Re: [DL] Mage

[Soothsprayer <hercubadger@yahoo.com>]

--- "B.D. Flory" <bflory@frontiernet.net> wrote:
> > Roleplaying over-rides game mechanics. 
> 
> Nope.
> 
> As a player, I'm not allowed to describe an
> extremely good shot, and
> automatically hit. Why should I be allowed to
> describe a really good bluff,
> and automatically succeed?

Automatic hit? I should hope not. Describe what you're
doing well enough to earn a few bonuses, I would hope
so. Resting on one knee with a bi-pod arrangement
would help the shot a tad. Not an automatic hit but an
easier one. By putting a bit more effort into
describing what you're doing you may weight the deck
more in your favour.

> Not the same? Sure it is. I'm overriding a game
> mechanic with a
> particularly cool description of my actions.

Marshal's decision, not the player's. I would look at
the situation. If you gave a really cool description
of your actions and the event is really not important
to the story, I would be inclined to just it flow
without interruption. If the adventure was at a
critical juncture and this action could make or break
the mission, I'd be far more inclined to require the
game mechanic. 

There's a difference between someone foraging for food
at the end of the day and lining up a shot against the
Boss Monster of the adventure. The former may be let
happen without fuss and bother while the latter would
need to be disected in greater detail. 

Try this: It was the end of a story arc. The lads did
well enough to pull it all off with minimal screw ups.
The posse loud mouth cleared his throat to start the
story telling. Instead of covering the main points and
rolling the die the player stood in front of the group
and presented his speech. He went on for nearly ten
minutes covering the deeds of the posse and how this
related to the town's folk and their earlier troubles.
He had the rest of the posse and myself in stitches
with his verbage and examples. It was expertly done
and entirely ad-lib.

Why bother asking for a roll after that? Just to hope
the guy failed? The moment was too good to worry about
a mechanic. So I declared it a success without
requiring a roll. 

> On the flip side, players say "I shoot him" all the
> time. Why should a
> player saying "I bluff him" be treated any
> differently? Both are
> mechanically based shortcuts.

Because if the player announced their bluff word for
word and it was good enough and well enough portrayed
it may be worth either bonuses to the roll and/or a
lower TN. Saying "I bluff him" earns you nothing in
the same way "I shoot him" earns nothing extra.

> So how do we, as Marshals, encourage good role-play?
> Fate Chips. That's
> what they're for.

Sometimes you just don't want to ruin the moment with
needless mechanics. Fate chips are a bonus, not
necessarily all there is to the matter.

As I said before, for me "Roleplaying over-rides game
mechanics." Perhaps I should add: commonsense
over-rides both.

Go for what ever works for you. I'm sticking with what
works for me.

Cheers,
Mr. B

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