Manbearcat
Legend
I (and I'm pretty sure no one else) am not arguing "you can't have realism when fantastical elements exist." So that needs to be shut down immediately. That is not what I'm saying nor what I've ever said on this subject. My issue is the claim of (in effect) "immersion for me but not for thee" and then that indexes "because realism." But the reality is, its not "because realism." Its someone's particular, idiosyncratic "a la carte version of D&D realism" and that is what it always is. 100 % it is always that.
Its idiosyncratic to a particular user:
* What they choose to ignore that is unrealistic.
* What they choose to avert thine eyes from that is unrealistic.
* What they choose to explain away (and how they choose to do so) with either novel or enculturated post-hoc justifications when something is unrealistic.
and (very importantly)...
* What they just don't know (about how stuff works) and/or how and when they sub in genre logic for stuff they just don't know is unrealistic.
Realism in D&D is a la carte, its personal, its idiosyncratic, users might be oblivious to it (or they might have internalized something that is unrealistic). And because that is what it is, no one here gets to claim "your D&D is not immersive because it doesn't hew to my particular, idiosyncratic a la carte D&D realism which is more realistic (piss right off)." And boy have people claimed that hard for a long, long, long time.
Its idiosyncratic to a particular user:
* What they choose to ignore that is unrealistic.
* What they choose to avert thine eyes from that is unrealistic.
* What they choose to explain away (and how they choose to do so) with either novel or enculturated post-hoc justifications when something is unrealistic.
and (very importantly)...
* What they just don't know (about how stuff works) and/or how and when they sub in genre logic for stuff they just don't know is unrealistic.
Realism in D&D is a la carte, its personal, its idiosyncratic, users might be oblivious to it (or they might have internalized something that is unrealistic). And because that is what it is, no one here gets to claim "your D&D is not immersive because it doesn't hew to my particular, idiosyncratic a la carte D&D realism which is more realistic (piss right off)." And boy have people claimed that hard for a long, long, long time.
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