Player Skill and Character Skill

How to Manage the Interface Between the Players and their Characters

Jun 08, 2022

According to the agency theory of fun, a good tabletop RPG should afford the players the opportunity to make meaningful choices.

The Problem

What determines the outcome of player’s choices? Should it be the player’s skill or the character’s? This question arises in every tabletop RPG, and few games offer good answers to every variant of it. Let me offer some examples:

Example #1. Mitch is an expert in Krav Maga, where he learned how to disarm an intruder of a gun. His character Amdiron is a mage. Amdiron is currently being held at crossbow-point by an orc. Mitch says, “Amdiron knows its a mistake to menace someone at close range with a firear—I mean crossbow. Amdiron leans back against the crossbow subtly, then spins sideways and grabs the crossbow before the bolt can skewer him!” How does this get resolved?
Example #2a. Ted is an avid RPG gamer. He has read every monster manual ever published. His character Athelstan is a 1st level cleric who has never left the temple before. Athelstan’s fellow adventurers are about to enter a moldy room. Ted says, “‘Wait! Athelstan warns everyone to stay back while he steps forward. Is this yellow mold?” How does this get resolved?
Example #2b. Luke has never played an RPG before. His character Süreus is a 1st level mage with INT 18 and Knowledge (molds and slimes) proficiency. Süreus’s fellow adventurers are about to enter a moldy room. Luke says, “‘Wait! Uh… does my guy know anything about the mold stuff? Is it safe to proceed?” How does this get resolved?
Example #3a. Chad is a highly successful business developer who teaches seminars on negotiation. His character, Rakh, is a berserker with a CHA of 7. Rakh is captured and brought before the king on charges of mayhem and vandalism. Chad says, “OK! Rakh bows deeply before the king and says the following: ‘Gracious majesty. If I have erred in my deeds in your kingdom, it is only because of a surfeit of martial vigor that lacks a proper outlet. Pray give me a quest worthy of my skill at arms and I will make right for you and your kingdom.” How does this get resolved?
Example #3b. Bob is a highly introverted theoretical botanist who hates human interaction. His character, Theodorus the Glorious, is a bard with a CHA of 18. Theodorus is captured and brought before the king on charges of cacophony and seduction of the innocent. Bob says, “Uh, Theodorus says whatever is appropriate to say to a king. Then he offers to hold a concert in the king’s honor but he makes it sound like a big deal.” How does this get resolved?
Example #4. Jenna is a police detective. She is renowned for ability to spot the slightest disturbance in a crime scene. Her superhero RPG character, Dr. Disregard, is a mad scientist with her head in the clouds and the Unobservant drawback. Dr. Disregard is investigating a crime scene where a woman has been murdered. Jenna says, “Dr. Disregard begins to carefully investigate the crime scene. She subdivides it into one-meter square sections and then scan each one looking for anything out of the ordinary. I can go into more detail on each one meter by one meter area saying what she looks for if you want, but I’m talking dust, disturbances, hair, threads, fibers, blood spatter…” How does this get resolved?
Example #5. Todd is a former special forces operator who earned a bronze star in war. His horror RPG character, Charlie Barker, is a nebbish accountant. Charlie finds himself hiding underneath a bed as an echolocating bat-thing prowls through the room looking for him. Todd says “Charlie stays utterly still. He doesn’t make a sound. He keeps his breathing light and shallow and his mouth shut.” How does this get resolved?

If we want to take seriously player agency, we need to be able to answer these questions in a systematic way. Arbitrary decision-making on a case by case basis deprives the player of reliably demonstrating skill and reliably using his character.

In each of the examples above, the problem has arisen because of a mismatch between the player’s abilities, knowledge, and skills, and the character’s. There are four ways to address this mismatch.

Solution #1: Character Skill is Paramount

The player is not the character. The character’s skills are the only thing that matter in resolving what happens.

This approach has been used in many story games that focus on '“conflict resolution” rather than “task resolution.” In such games, the success or failure of tasks is left entirely to characters and dice. The player’s enjoyment usually arises from role-playing how the character emotionally responds to the outcomes.

This approach has also been used in some “crunchy” RPGs, perhaps as something of a backlash to earlier game designs that emphasized player skill. Dungeons & Dragons 4E’s Skill Challenges is an example.

