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A GMing telling the players about the gameworld is not like real life
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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 7594685" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>No, Max, it is NOT a 'strawman'. It is a perfectly good solid reasonable argument. In order for your case to hold, 'more realistic' has to be an actual measurable defensible objective thing. So you would need to show how and why, and by what metrics, the GM coming up with a decision is 'closer to real life'. This is what we mean when we (or at least when I) talk about things being 'realistic'. I don't think [MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION] intended the phrase 'not like real life' to be taken in an absolute way, as in "it is different from real life in some arbitrarily small way." Instead I feel reasonably confident (given that he was commenting on my post in which I held that is wasn't AT ALL like real life) that Pemerton meant something similar, that real life and 'the GM deciding' are simply nothing like each other.</p><p></p><p>To be perfectly honest, I don't think that any other way of deciding is MORE realistic than the GM deciding. I don't even think that realistic is an option and THAT IN AND OF ITSELF is the 'strawman', the argument that one way has some realism advantage. Nothing in FRPG play is at all realistic. Some of it has logical cogency with reality on some basic suppositions (gravity works, though even there you can't explain dragons without an exception). </p><p></p><p>So, fine, you aren't 'mirroring the real world', but this is a red herring, as nobody claimed you said you were. What you said is you're more realistic. I say that this is like saying you're closer to finding the secret of immortality. Nobody is there, nobody has even made measurable progress, we're all light years from the goal and saying you're a few inches ahead or behind someone else is meaningless in that kind of context.</p><p></p><p>Nothing about RPGs is ever realistic. It isn't even really part of the equation.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 7594685, member: 82106"] No, Max, it is NOT a 'strawman'. It is a perfectly good solid reasonable argument. In order for your case to hold, 'more realistic' has to be an actual measurable defensible objective thing. So you would need to show how and why, and by what metrics, the GM coming up with a decision is 'closer to real life'. This is what we mean when we (or at least when I) talk about things being 'realistic'. I don't think [MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION] intended the phrase 'not like real life' to be taken in an absolute way, as in "it is different from real life in some arbitrarily small way." Instead I feel reasonably confident (given that he was commenting on my post in which I held that is wasn't AT ALL like real life) that Pemerton meant something similar, that real life and 'the GM deciding' are simply nothing like each other. To be perfectly honest, I don't think that any other way of deciding is MORE realistic than the GM deciding. I don't even think that realistic is an option and THAT IN AND OF ITSELF is the 'strawman', the argument that one way has some realism advantage. Nothing in FRPG play is at all realistic. Some of it has logical cogency with reality on some basic suppositions (gravity works, though even there you can't explain dragons without an exception). So, fine, you aren't 'mirroring the real world', but this is a red herring, as nobody claimed you said you were. What you said is you're more realistic. I say that this is like saying you're closer to finding the secret of immortality. Nobody is there, nobody has even made measurable progress, we're all light years from the goal and saying you're a few inches ahead or behind someone else is meaningless in that kind of context. Nothing about RPGs is ever realistic. It isn't even really part of the equation. [/QUOTE]
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