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<blockquote data-quote="Thomas Shey" data-source="post: 8615065" data-attributes="member: 7026617">I think a fair number of Earthdawn elements are simulationist; its strongly gamist with a big streak of dramatist in how it wants you to view Legend, but how things like its classes, talents and magical effects work are all quite simulationist, they're just focused on the non-real elements of the setting (how magic works, the way adepts function, and so on).&nbsp; They're classes are actually, one and all, things that exist in the setting context; so are their talents and for the most part how they work.D&amp;D classes are, however, with a few exceptions, a set of terms that are mostly metagame that apply to a range of character types that in many cases may well not even be considered the same thing in-setting.&nbsp; When in use, same for most feats and a lot of special abilities.&nbsp; The classes are almost entirely a game convenience.Now, that sort of reifying that Earthdawn does only makes sense given the specifics of its settings, and would look very odd ported over to almost any other, so its not a model for how to do such things, but its very much simulationist in a way D&amp;D has not been.Regarding your question about D&amp;D hit points: it would certainly make a difference.&nbsp; As I mentioned, I don't find it a particularly good or desirable mechanic on the whole, but doing that would at least make it coherent and convey a lot more information without what I can only describe as a great degree of coyness that has plagued the use of them throughout the history of the game.&nbsp; There are even other models than yours that can work (as I've noted, if you view hit points as a kind of backward way to divide damage to represent luck/skill and such, so that 4 hit points of damage means the same thing for someone with 40 hit points as 1 hit point of damage does for someone with 10, at least some of the issues go away; it means any hit actually does involve some real damage, but as the numbers get larger, its less and less.&nbsp; It doesn't solve some of the issues entirely, but it at least is a model that tells you something about what's going on).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Thomas Shey, post: 8615065, member: 7026617"] I think a fair number of Earthdawn elements are simulationist; its strongly gamist with a big streak of dramatist in how it wants you to view Legend, but how things like its classes, talents and magical effects work are all quite simulationist, they're just focused on the non-real elements of the setting (how magic works, the way adepts function, and so on). They're classes are actually, one and all, things that exist in the setting context; so are their talents and for the most part how they work. D&D classes are, however, with a few exceptions, a set of terms that are mostly metagame that apply to a range of character types that in many cases may well not even be considered the same thing in-setting. When in use, same for most feats and a lot of special abilities. The classes are almost entirely a game convenience. Now, that sort of reifying that Earthdawn does only makes sense given the specifics of its settings, and would look very odd ported over to almost any other, so its not a model for how to do such things, but its very much simulationist in a way D&D has not been. Regarding your question about D&D hit points: it would certainly make a difference. As I mentioned, I don't find it a particularly good or desirable mechanic on the whole, but doing that would at least make it coherent and convey a lot more information without what I can only describe as a great degree of coyness that has plagued the use of them throughout the history of the game. There are even other models than yours that can work (as I've noted, if you view hit points as a kind of backward way to divide damage to represent luck/skill and such, so that 4 hit points of damage means the same thing for someone with 40 hit points as 1 hit point of damage does for someone with 10, at least some of the issues go away; it means any hit actually does involve some real damage, but as the numbers get larger, its less and less. It doesn't solve some of the issues entirely, but it at least is a model that tells you something about what's going on). [/QUOTE]

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