>Agreed. Using dice to resolve intrigue? BLEAGH!!!!! That sounds like
>the utter worst in munchkin Vampire play. I've witnessed such. They let
>their dice play their personalities for them. Of course, I generally
>dislike any game that takes a mechanistic approach to character
>personalities.
I sympathise with the general sentiment, but I think you are taking this to an extreme.
Are you saying that RPGs should not allow people to play characters with social skills that the player does not posess? Isn't that being pretty elitist? Suppose I decide I want to play a character with a very high Charisma and spend lots of points on abilities like Bargain, Persuade and Write Poetry. Are you saying that the GM is perfectly entitled to ignore those abilities completely and only take into account my personal performance?
Suppose a player is running a character representing someone in a legal case at the tribal moot. If the player actualy goes to the trouble of presenting his arguments in-character and is persuasive he should get a benefit, perhaps an auto-success on the skill, or a bonus, or maybe an extra plot point at the end of the game. However I think it's also perfectly acceptable for the player to say "I give an impassioned speech, appealing to the mercy and sense of justice of the court" and then roll the dice.
Even freeforms have game mechanical devices which back up a player's personal abilities. You might have special action cards that allow you to confuse your opponent, or automaticaly win a single debate of your choice in the senate. I think it is always usefull for the game system to back up the abilities of your character. Even diceless games like Amber do this. In Amber instead of rolling dice, the 'random factor' is how successfuly to play the character rather than a roll of the dice, but in the end the stats of the character do have an effect.
After all, if the game can let me play an expert swordsmam, regardless of my actual ability in that respect, why shouldn't I be able to play a legal expert, or a demagogue on the same basis?
As a final point, not all GMs are experts at freeform play, or have enough experience to feel comfortable winging it all the time. A good streightforward game mechanic at least provides a starting point for GMs wanting to run that type of situation, especialy if intrigue and diplomacy is not usualy the main focus of the game.
A set of commercial rules can benefit from giving you the tools, but let you choose how to use them.
Simon Hibbs
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