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<blockquote data-quote="Brother MacLaren" data-source="post: 3583600" data-attributes="member: 15999"><p>[My attempt at a good response -- may or may not be one. RC, is your house rule document available? I'm curious, and I know you're a creative genius with the Faerie Realm work.]</p><p></p><p>See, the first part of your proposition changes the conclusion. You've specifically stated that we are considering a situation that happens DURING THE GAME. That can mean that the rules of the game are just the rules of the game, not the rules of the world.</p><p></p><p>If we're considering things that happen "off-camera", the rules of the game might NOT be the determinant of reality. The world may have its own set of physical laws, real-world physics or otherwise, that are simply too complicated to model with a ruleset and so the game rules are used as an abstraction. Things like "hit points" may not exist in any testable way. Hit points measure how much *on-screen* punishment you can avoid or withstand. PCs are always on-screen. Off-screen, that level-10 samurai may be killed by a single nonmagical bullet if the story calls for it. It's ultimately up to the DM to determine whether the game rules are the rules of the entire world or just the rules of the on-screen world. In the latter case, the actual rules of the world are whatever the DM wants them to be.</p><p></p><p>I consider a D&D game to be like an action movie or certain sci-fi TV series. The things that happen on-screen are anomalies, not determinants of that world's fundamental reality. When I watched Highlander, I didn't consider what sort of physical changes to the world would be necessary for effects like The Buzz and The Quickening to exist. I just assumed that the world is pretty much as we know it for everybody except the Immortals. When I watched Buffy, I didn't try to ascertain the impact of magic on physics; I assumed that the world was like our with a lot of extra stuff tacked on, because technology seemed to work just as it does in our world. When I watch a movie or TV show in which a small object stops a bullet (lighter, pack of cards, etc.), or when gunshots routinely make cars explode, I don't assume this is some alternate reality with different physical laws that could be ascertained by that world's scientists... I figure it's just dramatic license.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Brother MacLaren, post: 3583600, member: 15999"] [My attempt at a good response -- may or may not be one. RC, is your house rule document available? I'm curious, and I know you're a creative genius with the Faerie Realm work.] See, the first part of your proposition changes the conclusion. You've specifically stated that we are considering a situation that happens DURING THE GAME. That can mean that the rules of the game are just the rules of the game, not the rules of the world. If we're considering things that happen "off-camera", the rules of the game might NOT be the determinant of reality. The world may have its own set of physical laws, real-world physics or otherwise, that are simply too complicated to model with a ruleset and so the game rules are used as an abstraction. Things like "hit points" may not exist in any testable way. Hit points measure how much *on-screen* punishment you can avoid or withstand. PCs are always on-screen. Off-screen, that level-10 samurai may be killed by a single nonmagical bullet if the story calls for it. It's ultimately up to the DM to determine whether the game rules are the rules of the entire world or just the rules of the on-screen world. In the latter case, the actual rules of the world are whatever the DM wants them to be. I consider a D&D game to be like an action movie or certain sci-fi TV series. The things that happen on-screen are anomalies, not determinants of that world's fundamental reality. When I watched Highlander, I didn't consider what sort of physical changes to the world would be necessary for effects like The Buzz and The Quickening to exist. I just assumed that the world is pretty much as we know it for everybody except the Immortals. When I watched Buffy, I didn't try to ascertain the impact of magic on physics; I assumed that the world was like our with a lot of extra stuff tacked on, because technology seemed to work just as it does in our world. When I watch a movie or TV show in which a small object stops a bullet (lighter, pack of cards, etc.), or when gunshots routinely make cars explode, I don't assume this is some alternate reality with different physical laws that could be ascertained by that world's scientists... I figure it's just dramatic license. [/QUOTE]
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