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<blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 8606843" data-attributes="member: 22779">But, what does &quot;how close to death the player is&quot; actually mean?&nbsp; In what way does it inform any sort of narrative?&nbsp; If you narrate a hit as a scratch, that doesn't make me any closer to death.&nbsp; I've been scratched lots of times but, they aren't making me more likely to die from the next scratch.&nbsp; A miss is totally non-zero information.&nbsp; Why did you miss?&nbsp; Other than the (completely abstract and largely meaningless) attack was not successful, it tells us nothing.&nbsp; It generates no narrative other than, &quot;fail&quot;.&nbsp; The fact that you can 100% play out D&amp;D combat without a single narration shows how little information is being generated.&nbsp; I mean, if we're going to consider &quot;hit, 5 damage&quot; to be some sort of narration, then well, we're obviously on pretty different pages about what a narration is.&nbsp; IOW, D&amp;D combat can be Final Fantasy - your character shakes back and forth a couple of times and a bunch of numbers fall out of your opponent.&nbsp; You cannot actually narrate anything using D&amp;D mechanics.&nbsp; And, it gets even more wonky when you try to add in stuff that actually DOES have narrative heft - grappling being a perfect example.&nbsp; An ogre grabs that gnome, but, deals zero damage. Cannot actually deal any damage that way.&nbsp;&nbsp; No matter how strong that ogre is, he cannot actually hurt anything by grabbing it.&nbsp; And, note, the reverse is true as well.&nbsp; The gnome grabs the ogre and gets the same results.So, what does grappling actually mean in the narrative?&nbsp; In game terms, I know that it reduces the target's speed to zero and the grappler can move at half speed, forcing the grappled to move as well.&nbsp; So our gnome, succeeds in grappling, reduces an ogre's speed to zero and can drag the ogre.&nbsp; How exactly do you narrate that?&nbsp; What happened?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Hussar, post: 8606843, member: 22779"] But, what does "how close to death the player is" actually mean? In what way does it inform any sort of narrative? If you narrate a hit as a scratch, that doesn't make me any closer to death. I've been scratched lots of times but, they aren't making me more likely to die from the next scratch. A miss is totally non-zero information. Why did you miss? Other than the (completely abstract and largely meaningless) attack was not successful, it tells us nothing. It generates no narrative other than, "fail". The fact that you can 100% play out D&D combat without a single narration shows how little information is being generated. I mean, if we're going to consider "hit, 5 damage" to be some sort of narration, then well, we're obviously on pretty different pages about what a narration is. IOW, D&D combat can be Final Fantasy - your character shakes back and forth a couple of times and a bunch of numbers fall out of your opponent. You cannot actually narrate anything using D&D mechanics. And, it gets even more wonky when you try to add in stuff that actually DOES have narrative heft - grappling being a perfect example. An ogre grabs that gnome, but, deals zero damage. Cannot actually deal any damage that way. No matter how strong that ogre is, he cannot actually hurt anything by grabbing it. And, note, the reverse is true as well. The gnome grabs the ogre and gets the same results. So, what does grappling actually mean in the narrative? In game terms, I know that it reduces the target's speed to zero and the grappler can move at half speed, forcing the grappled to move as well. So our gnome, succeeds in grappling, reduces an ogre's speed to zero and can drag the ogre. How exactly do you narrate that? What happened? [/QUOTE]

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