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<blockquote data-quote="Ovinomancer" data-source="post: 8507684" data-attributes="member: 16814"><p>Nope. </p><p></p><p>Take the narration of the orc's gaping abdominal wound. We don't know, with just this, if this is color to telling PCs the relative health of the orc (ie, the specific narration is immaterial, it's the coded information that matters and it can be delivered in near infinite ways other than this, so the specific choice doesn't really matter to pass that coded information -- it's just color). We don't know if it's meaningful, in that it will have a future impact on play (the description of the wound, not the coded hp total information). We cannot tell at the moment of presentation. We can only tell if it's meaningful and not color if some later play, possibly much later play, makes it useful. I mean, we could have this orc escape this fight, and then indicate months later that it's the same orc by describing the scar (although, again, this may just be color). It's only in post hoc analysis that we can make the determination if a given narration is color or meaningful (ie, carries some meaning to the ongoing fiction past value as pure description). </p><p></p><p>If we cannot tell if the narration is meaningful or not at the time it is presented, and can only tell if it is such post hoc, then the 5e* direction to only provide meaningful narration is not met by this kind of narration -- it might fail to be meaningful and thus not meet the direction! Yet, you've presented the process as if it is an imperative direction to do this -- that this imperative direction is the main change and difference from normal 5e. Yet, we can't tell at the point of narration what might be meaningful, unless we intend it to be meaningful at that moment -- that an immediate use is present. Then it's meaningful because options are added that did not exist, even if they are not chosen. So, intent in the moment of narration seems to be a requirement for 5e* to be coherent with it's own agenda!</p><p></p><p>Alternatively, we can just assert that any narration may become meaningful in play given the correct chain of events and play. Describing a cloak as blue, intended as mere color, may become pivotal in later play if certain paths and events occur. The problem here is that there's never an inability to imagine a sequence of events that makes any given detail meaningful -- pick any example and I can come up with any number of ways play might make that important. And if we go with this, then there's no need for any specific change to include 5e* -- it's not doing any work because this is true of any narration at any time.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ovinomancer, post: 8507684, member: 16814"] Nope. Take the narration of the orc's gaping abdominal wound. We don't know, with just this, if this is color to telling PCs the relative health of the orc (ie, the specific narration is immaterial, it's the coded information that matters and it can be delivered in near infinite ways other than this, so the specific choice doesn't really matter to pass that coded information -- it's just color). We don't know if it's meaningful, in that it will have a future impact on play (the description of the wound, not the coded hp total information). We cannot tell at the moment of presentation. We can only tell if it's meaningful and not color if some later play, possibly much later play, makes it useful. I mean, we could have this orc escape this fight, and then indicate months later that it's the same orc by describing the scar (although, again, this may just be color). It's only in post hoc analysis that we can make the determination if a given narration is color or meaningful (ie, carries some meaning to the ongoing fiction past value as pure description). If we cannot tell if the narration is meaningful or not at the time it is presented, and can only tell if it is such post hoc, then the 5e* direction to only provide meaningful narration is not met by this kind of narration -- it might fail to be meaningful and thus not meet the direction! Yet, you've presented the process as if it is an imperative direction to do this -- that this imperative direction is the main change and difference from normal 5e. Yet, we can't tell at the point of narration what might be meaningful, unless we intend it to be meaningful at that moment -- that an immediate use is present. Then it's meaningful because options are added that did not exist, even if they are not chosen. So, intent in the moment of narration seems to be a requirement for 5e* to be coherent with it's own agenda! Alternatively, we can just assert that any narration may become meaningful in play given the correct chain of events and play. Describing a cloak as blue, intended as mere color, may become pivotal in later play if certain paths and events occur. The problem here is that there's never an inability to imagine a sequence of events that makes any given detail meaningful -- pick any example and I can come up with any number of ways play might make that important. And if we go with this, then there's no need for any specific change to include 5e* -- it's not doing any work because this is true of any narration at any time. [/QUOTE]
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