D&D General Playstyle vs Mechanics

[Maxperson]

I tend to disagree with this. I think D&D worlds are, at the core, non-rational - because of the role of the supernatural in those worlds.

You can disagree all you like, but Gygax himself said it in the 1e DMG, so it was true for 1e.

Here's a quote from the 2e DMG.

"Sooner or later, player characters are going to lay siege to a castle, or leap on their horses, or learn how to ride an exotic flying creature. Eventually, they're going to pick up and go adventuring in some totally weird environment where the normal laws of physics just don't apply."

So absent an exception, the normal laws of physics do apply. It was true in 2e as well.

This is from the 3e PHB

"Indeed, extraordinary abilities do not qualify as magical, though they may break the laws of physics."

So the laws of physics are in place in 3e unless something calls them out as different.

This is from 5e in the sanity section of the DMG.

"Passing through a demiplane built on alien physics."

No reason to call out a demiplane built on alien physics if the normal plane is built on common sense(an alien form of physics to real world players) and not normal physics.

4e didn't have any language like those editions do, but I see no good reason why 1e, 2e, 3e and 5e would have normal physics and 4e would not.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Sure. This is why I find the social life and structures of many fantasy worlds pretty absurd: they make no sense from a historical, political and sociological perspective.

We might be disagreeing a bit - which is fine, that's called talking about stuff!

I agree about reasonable decisions. But I don't think many RPGers even made a decision relying on the truth of universal gravitation - I don't think it's ever come up even in my Traveller play, and never in my FRPGing as best I can recall. The expectations are much simpler - that pushing things will knock them over, that walking is possible, that there are stars in the night sky, etc.

Diseases are an interesting case: in FRPGing they are often closely associated with curses or other malicious afflictions. And I can't think of a FRPG experience I've had where the difference between germ-theory transmission and evil spirt/divine punishment transmission would matter. Issues around, say, washing hands and sterilising utensils just don't come up, at least in my experience.

My wife is a nurse. If I presented a health situation that disregarded cleanliness as a factor without a supernatural cause, let me tell you there would be pushback.

 

[mamba]

I'd argue that for vast majority of campaigns it doesn't matter which it is, nor is this necessarily even the sort of thing the characters would know.

it probably doesn’t matter in that case, but if you assume that your players do not constantly make assumptions based on how things are in reality, even if you established nothing about them in fiction, you are mistaken

Also, the example does not really need to come up in every campaign for it to show that you are using more than common sense in your world building

 

[Maxperson]

I'd argue that for vast majority of campaigns it doesn't matter which it is, nor is this necessarily even the sort of thing the characters would know.

I'd say that the in the vast majority of instances it just doesn't come up, so it's true that it doesn't matter. However, as I just showed in my above quotes, it's also true that the default of D&D is normal physics, so some level of realism is present that follows normal physics.

Clearly it won't mirror reality, because it would be too cumbersome to figure it all out to that level of detail, but normal physics is the default. As Gygax said, "This is not to say that where it does not interfere with the flow of the game that the highest degree of realism hasn‘t been attempted"

 

[AlViking]

is your world flat or spherical? I’d argue flat makes more common sense in that it is what we intuitively observe

People have known that the earth wasn't flat for thousands of years, even if some like Columbus had the size wrong.

 

[mamba]

People have known that the earth wasn't flat for thousands of years, even if some like Columbus had the size wrong.

some knew, many didn’t, the Bible clearly is entirely unaware of it and thinks stars are just small lights / shiny beings that can fall from the ceiling and you can fight.

My point is that it is not what perception tells us, so it is not common sense.

 

[AlViking]

some knew, many didn’t, the Bible clearly is entirely unaware of it and thinks stars are just small lights / shiny beings that can fall from the ceiling and you can fight.

My point is that it is not what perception tells us, so it is not common sense.

In a world where people can fly I think it would be pretty common knowledge. In my campaign it would be anyway.

 

[Maxperson]

In a world where people can fly I think it would be pretty common knowledge. In my campaign it would be anyway.

Or Wish/Legend Lore/Contact Other Plane/Something else the answer. Many, if not most things would be known due to divinations and talking with extra planar beings.

 

[mamba]

In a world where people can fly I think it would be pretty common knowledge. In my campaign it would be anyway.

you have to fly very high up to notice any curvature (higher than commercial airplanes do…), it is highly unlikely anyone would fly that high on a world with dragons

 

[mamba]

Or Wish/Legend Lore/Contact Other Plane/Something else the answer. Many, if not most things would be known due to divinations and talking with extra planar beings.

definitely leaving the common sense argument behind now