How do each of the 5 examples get resolved in this approach?

Example #1: Amdiron makes a DEX check or attack roll to determine what happens.
Example #2a: The game offers no way to resolve this. The GM says “Ted, your character doesn’t know that!” Unfortunately, Ted has damaged the game play experience for everyone.
Example #2b: Süreus makes a Knowledge check to determine if he knows anything about the mold.
Example #3a and #3b: The players’ words don’t really matter. Rakh and Theodorus just make reaction rolls to see how the king responds.
Example #4: Dr Disregard makes an Investigation check at a penalty due to her Unobservant flaw. If she succeeds, the GM gives the player the information needed to proceed to the next scene.
Example #5: Charlie makes a saving throw vs. Fear (or equivalent thereof). If he succeeds, he stays silent. If he doesn’t, he gives himself away.

The advantage of this approach is that it allows people to escape from their own identities and play someone utterly different from themselves. For instance, Bob can play a skilled diplomat even though he has poor social skills. For many people, this has tremendous importance!

The disadvantages of this approach are twofold. First, it can lead to what is known derisively as “roll-playing.” By eliminating player skill, the game becomes less challenging and interesting. Second, it offers no solution to situations where real-world knowledge can trump in-game knowledge (such as the problem of the yellow mold).

Solution #2: Player Skill is Paramount

The player is the character, more-or-less. The player’s skills are the character’s skills. Very few tabletop RPGs adopt this approach but it is used sometimes in live-action role-playing games. In such LARPs, you hit a foe by hitting the foe; you pick a lock by picking a lock; you negotiate with the king by negotiating with the king. This approach is also used in some video games, sometimes to great extremes — some flight simulators are as demanding as actually flying planes.

How do each of the 5 examples get resolved in this approach?

Example #1: Mitch leans back and tries to grab the crossbow. If he fails, he gets a nerf-bolt in his wizard robe.
Example #2a: Ted walks up to the mold, looks at it, and decides for himself.
Example #2b: The game offers no way for this to occur. It’s impossible for Süreus to know something that Luke doesn’t know.
Example #3a: Chad has a fruitful conversation with the king. The game affords no mechanical means for Rakh to be bad at something if Chad is good at it. Chad can, if he is so inclined, method act or role play as someone with bad social skills, but there’s nothing in the rules that requires or supports it.
Example #3b: Bob has an awkward conversation with he king that ends badly. More plausibly, Bob never made this character in the first place because it’s a bad fit for him. Bob’s bad at talking, so all his characters will be too.
Example #4: Jenna investigates the crime scene for clues. It plays out in real time and space like a Murder Mystery Party. The fact that Dr Disregard is supposed to be a spaced-out scientist is irrelevant unless Jenna pretends to be that way.
Example #5: Todd stays silent. The fact that Charlie Barker would likely be in a screaming panic is irrelevant. Todd stays cool so his character stays cool.

The primary advantage of this approach is, of course, that it can create incredible immersion. By eliminating the barrier between player and character, the player can feel he is really “in the world.” The secondary advantage accrues to those who are highly skilled. People enjoy gaining and demonstrating mastery. We see this especially in videogames, where it has led to the rise of e-sports.

The disadvantage of this approach is that it precludes escapism. A weakling can never be a mighty warrior. A clumsy oaf can never play an agile thief. An awkward nerd can never be a charming bard. Since this sort of escapism is exactly what motivates many people to want to play an RPG, I think it’s a poor choice for traditional RPG design.

It is, however, really fun when LARPing! Or so I am told. I myself have absolutely never dressed up in a wizard robe and hurled socks at orcs while screaming “fireball.” Not once. Such claims are malicious lies. I hurled beanbags, not socks.

Solution #3: Non-Overlapping Magisteria

Under a regime of non-overlapping magisteria, character skill is paramount in some areas of the game, while player skill is paramount in other areas of the game. Which one matters depends on what you are doing.

This approach characterizes many old-school RPGs that favor “rulings over rules”. In the earliest version of Dungeons & Dragons, the game rules only covered a few aspects of play — primarily combat. Even mechanics taken for granted by the time of AD&D 1E, such as the “thief skills” of finding and disarming traps, didn’t exist. If a player wanted to search for a trap, that was resolved in a back-and-forth conversation with the GM. Matt Finch’s Quick Primer for Old School Gaming is one of the best illustrations of this style.

