Game design inspired a lot of this, I admit (the specific placement and meaning of each position reminds me of a character sheet). I had an idea for using this as a basis for a D&D game (each level you can add a trait or move a trait), but nothing fully formed.
Sounds more like a DM issue rather than a system issue.
Thank you! I haven't really done an in-depth review of Creating Emotion, because I have such a conflicted opinion about the book. There are a few really cool bits in there, but they're mixed up with a lot of... shall we say... self-referential congratulations.
Actually, I haven't heard of that before. That's really fascinating -- do you have any relevant links or books that you could direct me to so I can read up on it?
That's what I recall, yes. Basically, if your characters like each other too much, the dialogue won't feel real, and the reader won't empathize. On the other hand, characters being bastards to each other makes for good reading. Obviously that's heavily simplified, but I really think it's another way of saying "conflict matters."
That's pretty true. Generally, tags like "he scowled" or "she screamed" are looked down on in English. They're POSSIBLE, but it's generally better to use the plain "he/she said" or use a gesture.
I'm sure you could find instances when that happens, but I think you're right that it doesn't happen often. One question I have, though, is that does it make sense to have that happen in fiction too often? Usually the circumstances in fiction are exception by design, and I think people generally pay more attention to information in extreme cases.
I've found the opposite -- I'm not nearly as restricted in my roleplay as I was in 3.5. Clearly you haven't had any use of skill challenges in your game. In Rasennen Summer, one entire "encounter" was my character attempting to bluff the bad guys into handing over their hostage. The skill challenge rules are GREAT for giving roleplay teeth and having a meaningful impact on encounter resolution (whereas in 3.5 it was a lot of "roll and hope your DM does something with it").
![[Avatar]](/images/avatar26.png){kind=avatar}
Eddy 
Production