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<blockquote data-quote="Thomas Shey" data-source="post: 8613181" data-attributes="member: 7026617">In an absolutist sense I doubt it can, though I think you can (and would be willing to argue) that in matters of degree D&amp;D has throughout its life been very minimalist on a simulationist scale.&nbsp; I'm pretty comfortable using &quot;not simulation&quot; for a game low enough on such a scale even though it isn't true in an absolute sense, and a game I'd call a &quot;simulation&quot; isn't one where that's true on an absolute sense, either.Which I'd argue is more a gamist process than a simulationist one; not a particularly good one, but that's a different though not entirely unrelated discussion.&nbsp; As you say, all it really tells you is whether the character can any longer take actions, and not, intrinsically, much else (you can get into some issues that some versions have drawn a line as to whether the process is indefinite or temporary (i.e. whether the target is dead or mearly unconscious,&nbsp; but even that distinction is not true of all incarnations of it).They aren't non-simulations in an absolutely sense, but they have elements that only be counted as simulations (i.e. genre emulation) that I think muddies the issue in an extremely unuseful fashion because it makes any element that serves a narrative sense in a consistent fashion &quot;simulation&quot; when I think the urges for the two are vastly different; its why I tend to consistently use the term as it was used by RGFA rather than the Forge because I think their redefinition of simulation damages the utility of the term rather than clarify it.&nbsp; The genre elements in most superhero games (there are cases in what I tend to call the people-with-powers categories where I think this is less true) sprawl across so much of how resolution is done and its assumptions that any simulation is largely an accident.The fact that at some point the first level of hit points became a fixed value, rather than a die roll, and thus made it essentially impossible for characters to have only 1 hit point while healthy.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Thomas Shey, post: 8613181, member: 7026617"] In an absolutist sense I doubt it can, though I think you can (and would be willing to argue) that in matters of degree D&D has throughout its life been very minimalist on a simulationist scale. I'm pretty comfortable using "not simulation" for a game low enough on such a scale even though it isn't true in an absolute sense, and a game I'd call a "simulation" isn't one where that's true on an absolute sense, either. Which I'd argue is more a gamist process than a simulationist one; not a particularly good one, but that's a different though not entirely unrelated discussion. As you say, all it really tells you is whether the character can any longer take actions, and not, intrinsically, much else (you can get into some issues that some versions have drawn a line as to whether the process is indefinite or temporary (i.e. whether the target is dead or mearly unconscious, but even that distinction is not true of all incarnations of it). They aren't non-simulations in an absolutely sense, but they have elements that only be counted as simulations (i.e. genre emulation) that I think muddies the issue in an extremely unuseful fashion because it makes any element that serves a narrative sense in a consistent fashion "simulation" when I think the urges for the two are vastly different; its why I tend to consistently use the term as it was used by RGFA rather than the Forge because I think their redefinition of simulation damages the utility of the term rather than clarify it. The genre elements in most superhero games (there are cases in what I tend to call the people-with-powers categories where I think this is less true) sprawl across so much of how resolution is done and its assumptions that any simulation is largely an accident. The fact that at some point the first level of hit points became a fixed value, rather than a die roll, and thus made it essentially impossible for characters to have only 1 hit point while healthy. [/QUOTE]

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