My complaint (as a sometimes GM) is not so much players who don't roleplay
`their character' as players who play their characters in ways that no sane
person would ever act, usually in response to my statement that their behaviour
is having some effect. For example, a character is cautious and methodical
in a scene, soon after I rule that the character has not completed
a (different) task because the character was being cautious and
methodical---Noooo says the player (slightly retroactively),
the character did _that_ quickly.
I don't like the idea of having to dictate
how players should pay, nor do I like the abuse such power gaming does to an
attempt to run an interesting session. Any trait system that requires dice
rolls to determine behaviour is dictation by the GM, because the GM is
deciding when to roll the dice. But I think a trait system might (I haven't
used
one before) encourage roleplaying by poor role players (I don't see the
advantages for players who are good roleplayers).
I suggest an alternative to dice rolling:
* let players choose the initial traits of characters;
- only the GM may alter traits during play, and does so in response to
plausible shifts in personality (that is, roleplaying);
- players may choose the actions of their characters without regard
for their traits;
- each character has an insanity score;
- if the GM feels a character has not been played plausibly (that is,
consistently with its traits), the character is taken to be acting
erratically, so the GM increases the insanity score of the character;
- characters with high insanity scores are insane, incapable of controlling
their actions, and so incapable of being `played'---the GM removes them
from play and they become NPCs.
Power gaming then becomes pointless: the more the player tries to power game,
the sooner the character is removed from play.
- --
Benedict Adamson, Project Engineer, Computational Dynamics Limited.
PHONE: +44 (0)181 969 9639 FAX: +44 (0)181 968 8606
POST: Olympic House, 317 Latimer Road, London W10 6RA, ENGLAND.