I guess I think that the function of mechanics should ultimately be to support suspension of disbelief. My vision of what LRP should be involves something that is as close to drama as possible in terms of values; realism or plausibility of cause-and-effect should be the aim, whilst being as unobtrusive as possible.

I used to think that there was a place for stats in a LRP game, but after many discussions with Dan I think that the numerical input should be minimised-especially if you're talking about on-the-fly skill use such as combat. Pretty much all that people are capable of in that situation is counting hits; and sometimes not even that.

Basically, we decided that if you are going to have direct competitions in terms of skill, numbers is not the way to do it. Pretty soon you have unrealistic combat with no reason to actually act it out, because it could all be done sat around a table. You have things like people dodging blows that clearly hit them, or people having to sit down and work out if they know that their opponent is lying...which by that point, OOC they'll be pretty sure of. OK, people should not let that knowledge get mixed into the game, but it's better if the game minimises the opportunity for people to gain such insights while they're playing. What's the fun in walking into a trap that you know is there, but can't avoid because of the difference in your and your character's knowledge? If you survive the trap, you may be accused of surviving only because your OOC knowledge gave you the opportunity to prepare, when you would have displayed caution even had you not known...

All in all, I think that numbered skills and the mechanics needed to play them are a pain in the ass to ref or to play (ie self-ref); and I also think that the way that some systems (not merely WW) include numbered skills for things like intuition, subterfuge. etc actively detract from an immersive atmosphere by forcing ugly mechanics that have no place in the game to the surface every time that they are used.

For a long time I was at a loss as to how to replace numbered stats for use in games of greater depth. Then I realised; every real-life skill is broken down into hundreds of subsidiary skills. So for instance, I'm a silversmith. The first thing I learned to do was make a ring. That in itself taught me at least 6 separate processes; to cut; bend, solder, hammer into shape, clean and polish a piece of silver.

Rather than say I was a level 1 smith, why not treat each of these processes as a point on a web of skills? Later on in the web, skills would have pre-requisites from earlier on which I would need to learn first; so before I became a horse-breeder, I might need to learn basic animal husbandry or something similar. A system of time-slots in between games, rather than XP, allows you to divide you time realistically between training and other activities, such as making things, exploring your surroundings, etc.

So that would be the game mechanic I would use instead of numbered skills or stats, for skills that are craft or profession-based, combat-based, or otherwise skills that can be learned and acted out without really knowing too much about how they work.

However, it doesn't address skills like 'seduce' or 'subterfuge'. My answer to this is to avoid them entirely. Many people say that this is stupid, because LRP is about being someone different to who they are. I argue that they don't realise how much the person that they are affects their behaviour. There is no way on earth a roleplayer can go entirely against their own character. Sure they may go against their principles; playing a slaver, even if in real life it is abhorrent to them, or playing a heterosexual when in real life they are gay. But if for instance, a person is poor at lying, or ill-suited to combat, then it going to be very difficult for them to overcome that, regardless of the system's mechanics. We would never expect a wheelchair-bound player to play a fearsome-warrior - not in Live roleplay, anyway; though they could play an injured veteran or some such.

If we look to the field of acting, we can see how much trouble the best actors go to in order to properly integrate their personal experiences with those that their character is meant to have. Daniel Day-Lewis spent months living in a tent and skinning his own kills before Last of the Mohicans. He went on to become an expert knife-thrower before Gangs of New York. Emotionally he's a wreck, because he takes this a bit too far, but hey.

An argument someone used against this concept was 'but if someone looks like he's been kicked in the balls every time he lies, what can he do?' My answer was not to lie. Because he'll look like he's kicked in the balls every time someone says 'subterfuge 5' and he passes, going on to repeat his lie. And it's not fair to him or the other player to perpetuate a situation where there is so much capacity for IC/OOC knowledge to conflict. So not only does this kind of mechanic ruin the fluidity of play, but it's also ineffective at achieving what it's intended to do.

So rather than having skills to raise your effectiveness as a fighter, try to get better at fighting. Damage calls are fine, as long as they're simple, because the doing of actual damage is unwanted. But having dodge calls, or things like Celerity just overcomplicates combat and changes it into something that's difficult to play and hard to ref. Quite often it simply ends up turn-based.

And, hey regarding lying; LRP is the one situation that you can lie your ass off and not get into trouble; so I suggest that people take advantage of the opportunity to practice. Last Gathering I played an exceedingly dishonest character, and I ended up surpriseing myself. I've always thought I was a poor liar (well, my mum can always tell!) but it turned out that I was either better than I thought, or other people were more stupid. Either way, (or both ways, perhaps) my lies created a game situation that was fun for everyone, even the people that I had lied to; and a lie doing a good thing is a pretty rare occurence.

Anyway, I'll shut up now.

not a chainmail bikini...but leather and fur ones yes!