Originally posted by Saeviomagy:
I'd love to join your campaign. First session I'd invent gunpowder and guns, and you'd have to invent spurious rules to prove that I couldn't. Spells which cause nuclear fusion wouldn't be too far off. (come to think of it, polymorph any object into a nuclear bomb would be pretty sweet).
The gameworld is not the real world. Chemistry, physics etc. do not work normally there. Explaining how things work merely gives way to long, interminably boring discussions of what does and does not work.
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See, there's the problem- as a PC, you would have no idea how to invent gunpowder, guns, nuclear fission, etc- because the technology for it simply doesn't exist. You have to separate player from character knowledge- the ONLY time I ever docked someone XPs was when someone attempted this very thing. And if you'd rather take your chances with a primitive blackpowder weapon than a conventional weapon, well- they'd be calling you "no fingers" in short order! My point is, gravity, fire, freezing, disease, etc work on the same assumptions in fantasy worlds as they do in the real world- otherwise there is no point of reference between the two.