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A trapper has nicer-than-average clothing? Clothing made of cotton, or even silk? And a woodsman can easily maintain his chain shirt? Where does he get the metal? The tools?

It is, actually, in just precisely the section under discussion. Wretched. You live in inhumane conditions…Violence, disease, and hunger follow you wherever you go. Squalid. You live…in places rife with disease, hunger, and misfortune. Poor. A poor lifestyle means…simple food… Modest. You don't...

No, he has his Explorer's Pack: A backpack, a bedroll, a mess kit, a tinderbox, 10 torches, 10 days of rations, a waterskin, and 50 feet of hempen rope. Plus the clothes on his back, that dagger, and probably a good axe. Maybe a bow and arrows, or maybe you make those. That's what you've got...

And as I said, no one survives without any resources. That's not a thing that happens. So I have no idea what you're talking about. Certainly one can "survive comfortably" in a rich wilderness, with a good axe, lots of skills, and plenty of time before the snows. But that does not mean that...

Oh, certainly. I'd rather be an outdoorsman in a rich wilderness with a cabin and a fireplace, or even a cave, than a poor man in a city in medieval times. But I don't know that I'd say that it's less likely that an outdoorsman in that time would be lousy than a prosperous merchant or artisan.

And you made all of these things yourself? In eight weeks? And to say that it's less likely that an outdoorsman will have fleas and lice than someone in a nice inn, with at least some clothes, body and bedclothes washing seems…implausible.

How many changes of clothes did you have? Did you eat three good meals a day, every day, with large variety in the dishes you ate? Did you have a soft bed and other furnishings? Reasonably reliable light (equivalent to candles or oil lamps)? What legal protections did you have (oh wait, you had...

No, we can't. A woodsman living in town at what the PHB considers a Wealthy lifestyle could be miserable (see Crocodile Dundee). Does that mean he's actually Poor or Squalid? No. These are objective measurements, not gauges of personal happiness. No, not at all. The difference between living...

So how do we measure equivalency? At the very least, we can compare food quantity, quality and variety, right? And clothing quality and quantity, and housing quality. Right? Which is not at all how the real world works. Someone trying to survive in the wilderness without survival skills will...

The self-sufficiency rules in 5e seem exactly backwards to me. A person with a proficiency should be able to earn at least a modest lifestyle—in the Services table, such a person earns 2 gp/day! On the other hand, it seems ridiculous that someone using the Survival skill could provide a...

That's true from the inhabitants' perspective, but not from the GM's. There is a long linear history of Athas. I'm not sure what you mean here. Yes, exactly. So the Green Age of Athas was a time before evil became ascendant. This is the calm before the storm, the time before the arise of...

That is interesting. According to the 4e Dark Sun book, "Long ago, when the planet was green, the brutal might of the primordials overcame the gods. Today, Athas is a world without deities." Now, I'm not at all married to that. But it seems (from what little I know about FR) to work well with...

This is inspired by an old post I ran across: "Is Dark Sun an alternate future Forgotten Realms?" Now, I'm not interested in whether that was in the designer's minds, or whether that notion is supported by canon; fairly clearly the answer to both questions is No. However, the original Dark Sun...

The page is down… :( I'd be really interested in your ideas.

There have been exactly two sets of examples of actual narration techniques in this thread, and I started this conversation with my objections to one of them. Regardless, neither of the resources in the post I quoted have any actual examples, just like nearly every other resource I've seen on...

I'm always frustrated by answers like, "You're the DM, you can do whatever you want!" to questions like these. Of course I can. But that doesn't tell me how to run my game in such a way that maximizes both verisimilitude and playability. Except that that's pretty clearly not the case, as I...

But like almost every other resource I've seen on this subject, these givesno examples or advice on how to actually narrate non-lethal hits. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Yes, and I do just that, as I described upthread. Yes, that's exactly my problem. I need to find a narrative technique that neither describes hits as wounds, nor as misses, nor even as impacts on armor or near misses. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Except that in 4e and 5e, you heal all wounds overnight. And I think I disagree with you on the potion. It cures your bumps and bruises, and makes you feel much better and ready to fight again. That the magical effect is subtle and not miraculous is actually in keeping with most fantasy...

But how does that jibe with, you know, Armor Class? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk