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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Greg Benage" data-source="post: 6680386" data-attributes="member: 93631">I don't really want to get caught up in this, and my comment is really just a clarification because you may very well agree. For almost all of the examples used in this thread, the DM resolving it one way rather than another may not be noticeable in a single case. Even in a hard-core simulationist, exploration-focused game, a DM can pull off "Yes, there's a box" or even "Yes, but..." or "Yes, and..." on-the-fly narrativist resolutions from time to time without pinging most players' radars. In many cases, for a single instance, or even scattered instances, there's no way to tell the difference.But if the DM makes these kinds of determinations with any regularity, it will be noticeable and will affect the game experience. When you're playing in a simulationist, exploration-focused game, you know it. The difference is tangible. You become accustomed to answers such as "No, there are no crates or boxes in the alley. Timber is quite rare in this region and the winters are very cold, so anything like that left lying around would be broken up and used for firewood." Now, the DM may not have written in his notes that there are no crates in the alley, but he does know that wood is rare and the winters are cold, and he uses that knowledge of the world -- not story considerations -- to answer the player's question about the environment.Over time and across multiple DM decisions/resolutions, it will become very evident to anyone paying attention what kind of game it is. And to players who strongly prefer one style of play to another, that distinction will be very important.ETA: This is one reason I think the original Threefold formulation was more useful than what was done with it subsequently. Game, Simulation, and Drama were explicitly used to describe the priorities and processes for making decisions and adjudicating resolutions in a game. Whether there's a crate or not, the important point is why there is a crate or not -- or specifically, why the DM is ruling that there is a crate or not. Is its existence (or nonexistence) derived by the DM from characteristics of the game world? Is it derived from considerations about the game (challenge, resources, tactical depth, etc.)? Or is the decision made (whether by player or DM) based on what is most dramatic, or narratively empowering, or suspenseful, or complicating, or...?</blockquote>

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