This was discussed last month in some detail on rec.games.frp.advocacy. To use the terminology of the Four Stances of Roleplaying, it seems that whether one likes personality mechanics depended on how Immersive one was in playing the character. People who played to be in their character's head (or vise versa) found any such mechanic to be too intrusive on their play and would break the character model in their head. Those who played from the Authorial stance didn't find them as intrusive, but prefered such mechanics to provide guidelines over which they would have veto. Finally, those who approached roleplaying from the Actor and Audience stances either didn't mind them, or felt that they could give useful direction to how they played their character.
From the side of how decisions are made, Simulationinsts felt that if the mechanics were good, the mechanics could model certain human reactions that appear to be beyond conscious control, while others felt that the player's own understanding was the best model. Dramatists either felt that the mechanics would interfer with creating drama, or provide opportunities to explore dramatic situations that the player might not have chosen. The Gamists felt that they were okay if it was part of the "fairness" issue. Frex, it wouldn't be fair for a player to choose to have their character brave because it was to their advantage, when during the rest of play, the character had been cowardly. Some mechanic should be used to give that as a possibilty, but the player shouldn't be allowed to take advantage. Or this was not an issue in from their particular perspective, so they didn't need the rules.
So, the point of all this is that "Surely these things are handled by roleplaying..." is not universally true. Whether personality mechanics are usefull depends on what it is that one gets out of roleplaying games. There are some styles for which they would be an anathema (sp?), while others exist where they can be helpful.
Later, Phil - - Philip R. Hammar jackal_at_alum.mit.edu You've entered another Code 6341 dimension, a dimension Naval Research Laboratory 202-767-4632 (off) of heat and flame. 4555 Overlook Av. 202-767-1697 (Fax) You've entered Usenet.Washington, DC 20375-5343
End of The Glorantha Digest V6 #240
Powered by hypermail