How do each of the 5 examples get resolved in this approach?

Example #1: Character skill is paramount. Amdiron makes a DEX check or attack roll to determine what happens.
Example #2a: Player skill is paramount. The GM tells Ted what color the mold is, and Ted knows to avoid it because it’s yellow.
Example #2b: Player skill is paramount. There are no “Knowledge” skills and Luke doesn’t know anything. Süreus and his friends die when they walk into yellow mold. This is called the new player experience.
Example #3a and #3b: The GM might make a reaction roll to decide what happens or he might just let the role-playing decide the matter.
Example #4: Jenna and the GM spend a chunk of real-time going back and forth narrating the process of Jenna’s character searching the area. This is considered to be central to gameplay, not a waste of time.
Example #5: The GM spends time narrating the scene and describing the monster’s search through the room. If the monster has a specific power to Cause Fear, Charlie the accountant might have to make a saving throw. Otherwise Charlie will stay silent and still as long as the player insists he does; though the GM might try to goad the player into messing this up with his narration of the events.

Gamers tend to either love or hate non-overlapping magisteria. Those who love it tend to praise it for allowing player skill to shine through. They acclaim dungeons such as Tomb of Horrors, which strove to challenge players to think beyond the limits of the game’s mechanics. Fans of this approach tend to see the parts of the game with mechanics - such as combat - as of relatively less importance than those without. Combat is resolved with dice as a matter of convenience, but the best players avoid combat. Rolling dice is sometimes seen as a failure state.

Those who hate this approach tend to slam it for forcing players to engage in “Mother May I?” with the GM. These players find the subjective nature of the player-GM interaction to be a source of frustration rather than empowerment. They feel the back-and-forth narrative of exploration is time-consuming and gets in the way of the real fun of combat. They want to roll dice and kick ass with their +17 bonus.

I personally believe that non-overlapping magisterium is an unstable equilibrium. The history of RPG design has been that of games trending away from this approach and towards one of the others. Nowhere is this more visible than in the evolution of D&D itself.

That said, non-overlapping magisteria has many proponents and the method can and has sustained decades of active RPG campaigning. Whatever its faults, it seems to be a favored solution for some gaming groups.

Solution #4: Synergy of Player and Character Skill

With the synergistic approach, both character skill and player skill matter. What happens in the game is not just a matter of one or the other. I consider the synergistic approach to be the Platonic ideal for role-playing games and it’s what I aim for in all of my game designs. Unfortunately, it’s mechanically hard to achieve and conceptually difficult to explain. Since this is already a long post, we’ll discuss it in detail in our next newsletter.

But before then…

Let’s Talk About Dwarves!

We’re now two weeks from the launch of By This Axe: The Cyclopedia of Dwarven Civilization on Kickstarter. If you’re wondering if it’s a project you’d be interested in, let me tell you a bit about who it’s for. The Cyclopedia was written for three groups of gamers:

Gamemasters who are creating and running fantasy campaigns using any of the Old School Renaissance (OSR) systems who would like to add more depth, variety, and verisimilitude to their dwarves. If you’ve thought to yourself, “if only I better understood the per-capita productivity of dwarven mushroom farms, I could more easily simulate the siege of Dragon’s Tor,” this book is for you.
Players who are participating in an OSR role-playing game campaign who would like to test out some new character classes and gameplay experiences. If you find yourself saying, “I wish my dwarf could build a steam-powered tank to delve through a mine while high on berserker-rage-inducing mushrooms,” then this book is for you, too.
Gamers who just really love dwarves. If your ringtone intones “Baruk Khazâd! Khazâd ai-mênu!” when anyone calls, if you cultivate a chest-length beard with battle-braids, if you prefer to drink your bread in mugs, if you’ve been forging a battle axe over your stove during lunch hour, then this book is for you above all.

Is that you? Then be sure to sign-up for the launch notification over at the project page. It’s going to be epic!

On the other hand, if you’re a willowy archer with pointy ears who lives in the trees and has a name like “Lithaniel Silverleaf of the Rose,” please move along. The precious secrets in this book aren’t for you, and I had to swear a solemn oath before all of the great ancestors that I’d never allow an elf to buy this book.

Halfling buyers will be approved on a case-by-case basis.

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