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Fairy tale logic vs naturalism in fantasy RPGing
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<blockquote data-quote="TerraDave" data-source="post: 6986094" data-attributes="member: 22260"><p><strong>Naturalistic approach to fairy tales</strong></p><p></p><p>Not to make this thread to naturalistic (ahm) but by way of background:</p><p></p><p>In fairy tales: things are what they are and do what they do. There is little overt motivation or exposition. Of course, by their nature all sorts of things are implied.</p><p></p><p>In modern speculative fiction: 20th century fantasy or sci fi tends to explain. Sometimes briefly, sometimes in many hundreds of pages. In general it is considered bad form for characters to do things without some nod to why and how.</p><p></p><p>I don't know if this is about realism. Lots of over explained fiction does not feel the least bit real, and the harder the author tries, the worse it gets. The classic fairy tales all have some psychological resonance that maintains their relevance, and sense of "truth". </p><p></p><p>D&D is very much rooted in the traditions of speculative fiction. Things now have stats, and properties, and some minimal motivation. They draw power from other planes and cast a limited number of spells. They turn experience into power at a proscribed rate. </p><p></p><p>But some fairy tale can help. Just taking things as they are can help move things along quite nicely. But both players and dms resist, and we are back to looking up explanations in the core rulebooks.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="TerraDave, post: 6986094, member: 22260"] [b]Naturalistic approach to fairy tales[/b] Not to make this thread to naturalistic (ahm) but by way of background: In fairy tales: things are what they are and do what they do. There is little overt motivation or exposition. Of course, by their nature all sorts of things are implied. In modern speculative fiction: 20th century fantasy or sci fi tends to explain. Sometimes briefly, sometimes in many hundreds of pages. In general it is considered bad form for characters to do things without some nod to why and how. I don't know if this is about realism. Lots of over explained fiction does not feel the least bit real, and the harder the author tries, the worse it gets. The classic fairy tales all have some psychological resonance that maintains their relevance, and sense of "truth". D&D is very much rooted in the traditions of speculative fiction. Things now have stats, and properties, and some minimal motivation. They draw power from other planes and cast a limited number of spells. They turn experience into power at a proscribed rate. But some fairy tale can help. Just taking things as they are can help move things along quite nicely. But both players and dms resist, and we are back to looking up explanations in the core rulebooks. [/QUOTE]
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