Mike Mearls Games
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Rules and Roleplay
🕑 Added 2025-01-27 14:00:16 +0000 UTCDo you like have hard mechanics for roleplay, softer structures that are more suggestive for players, or no guidance baked into the game at all?
Let me throw out some examples.
A hard roleplay mechanic enforces character actions. Let's say you have a Greedy character trait. When you have the chance to make money, you might roll against it. If you give in, you either have to be greedy and take the money or suffer a mechanical penalty.
A softer mechanic isn't a really a rule but a structure. The game might have you choose a flaw for your character. If you choose greedy, there are no rules that force you to act greedy and no mechanical penalties for going against the trait.
A game like Call of Cthulhu or Traveller has no RP guidance baked into the game. There are no alignments, and you are free to sketch out as much or as little of your personality as you wish.
What's your preference? I have my own ideas that I have written up for Odyssey, but I am curious to see what folks prefer before I share my rules. Of course, I might present an approach that this poll verifies as deeply unpopular, but that's the fun of designing in public.
Comments
Morten Havmøller Laursen
I think there's a hidden space somewhere between the "soft" and "hard" options here. My experience with soft guidelines is they tend to be forgotten except (maybe) when they don't really have any consequences. On the other hand, the hard option described above is penalizing the player instead of encouraging them - it's stick without a carrot. It also relies on role-playing flaws being defined unambiguously, since a player could easily resent being forced to roll to resist the effects of Greed, if they're in a situation where they don't see how that applies. Even worse - what if you've just had a great in-character moment with your found-family adventurers, promising to put the greed aside... But then you see the some glittering gold, the GM forces a roll, and you as a player don't have any agency to resist being compelled, when you've just had a scene of great emotional character progression? I think GM Intrusions from Cypher, Compels in Fate Core or the fairly open-ended Bennies from Savage Worlds are good solutions to this problem: You can ignore your traits at will (though sometimes at a cost), but leaning into them will often award you some bonus. This is a bit like Inspiration from 5e, but Inspiration occupied a strange space of not feeling super consequential, while at the same time it didn't get handed out very often. Cypher straight-up gives you XP, Fate Core's fate points are very consequential, and Savage Worlds' Bennies are meant to be thrown at players early and often. These all give strong and tangible incentives to think about how to play into character flaws, where the players are rewarded for seeking problems out, instead of avoiding them.
Jay
I use soft roleplay mechanics and homebrew many of the rules in the Ubiquity System that can be found in The Hollow Earth Expedition by Exile Game Studio and Leagues of Adventure by Triple Ace Games both games on DriveThru RPG or Leagues of Adventure and supplements super cheap for the next 5 days on Bundle of Holding site. No I don't sponsor anyone I just own these games. Anyway, both games use Motivations and Flaws chosen by characters such as Duty, Greed, Power, Revenge to name a few (Motivations) and Condescending, Overconfident, Secret, and Danger Magnet to name a few (Flaws). The INCENTIVE to play to Motivations and Flaws is earning a meta-currency called style points to be spent on re-rolls, temporarily boosting a talent, or even reducing damage. Some of these concepts work great for incentivizing roleplay without even using funny voices or actual role play. Roleplaying with actions speaking louder than words works great with my group. Anyway, that's just my two cents.
