D&D General When the fiction doesn't match the mechanics

[Micah Sweet]

Yes. The final part. And Gygax was explicit that it was "preposterous" to state that hit points were entirely or even largely meat. To quote Gygax himself:

If hit points are not at or below zero any injury is automatically at most minor. Nicks, grazes, and relatively minor bruises. Which are partly meat. Just not very much meat. And I'm pretty sure you are well aware of this.

Poison tells us it's not just the final part.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Poison tells us it's not just the final part.

How so? You think poison doesn't do anything to endurance?

 

[Micah Sweet]

How so? You think poison doesn't do anything to endurance?

You can't be poisoned or envonomed by a venomous creature or poisoned weapon without being hit. I should think that was obvious.

 

[Red Castle]

You can't be poisoned or envonomed by a venomous creature or poisoned weapon without being hit. I should think that was obvious.

Could be just a little scratch. Nothing serious if there was no poison involved.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Could be just a little scratch. Nothing serious if there was no poison involved.

My objection is the idea that nothing is meat until zero.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

My point is that training reflects in a sped-up way what a stay-at-home type does in a slow way: learn, practice, and eventually get better at what they do.

Bumping in the field and suddenly gaining brand new abilities (and maybe spells) you didn't have five minutes ago is a big fiction-mechanics mismatch for me.

But when is a good time to level up? In real life, you learn continuously. You don't go back to some class-based home base (a wizard's tower, a fighter 'school'). To me, that form of level up is a cognitive dissonance.

 

[ECMO3]

This is a tangent in another thread, so why not a dedicated thread about it.

So ENWorlders, in what ways do you find the fiction of D&D does not match the mechanics of D&D?

Some top choices are being able to trip a gelatinous cube (whole thread on that, no need to relitigate that here), knocking dragons prone while in flight, the disconnect of AC and what it means to hit something, the difference between hit points as "meat" vs "energy," what damage actually represents, what does it mean to "heal" when hit points are not meat, etc.

So where else does the fiction of D&D not match the mechanics?

Knocking Drgons prone (and to the ground) in flight makes perfect sense to me. Knocking swimming animals prone less so.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

My objection is the idea that nothing is meat until zero.

Did anyone say that?

 

[Cadence]

Did anyone say that?

It's been a regular thing from several posters in various past threads.

 

[Red Castle]

My objection is the idea that nothing is meat until zero.

I would not consider a scratch a wound unless you’re going for the death by a thousand cuts.