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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LostSoul" data-source="post: 5309152" data-attributes="member: 386">My view is that 4E is "high-concept" simulationism.  "You play a Hero in a land filled with darkness and monsters; as a Hero, how will you react?"  (Specifically, a priority placed on System + Situation.)*To the OP:Changing rules on the fly without prior warning can be tricky.  Whatever justification behind the change, it sounds like the DM broke the social contract.  One common way of handling house-ruling on the fly is "Okay, this time you can do it, but in the future be forewarned."*My own view on the "realism / verisimilitude / believability" issue in 4E is that it's not really about any of those things.  To use Forge terms, it's about Exploration; 4E is light on Colour.  All that means (assuming I'm using the jargon correctly) is that the details of the imagined content doesn't have much of an effect on how the game plays out.I'm going to use some examples from some games I played at a Con on the weekend.1. Freemarket.(I should say up-front that I jumped into the middle of an ongoing game when one of the other players had to go to an artist signing, so I could have been missing a lot.  I did not create a PC.  It's also a con game and things are different there.  This shouldn't be seen as a critique of Freemarket as a game, only my experience in a conflict or two.)Freemarket is a game set on a space station orbiting Saturn in the not-too-distant future (2050-2100 or so I'd guess).  Technology has advanced to the point that material goods aren't important; even death isn't a big deal, since you come back from the vats.  Memories are important; getting long-term memories carry some weight (I didn't really see this in play; con game).Basically a post-scarcity economy.  The real currency of the station (and the game) is social capital, called "Flow".In our game, one PC had a run-in with the disco-loving Dr. Magnetic.  The good Doctor was setting up a live disco show and we wanted to get into the action.I decided that my PC hated disco (since I like disco in real life).  We decided to make and release a viral video that would show how "disco is dead" and anyone who likes disco is a loser.Some things jumped out at me during the conflict.  First of all, the things that we had our characters doing didn't really matter.  What mattered were the numbers on the character sheet.  The actual actions of our characters in the fictional setting didn't have any impact on the outcome of the conflict.Second of all, was disco cool on the station at the time or not?  That didn't matter either.  Once again, the fictional situation on the setting didn't play into the conflict.  It's possible that disco was already considered lame; no effect on how things turned out.  On the other hand, everyone could have been into disco; once again, no effect on how the conflict played out.When the fictional situation doesn't have any bearing on the rest of the game (in Freemarket, how you gain or lose social capital - Flow), you start to ignore it.  It doesn't carry any weight so it gets cast aside.2. Lacuna pt 2.Interestingly enough, made by Jared Sorensen, one of the co-creators of Freemarket.The fiction in this game was much more apparent.  I don't want to say what happened in the game ("No one can be told what the Matrix is.  You have to experience it for yourself"), but there was a lot more focus on the fictional situation.  The main mechanics that players deal with - heart rate - doesn't have much to do with the details of your action.  The dice you roll aren't really connected.  However, when you roll the dice is tightly linked to the fiction; the outcome of the roll changes the fiction; and I believe there are some non-transparent mechanics on the DM's side that are based on fictional causes.Hmm, what I wrote is vague and lame.  I would suggest playing Lacuna for yourself to see how it works, and try not to get frustrated with it.  It's a very interesting game.(con't next post)</blockquote>

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