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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Greenfield" data-source="post: 7790794" data-attributes="member: 6669384">Wow.  Not to get personal, but are you having a bad day?  That was a nit-pick like I've seldom seen in these forums.To clarify though:  Your post, or at least the section I quoted, seemed to say that "if we can't have realism in this then we might as well give up on everything."  My response was that "realism" may be impossible or impractical for many aspects of a game world, and is in many cases the wrong goal.  In a medieval fantasy setting, realism says that one stab from a sword will drop a human being.  Might not kill them, but shock, pain and blood loss will almost certainly end the fight.  Trying to move when muscles have been cut just makes it worse.In a more modern setting explosions and gunshot wounds disable or kill pretty consistently.  mankind has spent centuries finding new and better ways to mangle the human body, and we've gotten depressingly good at it.So in any game setting where a character can take several hits with no more consequence than changing a number on a sheet, it's a fantasy.  And who wants to play a game where you die the first time somebody shoots at you?  (Note:  Shadow Run actually has a growing disability effect from wounds.  System sucks in a lot of other ways, but that part was okay.)So what we're looking for isn't "realism", it's "theatrical acceptability". Something that feels right, within the setting. You complained about my assertion that game worlds are escapist fantasies.  So, name for me a game system, setting or private campaign that isn't a fantasy, or escapist to some degree.In my experience the single most prominent fantasy, common to almost every game, is that the player suddenly becomes someone who can, as a single actor, significantly affect or change the game world.  "The fate of the kingdom/world/civilization is hanging in the balance, and only you can save it."How often have we heard that line, or had it played out for us at a gaming table?  And if that isn't escapism then I guess I don't understand the word.  Or at least one of us doesn't. Over all you seem to be complaining about what I wrote, while largely agreeing with it.Hence my initial observation:  Are you having a particularly bad day?</blockquote>

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