Impulse and Dignity

An Interesting Discussion on this concept here:

http://geekxgirls.com/article.php?ID=12617

A lot of pushback by people, as it takes away player agency, along the lines of Alignment, yet it did raise some interesting thoughts..

Is this a stat?

Impulse and Dignity Stats

Alignment in games, sets a set of 'actions' which are requirements, and limitations for players. Most players ignore the stat, they want to do whats right for the moment, regardless of what their "character" would do, and for a lot of gung-ho gonzo new players, this is perfectly fine. Finding your 'role-play feet' takes time, and some people never get them, their characters are always a chaotic mishmash of tropes, funny things to entertain(and annoy) the table rather than a coherent set of actions by a real person in a real world.

The Idea of Alignment may have been one way to 'control' this by GMs and games designers, you can't go killing that peasant, your god won't like it.

A lot of people rile against this form of control, they don't understand that they are ruining the world, the game, the fun of others at the table, as that peasant was crucial to the plot. Games-master don't like to upset players, because a lot of work an effort has gone into creating the campaign, as much for these specific set of players, so the small actions of one player can mostly be worked around.

Impulse, on the other hand, seems instead to be a gung-ho, zany, gonzo GM, trying to get players who are paying their characters more stoicly, to break out of their shell and do zany things.

(Maybe this Zany GM, has had alot of the gonzo players, and thinks this is the norm?)

Dignity, is more or less a way for the players to be able to resist this, provided they stick to their dignity score themselves.. which is what raises the point.

The player, setting a value, that says to the GM, here, this is a self defined value, I will agree to stick to this value in role-play, and the reward for this, is... you can't make me go outside that boundary.

Mind control in games is... tentative. You railroad a player to do something, because a spell says they have to, as often as not its a pass/fail situation. Players don't usually have much control over this, yet in the movies and books, we see a character who goes along with the spell, until such time the spell crosses a line and the character resists.. where is that line..

Here.. this stat, is that line.

The Player can be Dignified, Regal, and very un-impulsive, so if they are 'taken over' by a mind control spell, anything a few points below their Dignity score, the character can make further resistance checks, and possibly even break free of the spell.. giving players more agency in the region of mind control spells, they take careful note of what is being asked of them, and if at any time it seems to go outside the boundaries, they can call it, and make a subsequent roll to escape the spell.

Moreso, with Alignment, if a player has aligned as a good character, they are unlikely to steal if mind controlled, even less likely to attack a friends and would likely break free if commanded to kill. The player is free to play his/her character as they wish, their alignment score moves to match this, but the lower it goes, the more choices the GM has when mind control is in play.

Its already there with Clerics, Gods and their rules.. but with this addition, its now there for all classes.