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Not 4e D&D. There is not a simulationist bone in the body of that RPG. But Rolemaster 1000%. The only RPG I know that is more simulationist in some respects is RuneQuest. (I'm not sure about C&S, as I only know it from some pretty ordinary later editions.) Great! What Eero Tuovinen calls...

Sure. I've spent a good chunk of the past N pages talking about this. It's about the process whereby the shared fiction is established. Part of that process includes the guides to, and constraints upon, decision-making. In Burning Wheel, it is incumbent upon the GM to have regard to the...

I didn't speak for anyone else. I did edit to note that @hawkeyefan had a similar response to mine.

If the GM rolls a random encounter, and decides to use some Orcs, and furthermore decides that they are sneaking up on the PCs to ambush them, then - as far as resolution is concerned - there is no "before combat began". The GM decides the Orcs are stealthy, makes the roll, refers to the PC...

Terrific! I recommend, then, that you not play Burning Wheel or Apocalypse World.

I don't recall 2 am being a feature of the example set out in the blog: It’s classic roll playing, you’re at a house, the door is locked, and as the rogue, you’re rolling to pick the lock. You roll the die and don’t get enough to unlock the door. You ask the Dungeon Master, “Can I try again?”...

These desires can be satisfied using resolution systems that are not "simulationist" at all. I know this from my own experience! EDIT: I see that @hawkeyefan posted the same thing.

If three or four of those things were to happen in a row, then someone would drop to zero hp - all from sizing up! And that could happen - imagine a PC who only participates in the first round of combat, but does so for three or four consecutive combats. So the narration would have to change...

I said that it changes the way the shard fiction is established. In the "fail forward" example, it is the failure of the player's roll that prompts the GM to introduce a startled cook in the kitchen as part of the shared fiction. In your example, it is the player's making of the roll to pick...

Yes. This is the case in AD&D sometimes too, albeit the label given to the roll is different. - eg Rangers, and unarmoured Elves and Halfings, are stealthy and hence get a better surprise chance. A roll is used to determine surprise but no rolls are occurring to determine surprise? You can see...

And the game you actually play doesn't use "fail forward" resolution. So all is good!

It changes the way the shared fiction is established. Is that what you mean by "mattering"? Then it seems like the GM has decided that the player is hosed either way: the unskilled character who blunders in alerts the cook; the skilled character who waits has the clock run out. Maybe more...

What is the "easy break down" actually going to look like? A dungeon map-and-key creates a framework for the triggering/activating of scenes - by default, these happen when the players have their PCs open a door. Wandering monster rolls intersperse unplanned scenes that tend to disrupt the...

If the GM has decided that the cook is not there, then presumably they will not narrate that they are there. If the GM has decided where every possibly salient being is at every time, then presumably they won't use the presence or absence of any being as part of their way of narrating failure...

100% this!

Well of course if you assume that the check is to be framed in terms that don't suit "fail forward" resolution, then "fail forward" won't work. Who's surprised by that?

Huh? DnD Beyond doesn't agree with this: https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dnd/basic-rules-2014/combat#Surprise The DM determines who might be surprised. If neither side tries to be stealthy, they automatically notice each other. Otherwise, the DM compares the Dexterity (Stealth) checks of...

My understanding of the situation, as described, was that the check was to pick the lock so as to successfully gain ingress. If you want to break that down into every separate thing - first a Perception check to see no one is about, then a check to insert the lockpicks into the lock, then...

@thefutilist and I and @hawkeyefan all discussed this upthread. A cook is implicit in a kitchen, in the same way that soldiers are implicit in a barracks (unless it's expressly called out as abandoned), gardeners are implicit in a hedge maze (unless it's expressly called out as overgrown and...

Is it? So when you roll to see if the PCs are surprised by a gelatinous cube, you first work out where the treasure floating in the middle of the cube is relative to the PCs, so as to work out the effect that has on the chance of surprise?