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A GMing telling the players about the gameworld is not like real life
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7599396" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>Very much a tangent, but . . .</p><p></p><p>In my 4e game, which typically does use maps and counters in circumstances of physical conflict, I sometimes mark dead bodies using counters (which also makes the players assume that there is a NPC/creature with a reanimate ability) and will generally mark a dropped piece of gear. (Because if its significant enough to note that it's been dropped, it's significant enough to keep track of it for purposes of the "picking stuff up" rules.) A PC lost a carpet of flying this way: it had been temporarily abandoned for whatever reason, and the NPC lich picked it up and flew off on it, and the PCs didn't have the capacity at that time to chase it down.</p><p></p><p>I wouldn't put any of that under the heading "realism". I'd put it under the heading <em>stakes</em>.</p><p></p><p>For me this is very system-dependent.</p><p></p><p>In 4e we track magic items closely, as they're elements of PC build. Mundane gear doesn't come into play very often, and tends to be assumed. Occasionally if the players say "We'll do such-and-such" and it depends on some relatively improbable piece of gear, like say a good length of chain, I might ask who is carrying it and if they can't show it one someone's equipment list I'll block it - but that's not about realism so much as the GM establishing some adversity by drawing on the system conventions (which include inventory).</p><p></p><p>In Cortex+ Heroic inventory is basically irrelevant except as it is displayed through Assets, Resources and Gear-oriented Limits. Outside those well-defined mechanical contexts it's just flavour.</p><p></p><p>In Prince Valiant gear is notionally listed on a PC's sheet, but most of the time it's even more peripheral than in 4e, because the sorts of situations that arise in a Prince Valiant game are even less likely to be gear-oriented. The one exception is important stuff like quality horses, armour and weapons, tokens of a lady's favour, etc - the stuff that is integral to being a knight. This is tracked closely, and (at least in our experience) is frequently lost and won as a result of the outcomes of jousts, wooing attempts and the like.</p><p></p><p>In Traveller and Burning Wheel inventory is tracked closely, and I take steps as referee to keep the players on task here. Acquiring and using gear - from vacc suits to spaceships to portable hologram recorders - is a central part of Classic Traveller. In BW it's an optional subsystem, but it's a subsystem we use. It includes but certainly isn't limited to repairing damage to armour after fights.</p><p></p><p>The point of these anecdotes is just to elaborate on your contention, with which I agree, that this is all about system and preferences, not realism.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7599396, member: 42582"] Very much a tangent, but . . . In my 4e game, which typically does use maps and counters in circumstances of physical conflict, I sometimes mark dead bodies using counters (which also makes the players assume that there is a NPC/creature with a reanimate ability) and will generally mark a dropped piece of gear. (Because if its significant enough to note that it's been dropped, it's significant enough to keep track of it for purposes of the "picking stuff up" rules.) A PC lost a carpet of flying this way: it had been temporarily abandoned for whatever reason, and the NPC lich picked it up and flew off on it, and the PCs didn't have the capacity at that time to chase it down. I wouldn't put any of that under the heading "realism". I'd put it under the heading [i]stakes[/i]. For me this is very system-dependent. In 4e we track magic items closely, as they're elements of PC build. Mundane gear doesn't come into play very often, and tends to be assumed. Occasionally if the players say "We'll do such-and-such" and it depends on some relatively improbable piece of gear, like say a good length of chain, I might ask who is carrying it and if they can't show it one someone's equipment list I'll block it - but that's not about realism so much as the GM establishing some adversity by drawing on the system conventions (which include inventory). In Cortex+ Heroic inventory is basically irrelevant except as it is displayed through Assets, Resources and Gear-oriented Limits. Outside those well-defined mechanical contexts it's just flavour. In Prince Valiant gear is notionally listed on a PC's sheet, but most of the time it's even more peripheral than in 4e, because the sorts of situations that arise in a Prince Valiant game are even less likely to be gear-oriented. The one exception is important stuff like quality horses, armour and weapons, tokens of a lady's favour, etc - the stuff that is integral to being a knight. This is tracked closely, and (at least in our experience) is frequently lost and won as a result of the outcomes of jousts, wooing attempts and the like. In Traveller and Burning Wheel inventory is tracked closely, and I take steps as referee to keep the players on task here. Acquiring and using gear - from vacc suits to spaceships to portable hologram recorders - is a central part of Classic Traveller. In BW it's an optional subsystem, but it's a subsystem we use. It includes but certainly isn't limited to repairing damage to armour after fights. The point of these anecdotes is just to elaborate on your contention, with which I agree, that this is all about system and preferences, not realism. [/QUOTE]
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