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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6313324" data-attributes="member: 42582">Although he's not really into &quot;story&quot;, Pulsipher does recognise the importance of what now would be called &quot;fictional positioning&quot; - ie the players engaging the game world as if it were real, and extrapolating from the imagined reality in thinking through what is feasible, what would be sensible for their PCs to do, etc.Consider, for instance, the following:One of the most destructive notions I've encountered in D&amp;D is the belief that &quot;anything goes&quot;. This is fine for a pick-up or silly-fun game, but contributes to an air of unreality and recklessness which can be fatal to a campaign . . . [A]n &quot;anything goes&quot; campaign tends to be one in which player skill counts for little . . . [because, inter alia] players have no foundation to base decisions on; never knowing what to expect, they cannot plan a rational response. . . . Even fantastic fiction, despite the name, possesses an internal self-consistency . . . Each referee must ask himself as he sets up his campaign what rules and items would seem believable if he read about them in a fantasy novel. . . .

Just because D&amp;D is a fantasy game doesn't mean you can forget logic. Don't put five Balrogs [in a] 20 by 20 foot lair. . .&nbsp; Pretend you're a monster looking for a lair that is convenient and defensible, but you don't know specifically what might attack - men, animals, monsters, who knows? . . .

Many dungeons are full of occupied room which can be reached only through other occupied rooms. One wonders why none of the monsters fight each other . . . I have yet to hear a believable reason why they wouldn't fight; usually the excuse is that a thirtieth-level something-or-other runs the entire dungeon and won't let them. This is tantamount to saying that God Almighty has ordained that they shall not fight each other and shall only fight intruders. Why? No, it does not seem real.It seems pretty clear to me that the reason for emphasising &quot;realism&quot; is not aesthetic - it's not to improve the &quot;story&quot; - but rather as an element of game play. Skilled players engage the game via reasoning and problem-solving, and they can't do this if they can't reasonably extrapolate from the ingame situations that the referee describes to various possible courses of action. &quot;Realism&quot; in the set-up facilitates this.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 6313324, member: 42582"] Although he's not really into "story", Pulsipher does recognise the importance of what now would be called "fictional positioning" - ie the players engaging the game world [I]as if[/I] it were real, and extrapolating from the imagined reality in thinking through what is feasible, what would be sensible for their PCs to do, etc. Consider, for instance, the following: [indent]One of the most destructive notions I've encountered in [I]D&D[/I] is the belief that "anything goes". This is fine for a pick-up or silly-fun game, but contributes to an air of unreality and recklessness which can be fatal to a campaign . . . [A]n "anything goes" campaign tends to be one in which player skill counts for little . . . [because, inter alia] players have no foundation to base decisions on; never knowing what to expect, they cannot plan a rational response. . . . Even fantastic fiction, despite the name, possesses an internal self-consistency . . . Each referee must ask himself as he sets up his campaign what rules and items would seem believable if he read about them in a fantasy novel. . . . Just because [I]D&D[/I] is a fantasy game doesn't mean you can forget logic. Don't put five Balrogs [in a] 20 by 20 foot lair. . . Pretend you're a monster looking for a lair that is convenient and defensible, but you don't know specifically what might attack - men, animals, monsters, who knows? . . . Many dungeons are full of occupied room which can be reached only through other occupied rooms. One wonders why none of the monsters fight each other . . . I have yet to hear a believable reason why they wouldn't fight; usually the excuse is that a thirtieth-level something-or-other runs the entire dungeon and won't let them. This is tantamount to saying that God Almighty has ordained that they shall not fight each other and shall only fight intruders. Why? No, it does not seem real.[/indent] It seems pretty clear to me that the reason for emphasising "realism" is not aesthetic - it's not to improve the "story" - but rather as an element of game play. Skilled players engage the game via reasoning and problem-solving, and they can't do this if they can't reasonably extrapolate from the ingame situations that the referee describes to various possible courses of action. "Realism" in the set-up facilitates this. [/QUOTE]

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