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<blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 6004651" data-attributes="member: 996">Yeah, that's an ongoing issue.&nbsp; There's &quot;GNS Theory&quot; in which 'Simulationism' is play style, descriptive of how players approach games more than of games, themselves.&nbsp; Simulation can also, obviously, mean matching mechanics to some yardstick, be it realism or genre emulation.&nbsp; Simulationist D&amp;D can also be a sort of navel-diving exercise in which the game simulates /itself/ as strictly as possible.&nbsp; I'm not at all convinced that classic D&amp;D was simulationist in any of those senses.2e was actively sticking to the classic D&amp;D feel, making minimal sort of 'house keeping' changes to the system, so it could be considered a simulation in the last, self-referent sense.3e is enthusiastically embraced by self-identified adherents to the GNS simulationist style of play.4e delivers some pretty nice genre-simulation, leaning towards the action-movie/pulp-fiction end of the heroic fantasy spectrum.5e is being designed as a sort of toolkit which will let you re-invent each of the prior editions, emulating their 'style,' so I guess it's very much the self-referent simulation of D&amp;D sort or of simulation.So, yeah, it's easy to point to just about any edition of D&amp;D and argue that it is or isn't a simulation or is or isn't 'simulationist.'</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Tony Vargas, post: 6004651, member: 996"] Yeah, that's an ongoing issue. There's "GNS Theory" in which 'Simulation[i]ism[/i]' is play style, descriptive of how players approach games more than of games, themselves. Simulation can also, obviously, mean matching mechanics to some yardstick, be it realism or genre emulation. Simulationist D&D can also be a sort of navel-diving exercise in which the game simulates /itself/ as strictly as possible. I'm not at all convinced that classic D&D was simulationist in any of those senses. 2e was actively sticking to the classic D&D feel, making minimal sort of 'house keeping' changes to the system, so it could be considered a simulation in the last, self-referent sense. 3e is enthusiastically embraced by self-identified adherents to the GNS simulationist style of play. 4e delivers some pretty nice genre-simulation, leaning towards the action-movie/pulp-fiction end of the heroic fantasy spectrum. 5e is being designed as a sort of toolkit which will let you re-invent each of the prior editions, emulating their 'style,' so I guess it's very much the self-referent simulation of D&D sort or of simulation. So, yeah, it's easy to point to just about any edition of D&D and argue that it is or isn't a simulation or is or isn't 'simulationist.' [/QUOTE]

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