a game like 5E, where at least past initial levels death is an extreme outcome of most combats, the PCs will react one way. Similarly, if this scene occurs in Zweihander, PCs are very likely to respond differently. This is because the systems treat the potential danger of a combat encounter with what appear to be otherworldly foes very differently. So why am I bringing this up? Why does it matter?I think we have a tendency to think about roleplaying characters as being independent of system and based more on setting and personal preferences. I think system plays a much larger role than we generally give it credit for.and, therefore, I think if GMs in particular are looking to enforce a mood or atmosphere, they cannot do so simply with setting and descriptive elements. Particularly when it comes to gritty fantasy, dark fantasy, and horror, encouraging PCs to act in ways consistent with the tone of those genres requires systems that push players to roleplay their characters in genre appropriate ways.Note that I am not talking about meta tools that directly reward in-genre play. I am talking about general rules that create a set of "physics" that reflect the genre.Thoughts?</blockquote>

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