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General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
A discussion of metagame concepts in game design
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7468170" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>I'm not sure what your point is.</p><p></p><p>I'm not a biologist or a physicist, so I rely on what I read in the papers. From what I've read, a dragon in D&D - the depiction of which has been fairly constant for 40-odd years - does not have wings sufficient to generate the lift needed to get it off the ground. Yet we know that it can fly. Hence, either, (i) gravity is different or (ii) fluid mechanics is different or (iii) it doesn't really make sense to think of the world of D&D using such scientific categories as <em>gravity</em> and <em>fluid mechanics</em>. I think that (iii) is the most obvious and straightforward answer.</p><p></p><p>On evolution: I can't think of any published D&D world where dragons evolved. They were created (whether by Tiamat and Bahamut, or in some other fashion) or perhaps came into being as primordial entities. More generally, nothing I've ever read in any D&D setting book or monster manual makes me assume that living things in D&D evolve, or have their nature and being determined by the biochemical processes that operate in the real world. Upthread someone ( [MENTION=29398]Lanefan[/MENTION]? [MENTION=23751]Maxperson[/MENTION]) referred to "life force". If such a thing exists in D&D worlds, that's enough to indicate that these are not worlds in which real world biology and biochemistry obrain.</p><p></p><p>So are you saying that D&D giants are biomechanically possible? The only form of giant I've ever heard that suggested of is fire giants because of their heavier build and thicker legs relative to their height.</p><p></p><p>Again, are you saying that giant scorpions of the D&D sort are possible? My undertanding is that land arthorpods in the real world of that size would have both exoskeleton issues and respiration issues.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7468170, member: 42582"] I'm not sure what your point is. I'm not a biologist or a physicist, so I rely on what I read in the papers. From what I've read, a dragon in D&D - the depiction of which has been fairly constant for 40-odd years - does not have wings sufficient to generate the lift needed to get it off the ground. Yet we know that it can fly. Hence, either, (i) gravity is different or (ii) fluid mechanics is different or (iii) it doesn't really make sense to think of the world of D&D using such scientific categories as [I]gravity[/I] and [I]fluid mechanics[/I]. I think that (iii) is the most obvious and straightforward answer. On evolution: I can't think of any published D&D world where dragons evolved. They were created (whether by Tiamat and Bahamut, or in some other fashion) or perhaps came into being as primordial entities. More generally, nothing I've ever read in any D&D setting book or monster manual makes me assume that living things in D&D evolve, or have their nature and being determined by the biochemical processes that operate in the real world. Upthread someone ( [MENTION=29398]Lanefan[/MENTION]? [MENTION=23751]Maxperson[/MENTION]) referred to "life force". If such a thing exists in D&D worlds, that's enough to indicate that these are not worlds in which real world biology and biochemistry obrain. So are you saying that D&D giants are biomechanically possible? The only form of giant I've ever heard that suggested of is fire giants because of their heavier build and thicker legs relative to their height. Again, are you saying that giant scorpions of the D&D sort are possible? My undertanding is that land arthorpods in the real world of that size would have both exoskeleton issues and respiration issues. [/QUOTE]
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