Manbearcat
Legend
The dragon issue just kills D&D stone dead (which chao is talking about) in terms of preoccupation with simulation:
* Dragons have endoskeletons that do the work of tendon/muscle attachment et al.
* While not having an actual exoskeleton, their armor plating effectively provides them with one of the primary points of exoskeletons; protection from predation. With that “not-exoskeleton-exoskeleton” should come all the size/movement/respiratory constraints that arthropods must deal with…which dragons possess precisely zero!
And they can freaking fly naturally despite all this!
But does it stop there?
NONONO
6’2” 220 lb (or less) D&D martial heroes clash in melee with these colossal beasts that somehow also possess internal causality defying omnidirectional explosiveness and athleticism!
You know, the same martial heroes that can’t broad or vert jump more than humans!
So any call for naturalistic internal causality has been MURKED by the quintessential D&D creature from the word “go.”
It’s a game folks.
We’re playing a game and you make a dizzying array of sim-compromises (dragons, the quintessential D&D creatures, and the ridiculous constraints on the martial heroes that clash with them is just surface-scratching) just to play it at all.
Embrace it.
* Dragons have endoskeletons that do the work of tendon/muscle attachment et al.
* While not having an actual exoskeleton, their armor plating effectively provides them with one of the primary points of exoskeletons; protection from predation. With that “not-exoskeleton-exoskeleton” should come all the size/movement/respiratory constraints that arthropods must deal with…which dragons possess precisely zero!
And they can freaking fly naturally despite all this!
But does it stop there?
NONONO
6’2” 220 lb (or less) D&D martial heroes clash in melee with these colossal beasts that somehow also possess internal causality defying omnidirectional explosiveness and athleticism!
You know, the same martial heroes that can’t broad or vert jump more than humans!
So any call for naturalistic internal causality has been MURKED by the quintessential D&D creature from the word “go.”
It’s a game folks.
We’re playing a game and you make a dizzying array of sim-compromises (dragons, the quintessential D&D creatures, and the ridiculous constraints on the martial heroes that clash with them is just surface-scratching) just to play it at all.
Embrace it.