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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 9129612" data-attributes="member: 7006">I was not trying to use "imagination" in a way that was denoting what you were doing was "fake" (if that's what you got from it.)  What I meant was that D&D is a game of imagination.  Everything we do with the rules is translated into this imaginary world we have in our heads.  None of us at the table are literally doing or seeing what is talked about... we are imagining it.  That's the whole point of the game.So when you use the term "verisimilitude"... the definition of it is "the appearance of being true or real."  So you want rules in the game that to you appear real.  Now they aren't actually real, but rather, you are imagining them to be.  You are suspending your disbelief.  That's by definition the point.  But because of the fact that there is nothing real at the table (other than of course the papers, pencils, miniatures, maps, dice etc.)... that appearance of reality is entirely down to you.  It's your imagination that says "If I roll over a 16 with this d20, then my character has swung a sword and hit the arm of this orc."  And the reason why that works for you (if indeed that rule does) is because that rule is not doing anything to impinge upon your verisimilitude.  For you... that d20 roll hits the sweet spot where you willing accept the belief of the sword hitting the orc.But why that rule and not some other rule?  I mean there's absolutely no one-for-one simulation of rolling a die equaling hitting someone with a sword-- we've completely made that up.  But we accept it and believe in it.  So why are we unwilling to accept other rules as not being "believable"?  That's where I just shake my head... how someone is able and willing to believe these hundreds of different things as having the "appearance of being real" (even though they are 100% not)... and yet these other things they can't.  And they spend pages upon pages upon pages going on and on about how the game is suffering because of it.  Because they specifically just cannot or are unwilling to believe in its appearance of being real.You ask me why I don't care about the game rules or have disdain for them... and the answer is that none of the game rules give me ANY verisimilitude to the point where I get mad at them existing or not existing, or angry with WotC for including or not including them.  The rules are just... tools.  That's it.  I believe in them just enough to use them to get what I need.  That's all.  And I have so many rules in my toolbox already that needing WotC to provide for me the exact tool I think I need is nothing but a waste of my time.  And I choose not to worry about the rules WotC provides, because I can just use a different one I already have when the time comes for its necessity.</blockquote>

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