high charisma/will/intelligence scores, how do you roleplay them ? Options

[A Rodent of Unus...]

It was intended as a comparison to the opposite. Most GMs have no problem doing what you just did, but as made evident in this thread alone, quite a few do have a problem when the situation is reversed.

[Da9iel]

[RangerJoe]

I've sat in on enough of these character vs. player skills/knowledge/ability discussions to finally have a brief meditation to offer.

I think folks need to give more credence to those who suggest that players need to rely more on their roleplaying ability and less on their roles, or rather, that "good" players will do this, and more mediocre players won't.

Gaming is a social activity, in which real people interact (players) to create a world which exists only in their minds. Hopefully, what folks get out of gaming is that it is fun-- that you get to hang around with your friends, down some cold ones, eat some chips, and frag off some repeating villain one more time.

The thing is, good gaming requires a little responsibility on the part of the players. The richness of the world is going to be reflected in the degree of understanding shared betweent he GM and the players. I can create an incredibly rich and varied world, based on as many canon sources as I can find, but it hardly amounts to anything if my players still don't understand how their spell pool works, let alone, could give a good in-character description of how it works in-game.

This is a long way of saying, get in character, you silly slags! There are incredible resources on-line and in your local library that will help you develop your knowledge as a player, enhancing you ability to play as a character. If you want to play a gun-bunny, do some quick reading on firearms. If you want to be a wiz decker, read some cyberpunk about surfing the matrix. If you want to be a better negotiator, rent some high-powered movies about inside traders or power-brokers (but not the 5th Element).

As a GM, you have to push players hard to really be the best player they can be. This can be difficult. Fact is, though, if a shy, bumbling player really wants to play a slick Face character, then there is some slick face buried in that bumbling geek just itching to get out. The player wouldn't want to spend time "being" that character otherwise. As a GM, the responsibility is to provide opportunities where such role-playing opportunities can really come out and shine, rather than relegating skills to dice rolls.

Finally, a good tip for doing this is to provide some flavor text or dialogue. If you're having trouble getting a shy person to play their out-going character, or vice-versa, show them some cool dialogue, either from films, or by acting it out for them. Once they get an example or three under their belts, you'd be surprised how keen they are to show off their smooth side.

[Phaeton]

*post deleted*

[krishcane]

One difference between high-intelligence and low-intelligence is in the quality of the things a person thinks up, but in rapdily-changing situations (such as shadowruns) the real limiting factor for most people is time. The high-intelligence person can think quickly and quickly come up with their plan. The low-intelligence person needs more time to chew on it and think it through.

Therefore, to balance players vs. characters intelligence, I modify how much time the player gets to think. A really stupid player with a really smart character gets huge amounts of real time to think through things that are happening quickly in-game. If the player and character are roughly equal in intelligence, I try to give them "real time" planning time -- if the character has an hour to plan, so does the player (if they want it all). If the player is smart and their character is an idiot, they get very little time to think. "You've got 30 seconds to come up with the plan that your troll produces in his hour of down-time."

That seems to work well enough. Lacking that, you can also use alcohol as an impairment. "You, playing the troll -- you must take 2 shots of whiskey before the game starts, and another one every hour thereafter. At my discretion, if you are too smart, more shots may be applied." This method works best when everyone is playing trolls.

--K

[Number 6]

[hunter5150]

I think that NPC reaction should be the deciding factor. In cases where a smart player with an idiot char formulates a plan I think the player/char should "discover" overlooked hindrances. ie motion sensors, patrolling critters, free spirits. However if a "idiot" player playing a smart char should have whatever plan he comes up with go off as he expected. Im not saying it should be easy but there should be limited surprises. For CHA it should be much the same. A geeky guy asking a supermodel for her number can use the same cheesy pick-up line as say Sean Connery. The results of the two meetings will be drastically different. WIL should come into RP as a mental breakdown point. Chars with low WIL will give up at some point and should temporarily lose playability. For example a char with a WIL of one caught by guards would "lose" control of his char until rescued, whereas a 6 WIL char would retain control, try to escape, fight with guards etc. Its an imperfect system but I feel its most acurately portrays the meaning behind the numbers.