Story Telling Healing

 One thing you might notice in TV shows or books, is that the ability to heal is somewhat related to how important the PC or NPC is. So why doesn't roleplay have something like it.

Healing System, for Narrative Roleplay.

One way to create amore narrative form of roleplay is to take away the direct nature of certain spells or prayers. Such as Healing.

If a Priest has a 'varied' healing system, which has a possible narrative modifier, this might allow good roleplays to use the information to drive the plot forward.

If healing was a % chance to succeed, and that % affected the die rolls, lets say for example the base rate to perform heal on someone at 1st level is 50% of d4. If the d4 roll is a 3, and the roll is under 50%, its a full 3pts, but if the roll is 75.. since its 'failed' by half, you halve the 3pt roll to 1 (rounded down). 
By making the healing varied, you can now add modifiers, such as PC +20%, important NPC +25%, lord or very important +35%.

This tells the players, is this NPC important to the plot, act accordingly. If the Priest goes to heal a dying child from a recent attack on the village, and the DM tells the priest, you have a -15% to the roll, the priest knows, this is not a vital plot character, and act accordingly, 'attempting the heal, but ultimately, knowing the child is dying, the priest doesn't waste important magics on someone that is not vital to the plot.

The players can still heal the child, but they can understand the consequences better for the plot path, and if later, they need that power, and don't have it, they know the cost involved.

This isn't something new players will grasp or understand, power players will only 'heal' important NPCS, and let anyone else die, so if your running an open world, its not likely to work well.

Though, with player driven narrative, they could 'choose' this NPC is important, to gain the bonus, and make the child a plot point.

All interesting.  

Memory, Roleplaying and Character sheets

 In my past, with less than a handful of characters under by belt, I could rattle off the exploits of my hero without missing a beat, and like many younger, or newer players, I would at every opportunity.

Yet, modern players, maybe, I don't see them doing so often, do they already understand that rattling off your fantasy life is boring for people? have they done it too often as kids from other games such as FF7, scoffed at by peers and decided not to espouse their life story with each new audience?

As a result though, I also see this lack of memory, of what's going on. past exploits, past adventures, contacts, locations of known wares. players just don't seem to remember any of this.. Maybe they have 100s of movies and video games that did the same, over and over, and its become a blur. 

So, how do we deal with

Character Memories

As annoyingly boring, we need to record a LOT of this stuff down now. Its vital to be able to call up a contact mid mission and pull in that favour, access that weapon shop, healing potion, special mc'guffin that'll help out in this quest.

Players have enough going on in their actual lives, so when we sit down at the gaming table, how do we have a chance at remembering that town, that shop, that salesman, and the price of the potion of speed that he was selling.

Lazy GMs and lazy systems, make these goods available in ALL towns, ALL shops, so the players don't have to track their way back for it. why? because in computer games, players will get bored, quit, and play another game, instead of taking the required effort, so they drag that feeling into roleplay, and kerplunk, the RPG game suffers.

So, I have sheets I hand out to players, AFTER they meet their first important NPC, where they can jot down relevant info.. why? because then I don't have to remember it.. I have enough on my plate.

Players can record as much or as little, but with ** and * references for 'important to remember' on certain fields, its not hard for players to track the bare minimum, with those prompts.

Also, as time goes by or anytime a player takes a head trauma, a memory spell, or some other reason to forget some information, I can ask a player to roll on the handy chart, and erase memories from the sheet. This creates some great story plots, and roleplay opportunities as times goes by.

Especially with Illusion spells being so common, passing yourself off as someone else only matters if they can't remember the nitty gritty details of an NPC when they should / could.

I tell you, the look on a players face when they meet the Tavern keep, and I say "Here's Bilt, the Bartender, looking like he always does, scar down his left cheek and his clean shaven head. he's maybe grown a beard a bit longer than normal since you saw him, and players glance at their memory sheets, and say. wait on a sec, his scar was on his right cheek wasn't it? I lost that memory when we fought the mind flayer, I'll look at him further, try and nod at my friends to look at him again.. see if they can get it.