Truth 2: "The GM and the players do dialog at each other until the situation is resolved" is a good system for handling social interactions. There's no system that's overall better than this. (This is usually what people are actually debating when they talk about "system matters").
(Possibly true and deliciously controversial: Many systems that mechanize social interactions are made for players who fail at the freeform system. They are more like "crutches" than "fancy runners". Crutches are great if you can't walk without them but they won't help you if you are a decent runner already.)
From what I can tell, the system matters debate mostly arose from tabletop gamers getting annoyed at Vampire the Masquerade LARPers.
The LARPers said that system didn't matter, in reality because they just wanted an excuse to dress in black and have orgies in abandoned industrial units.
You're right that there's a lot of it around the social stuff. There's a question I've got where I wonder whether an charismatic character can actually be played by an uncharismatic player, and whether they should be able to.
Truth 1: System matters.
Truth 2: "The GM and the players do dialog at each other until the situation is resolved" is a good system for handling social interactions. There's no system that's overall better than this. (This is usually what people are actually debating when they talk about "system matters").
(Possibly true and deliciously controversial: Many systems that mechanize social interactions are made for players who fail at the freeform system. They are more like "crutches" than "fancy runners". Crutches are great if you can't walk without them but they won't help you if you are a decent runner already.)
From what I can tell, the system matters debate mostly arose from tabletop gamers getting annoyed at Vampire the Masquerade LARPers.
The LARPers said that system didn't matter, in reality because they just wanted an excuse to dress in black and have orgies in abandoned industrial units.
You're right that there's a lot of it around the social stuff. There's a question I've got where I wonder whether an charismatic character can actually be played by an uncharismatic player, and whether they should be able to.
I call it "Paint by numbers."