Thomas Shey
Legend
Which, if it makes sense that the characters would do such, is 100% fine.
Maybe for you, man. But for an awful lot of people (GM or player) it gets tiresome awfully fast.
Which, if it makes sense that the characters would do such, is 100% fine.
Just as an aside, I think there are absolutely games that are trying to simulate a world within the limits of practicality. GURPS used to hit this pretty hard when it started out (though over time it introduced more at least optional genre elements into the mechanics (I make this distinction because I still maintain there's a difference in level in which genre and world emulation elements operate on, even though they can be entwined--and these are kind of easily separated when you ask which ones a normal and sane member of the setting could at least theoretically be aware of without breaking the genre), as does its nephew EABA. There can be failures to do this of course, but those usually have more to do with failures on the designer's part to actually understand what they're emulating.
All simulations are within the limits of practicality, right? And also within what the immediate needs are?
I think @AbdulAlhazred, in saying that "world sim" is impossible, is taking the word "world" more-or-less literally. If in fact it is being used non-literally, to refer to some little fragment of the world, then maybe his claim becomes less plausible.the fact a model can be in some sense "wrong" and still an effective simulation is part of the issue I take with the position that "world sim" is impossible; its entirely possible within the limitation of needs and scope.
I think @AbdulAlhazred, in saying that "world sim" is impossible, is taking the word "world" more-or-less literally. If in fact it is being used non-literally, to refer to some little fragment of the world, then maybe his claim becomes less plausible.
Although even consider, say, a simulation of what happens when a character heaves a boulder over a cliff. What/who is at the bottom of the cliff that is in danger of getting squashed? Even in Rolemaster, one of the most purist of purist-for-system RPGs, the GM basically has to just make that up. There is no system for modelling what is at the bottom of a cliff.
Well I'm not sure why anyone would "agree to" an idea like a random player can "just say" a monster or anything is weak because they want it that way. It's just an alien concept.Why does gravity work in D&D but guns don't (yes we can vary these but in general). We need some sort of basic agreed nature of the fiction or else play becomes impossible. This is the basic function of genre. In D&D's genre/setting assumptions goblin is a weak low-level monster. Subverting that is fine, but usually it's best to signal it somehow.
Well, if you play in my game with some sort of pre-made conception of a way the game must be, you will find that very wrong.Yes, gotcha! Haha. I can see it as an amusing incident. But if you simply deny everyone any way to rely on knowledge and experience of the world/genre the typical result is turtling and pixel bitching behavior.
I mean, I daresay Murlynd would be surprised to learn that! And let's not even mention White Plume Mountain...Guns don't work on general in D&D? Where is that written?
Oh, sure it can - and does. But if it's what the characters would do then my position is that we-as-GMs are duty-bound to let them do it.Maybe for you, man. But for an awful lot of people (GM or player) it gets tiresome awfully fast.
Indeed; though if the world is already thought through enough (or even if the area around the cliff has been narrated and described well enough) that the GM knows the vague likelihood of there being anyone or anything down there, "making it up" becomes a bit - or even a lot - more informed.I think @AbdulAlhazred, in saying that "world sim" is impossible, is taking the word "world" more-or-less literally. If in fact it is being used non-literally, to refer to some little fragment of the world, then maybe his claim becomes less plausible.
Although even consider, say, a simulation of what happens when a character heaves a boulder over a cliff. What/who is at the bottom of the cliff that is in danger of getting squashed? Even in Rolemaster, one of the most purist of purist-for-system RPGs, the GM basically has to just make that up.
Hard-coded numerical modelling, no...or at least, not yet; give it a few years and I'm sure there'll be an open-ended digital RPG setting released in which the programming will take minutae like this into account.There is no system for modelling what is at the bottom of a cliff.