The Firebird's latest activity

Simulation means to me that we take seriously the imagined fictional universe as a real place and we try to imagine and inform the...

In a nutshell: some general ballpark of plausibility-of-outcome and in-world consistency for how things work. Even if fantastic foes...

To me simulationism means that any actions are adjudicated based on what would reasonably happen in a setting. This can be done via...

I think it's a little deeper than that. A lot of the support for simulationism comes with the attached idea of "I want to feel like...

Fair point. To build on that, I do think it would be challenging to design a truly arbitrary resolution process, a process that doesn't...

The same could be true in simulation of reality, not just a genre simulation. Here's an example to demonstrate the difference between...

So, just to demonstrate a half-agreement: I think good simulation does reduce what you're calling "narrative contrivance". Indeed...

My first reaction to that was, "Great! But some explanation of what that answer was and how that background led to it would be...

Simulation seems to be something attempting to copy the real world. A flight simulator or golf simulator attempts to copy the real...

That would be how I think of them, yes. They're designed mechanics to avoid even the appearance of "contrivance". From many years of...

And by that logic, random encounter tables, and rules for when to use them, prepared before the session would be part of the "clockwork...

I think the simulationist impulse is to NOT have the GM make a decision because they think it will be a more interesting challenge or...

Yes, I would say that. That motivation is anti-verisimilitudinous. Now, adding that dragon for a diagetic reason works, or if a...

Would it be fair to say that the distinction between setup and resolution is important? That a GM can set up whatever scenario they...

Modeling is important to my sense of simulation, but yeah eliminating narrative as a mechanical consideration is just as important, as...