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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 5872656" data-attributes="member: 54877">Forge theory address simulation and thinks that this covers immersion.  I think that the theory never addresses what happens when immersion itself is the "creative agenda"  as opposed to a byproduct of intentional, hard-core simulation.  (And in fact, the more hard-core the simulation, the less immersion you are likely to get, and vice versa.)  Meanwhile, dedicated immersionists are convinced that immersion as the equivalent of a "creative agenda" is the only one that makes any kind of sense, with everything else either being second order, based on mistaken notions of how roleplaying works, or outright mendacious tomfoolery.   I don't think this is anywhere near the full extent of the disjunction (and I've been thinking about it for years), but there is a sense in which ordered, working mechanics (towards any Forge or GDS or other competing theory) are not entirely desirable to the immersionist.  The more ordered, the more clear that the mechanics are mechanics, and not means towards the illusion that the immersionist seeks to maintain.  Of course, you get the same thing on the other side, with terrible mechanics too--and obvioulsy on any mechanic that happens to push some particular button. (The "Drama" part of GDS I think got away with something here, by conflating means and goals such that people could talk on the surface with agreement, while pursuing something very different.) The words are all in English, but the sentences they make don't add up to anything that makes sense to the other side. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />  I think there are some traits that help shrug off damage in various situations, though I don't recall the names.  No one in our group has ever used one, and BW also shares with 4E (IMHO) the aspect that you don't really have to care much about stuff not on the sheets (with opening new skills in BW being a huge exception to that).  There are also some rules for "Shrug it Off" or something like that, in the damage sections.  I know they are in BW Gold.  Don't remember about the earlier versions.  As with anything else, you could get helping dice to "Shrug it Off". Short of going to a color scale change (e.g. heroic dragon versus mundane PCs), I think BW is so focused on numbers mattering that it would be difficult to replicate the solo experience against experienced characters.  High, gray reflexes might do it.  Set those at 6, and you've got a monster acting 4 times per volley, half of those actions being essentially unanswerable by anything but an avoid!  (I think that would be too much, actually, but I haven't playtested anything like it.)</blockquote>

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