NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 9214668" data-attributes="member: 29398">No matter what you do, there's a bunch of things that kinda have to be abstracted in a gamist* way (usually revolving around combat) in order to make a game functionally playable.  I think most RPGers accept this as a fact of life.On the flip side, there's some things that don't have to be abstracted much if at all (often involving character dialogue interactions) as they can be done in real time by the people at the table.And there's some things where there's a choice as to whether or not to take a gamist tack; and it's what's done with these choices that IMO sets where the game ends up on the gamist-realist spectrum.  Metacurrencies, for example, are always gamist; but there's also always a design-level choice as to whether or not to incorporate them into a game system; as they're not outright necessary in order to create a functional game.* - in the everyday not-Forge sense.Again, though, it comes down to the sum total of a whackload of minor choices around small-scale elements of the game as to whether a game is gamist or not.  Do I handwave encumbrance (gamist), or do I enforce it to the ounce (realist), or do I fall somewhere in between.  Do I assume everyone always has ammunition (gamist), or do I enforce tracking it (realist), or do I do something in between.  Do I have characters completely recover their full stamina every night (gamist), or do I have a detailed injury and recovery-time tracking system where recovery is based on real-world healing rates (realist), or do I do something in between?  Does a magical ball of fire neatly conform itself to 5x5' cubes (gamist) or does it just fill to a radius (realist).  Etc., etc., etc.</blockquote>

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