Player Skill vs. Character Skill and the Case of Social Encounters

All around the rpg blogosphere, I see the debate focusing on player skill vs. character skill. Games focused on player skill are often associated with old school games - players are encouraged to make the decisions that really matter, and what's on the character sheet is de-emphasized (except for traditional mechanics like spells and combat prowess). Games focused on character skill are associated with newer games - players can have their characters do wonky things, and the stats on the characters' sheet may allow for a pretty good chance of success. We've played both kinds of games recently, such as AD&D 1e (arguably player skill focused) and Spirit of the Century (arguably character skill focused). I tend to find games that focus on character skill more fun because they encourage the insanity, and I just love my insanity in rpgs. But I understand the allure of games focused more heavily on player skill as well.

Having just traveled to California for the holidays with the inlaws (in particular a place called Temecula that is in the desert sorta between San Diego and LA, and centered around a gargantuan mall), I've heard a lot of "Yo, dude!" in the past few days. This got me thinking, strangely enough, about the player vs. character skill debate as it specifically applies to social situations in rpgs. Because there are few mechanics for social interaction in old school games, player persuasiveness usually drives what happens in these games (use Charisma, never!). In newer games, there may be a variety of stats that address social situation, and these may carry the day with a couple die rolls.

Given this distinction, it strikes me that social encounters in rpgs exacerbate the problems that I have with games focused on player skill.

If I don't have to be good with a battle axe in real life to be a mega-damage destructo Dwarf fighter, why should I need to have good social skills in order to be a charismatic Paladin who can convert all forms of life and sway them to my cause? Why the asymmetry? Is it because we perceive physical skills to be harder to pick up than verbal ones? Given the population of folks I've gamed with and worked with over my life, I feel confident that this isn't the case. The ones with heavy verbal acuity are often heavily trained and versed in their subject area. And the gaming crowd doesn't have a tendency to be easy on the social ears.

So, is there a solution for this problem? A way to save the player skill focused game during social encounters? Here's my off the cuff solution:

Encourage players to explicitly use tactics in social situations and not just combat situations. There are several rhetorical moves and ways to structure persuasive arguments, and some are more or less effective given the social situation. If the player plays this tactical game well even though the player may stumble and mumble and show lots of butt crack, the GM in the player skill game should be more lenient. Though, we now face the problem of figuring out what strong tactics are and how we could be explicit about them.

Some games, like Burning Wheel (and allegedly A Song of Ice and Fire) address this problem - they list a variety of rhetorical moves, and they have explicit mechanics for social combat that play these tactics against each other. This seems better to may than simply saying, "Yeah, smart guy, whatever you say. Now make a diplomacy check." But as I've found, these mechanics can sometimes be unwieldy. They're almost too clever and involved for their own good.

This all makes me wonder if there's a mechanic out there floating out there in Platonic rpg space that can synthesize the old school and new school approach around the use of social tactics. Any suggestions?

Check out Ben's homemade DM screen!

After an extended diaspora, we got the (gaming) band back together last night to play Against the Giants. It turned into a big ol' brawl in the stone giants' mead hall, and we ended up with a pyrrhic victory (literally). The highlight of the game was certainly Ben's homemade AD&D DM screen, complete with wacky illustrations and woe-to-ye-adventurers proclamations.

A Narrativist Sandbox?

Thought experiment: Imagine a sandbox type game with some serious narrativist elements thrown in. What would such a game look like? Would it work? Is Castle Greyhawk still Castle Greyhawk when utterly personal and non-tactical decisions repeatedly come into play?

I've been thinking about this lately because my group has been dabbling in two sorts of games - a savage worlds fantasy sandbox campaign in the old school vein (GM'd by co-blogger Pat), and a more narrativist streak of games like Burning Wheel and a more recently started Spirit of the Century game in Fading Suns space that I've been running. It's also worth mentioning that I've shown up at a couple of Chgowiz's old school fantasy games.

Upon the deepest of reflections, it turns out that I like elements from these various games, and I have problems with these types of games as well. I find "old school" games a little restrictive because the pc's are fairly powerless and every little thing takes so much effort. And while I love true sandboxes as the basic framework for games, I find that these games lack real connections between the characters and the world. Which makes all decisions a player based thing rather than a character based thing.

I find many narrativist games too foofy, for lack of a better word. In my current Spirit of the Century game, the world is so wide open that I'm forced to be a little too heavy handed (for my taste) with plot hooks. But I love how games like Spirit of the Century and Burning Wheel have mechanical repercussions for personal characteristics. For example, in SoTC, a character can have the aspect "disdainful to non-nobles." Pulling this aspect into a roll can give a character a mechanical bonus to do things where this applies (which could be a range of situations). The environment or reaction of the NPCs change accordingly, and voila - a plot starts to appear that's grounded in character sheets.

So, the question is now: Could a fantasy megadungeon fruitfully work with a system like Spirit of the Century? Would the balance of the old school and new school be just right? Or are we really talking about oil and water?

Old School, New School, and Middle School

If you're bothering to read this blog, you're probably already well aware of the "old school" revolution in rpgs. There have seemingly been so many arguments about what "old school" is, so I'm not going to bother defining it beyond the idea that it uses ancient systems, relies on player skill (vs. character stats), and involves deadly monster/trap/gm madness. I played in an old school session recently at a con, and it was a hell of a lot of fun.

I'm not sure what "new school" is, but it's probably either D&D 4e, indie games, or something else that's been coming out recently. For what it's worth, I find some indie games fun and groundbreaking, and I don't really like 4e.

For some reason, old school games and new school games seem to be getting all the press lately. I'd like to shift the discussion to "middle school" games:

I recently had the opportunity to GM an arc of D&D 2e for a bunch of my friends. It included some aspects of the old school - wandering monsters, rolling randomly for treasure, etc. And it included some aspects of the new school - it was a very character guided game. But it was definitely a 2e experience - THAC0 and just the organic chaos of it all. Lots of laughter, some genuinely tactical play that wasn't confined by the rigidities of a battle map, and wacky interactions of magical effects with pretty robust descriptions that I had to judge on the fly.

There's just something about 2e. I started with the red box, but 2e is the game that has bored into the recesses of my consciousness. Maybe it's the cover of the DM's guide, with that robed DM opening the doors. Maybe it's the random magic item charts that I completely absorbed in ... middle school. Maybe it's the way that, after all this time, I could still open the PHB or DMG and find what I needed way too fast.

Like other games built around the time, the system is far from perfect - it's really an organically grown mess. But the energy and the way the game bubbles with ideas is irreplaceable. While I look for many things in rpgs, one of the primary things I still look for is whether a game can bring out that sheer middle school fun. Perhaps more than any other game I've ever played, 2e still informs my gaming sensibilities today.

The time for the middle school revolution is here.