RE: [DL] persuading against the odds

["Heivilin, Jim" <banzai@missouri.edu>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Phadris@aol.com [mailto:Phadris@aol.com]
> Subject: [DL] persuading against the odds
> 
> Patrick writes:
> > If teh player says, "I persudae the Agent" I don't care if
> > he rolls 167, it ain't happening!  If he RPs a nice little
> > exchange, though, I'd let a few things slip.  Nothing
> 
> Hmm ... this has become a peeve of mine, one who's resolution I'm not 
> completely clear on what I want to see.  But my current 
> thinking goes like this:
> 
<snip Tom's discussion>
> Now ... I'm not an expert gambler, but I might play one in my 
> game.  I'm not a fire-and-brimstone minister, but I might 
> play one in my game. 
>
Interesting discussion.  On the one hand we have the extreme where the
player doesn't have to do anything except state their intentions and roll
the dice (I know neither of you proposed this but let me finish).  If the
roll is good enough the Marshal lets it happen.  On the other hand we have
the If-you-can-do-it-right-here-and-now-yourself concept where you are
presumed to possess all the skills and traits of your character.  Both have
value IMHO.  

I like to role play.  I'm not a number cruncher (though I do like to play
with numbers occasionally) so I don't munchkinize things.  However I do like
cool weapons (neat concepts even if they physics behind them is a little
iffy).  I also (occasionally) like to be "Jim in the Weird West" (or
whatever game we're playing).  However I mostly like to be someone else
someplace else.  The challenge of putting my mind into theirs.  
	Yaphet Blue the farm boy turned Starship Engineer [Traveller].  
	Peotr Kasprov the military brat out to prove himself to his mother
the Admiral [Blue Planet].  
	Jeremy duFontaine the French Adventurer and Mountain Climber
[Cthulhu].  
	MacAlister Drew the technowiz mechanic who can build anything
(Mother from Sneakers) [Blue Planet again].

So the second concept often doesn't work since I can't climb mountains or
break into office buildings or such.  So I will need to roll dice to get the
results.  However the basic idea (concept) of what I want to do comes from
me along with a fair measure of "speaking (and acting) in character" in
order to make it fun (and help suspend disbelief).  

So I guess the fine line is in between somewhere.  My take?  You're probably
not going to get any Earth shaking national secrets out of the Agent with
only a good roll.  If you come up with a neat idea for how to trick (or
coerce) it out of him, okay, you get a fair chance to get something relating
to the plot (or leading into the next adventure) if you roll well.  The more
you role play well the talk the more I might be inclined to let things slip
(as well as give you what I intended all along).  

But that's just me. 

Jimbo