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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8840589" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>I don't think I disagree with any of that. I just think it makes for silly RPGing, because the fiction becomes quite arbitrary. My go-to example of this is the +30 natural armour bonus of the oldest 3E dragons: given that even Hephaestus will struggle to make a suit of armour that grants more than +15 or so to AC (I can't remember all the minutiae, but I'm positing a +9-ish armour bonus with a +5 or +6 enhancement bonus), what the hell does that +30 natural armour bonus actually mean in the fiction?</p><p></p><p>I also think it can create other headaches - because the rules in a simulationist-type RPG can not ever be total, there will occasionally be a need to adjudicate the fiction directly, and if the fiction is arbitrary outside of the mechanics that yield it, it can't be adjudicated directly (eg if we suddenly find ourselves having to work out whether or not a particular technique can cut through some mythically strong chains, is the AC of the chains +15, as per the mythical armour forged by Hephaestus, or +30, as per the mythical armour of an ancient dragon?).</p><p></p><p>This is why I played RM as my main game for many years, and 4e for quite a few years subsequently, but was never tempted by 3E, which lacks the attention to non-arbitrary fiction found in RM but cannot be approached fiction first as 4e can be.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8840589, member: 42582"] I don't think I disagree with any of that. I just think it makes for silly RPGing, because the fiction becomes quite arbitrary. My go-to example of this is the +30 natural armour bonus of the oldest 3E dragons: given that even Hephaestus will struggle to make a suit of armour that grants more than +15 or so to AC (I can't remember all the minutiae, but I'm positing a +9-ish armour bonus with a +5 or +6 enhancement bonus), what the hell does that +30 natural armour bonus actually mean in the fiction? I also think it can create other headaches - because the rules in a simulationist-type RPG can not ever be total, there will occasionally be a need to adjudicate the fiction directly, and if the fiction is arbitrary outside of the mechanics that yield it, it can't be adjudicated directly (eg if we suddenly find ourselves having to work out whether or not a particular technique can cut through some mythically strong chains, is the AC of the chains +15, as per the mythical armour forged by Hephaestus, or +30, as per the mythical armour of an ancient dragon?). This is why I played RM as my main game for many years, and 4e for quite a few years subsequently, but was never tempted by 3E, which lacks the attention to non-arbitrary fiction found in RM but cannot be approached fiction first as 4e can be. [/QUOTE]
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