I don't think "simulation" must necessarily map to "low power." You can do a simulationist super hero game if you care about how powers interact with the world, and certainly many hard sci-fi games like Traveller have a simulationist bent even when talking about FTL drives and planet wrecking...
Just for fun:
You are put in charge of adapting an existing campaign length adventure to prestige television for WotC. It can be any campaign from any edition, but it HAS to be a campaign not just a single adventure (so no Keep on the Borderlands or the orginal Ravenloft. Note that the "short"...
I have met many players who are not interested in "collaborative storytelling." Many want to play a game, plain and simple. I still think the hobby is for them.
The newest episode of the wonderful Our Fake History podcast is diving into hoe Buffalo Bill Cody "invented" the Old West by way of the stories he told about himself and his involvement in major events of the era.
This got me to thinking about a potential from for an RPG: instead of the PCs...
While I appreciate moments of immersion that can spontaneously occur during play, I don't consider immersion necessary for a good game. I don't chase it and I can actually be annoyed when players value it above all else.
To circle back around to lore broadly, I am a "shallow lore" person -- both in settings I prefer to play in, and when I create worlds for my games. Deep world building just doesn't interest me -- but I do like flavor. Star Wars is my Platonic Ideal for this kind of lore and world building. So...
I will cop to that. I was assuming context based on the thread premise. I was not trying to say that all exploration focused games are map dependent.
I mean, we are really talking about a narrow gameplay style here. And it is totally okay that folks don't like that or want to do that. But the...