@pyrephox
I'd like to think that too, but we are presuming arguendo that there is no IC/OOC divide. There are arguments on both sides as to whether it is possible to completely divorce the player from the character, so as to support the conclusion that the characters alone are competing.
The entire belief of "if my PC loses I lose" is a matter of player cognition. This is not something we can eliminate by policy, so I don't consider it an issue. But, again, I am arguing from the perspective that there is no IC/OOC divide, so I have to, for the sake of the discussion, avoid any digression into whether there should be or can be a separation between IC and OOC. I see your concern, but it's not really in my mind right now.
@arkandel said in Social Stats in the World of Darkness:
People gravitate to quality, for which there is no stat you can buy with XPs.
I don't necessarily believe this, but I like to think this is why I get nice RP partners.
That said, sure -- and so what? Maybe I used that "quality" to get my PCs into political situations. Maybe I used that "quality" to punch above my weight class politically, so to speak. What I do know is that I didn't cheat with my PCs; they were either built to be political, or hustled their way up the ladder IC.
So, maybe I'm good with the political game, and maybe my PCs are.
But I can say, with some confidence, that I didn't rely on or roll my social stats to get there unless asked to. And my experience leads me to believe that players, if they gravitate to quality RP as you say, are more than happy to play with what they see on the screen. I feel that players are willing to adjust their PC's habits and behaviors to stay with other PCs that they enjoy playing with. And they are willing to let things go, and just go with how things are written.
If so, then do we really need social stats?
I mean, D&D campaigns seem to go just fine without players using social stats to sleep with one another. D&D is built to cater to player v. GM RP rather than player v. player. And people like D&D just fine.