NCR Troopers

[Quilboarian]

Yeah, posts that use descriptive writing in place of dialog is fine, as long as a pretty easy assumption can be made on what the character said. But rather than a "charisma" skill, I would factor in the voice type of the character, their demeanor, and maybe even their physical size in a situation like that.


What wouldn't be okay, though: "Jeptha tries to calm everyone down." < No information on what they said, nor how they said it. If you just claimed that your character would be good at it, it would not be good enough.

 

[vinom]

Well ya... but that's a problem of a player not being descriptive enough, not of a flaw with having a social mechanic.


It's like a gunnut's player saying. 'I shot at him a lot.' Technically true, but it doesn't tell you what gun, what ammo, if you're trying to kill, injure, scare, distract the target...


Mechanics are there so that one character can be better at something then another, not so that descriptions can be ignored.

 

[Quilboarian]

Well, when you get into complex conversations, then it becomes a matter of what the character says as well. Even if your character has a suave-sounding voice, and you use description that implies that he knows what he is talking about, he could still end up saying something absurd or unreasonable.

 

[vinom]

True... or he could use a word that the other guy misinterprets. Success isn't assured by a good description. But the exact wording isn't as important as what is being said. If I'm subtly imply that a guy's wife is cheating on him with the deputy, does it really matter exactly what innuendo I'm using, or rather how convincing my character can be with his 'script'?

 

[Quilboarian]

That's a good point- I think intelligence factors into someone's speech ability as well. Because if your character is charismatic, but doesn't possess much wisdom about human psychology and the like, then things can go awry like that.

 

[vinom]

True... Which is why I like Deadlands and Exalted... the social combat rules in those systems are versatile enough to handle bartering, professional negotiation, or story telling contest PC use to pass the time.

 

[Quilboarian]

This conversation has been quite interesting, actually. Sure it derailed the whole interest check thing, but I don't much care about that anymore. Though, do you think very many people here would be interested in joining RPs of my type, or would they not find the differences appealing? I'm guessing people are more used to traditional mechanics which are more refined.


Originally, back on my old site, I just developed this all from the idea of taking a pick-a-path game and removing the limit of just having A, B or C to choose from, so I called it a "Free-Choice RP". Those who joined my threads were non-dice roleplayers for the most part.

 

[vinom]

I'm not sure, I stick to dice system RPGs, so don't know what recruitment is like in the diceless wastes.

 

[Quilboarian]

Hmm. I should probably figure out whether my style would be more attractive to dice-roleplayers or the standard kind, since my roleplay includes similar elements of both.

 

[vinom]

You also might want to look into the other Fallout game that's recruiting.


https://www.rpnation.com/threads/fallout-after-years.107815/#post-2891816