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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Snarf Zagyg" data-source="post: 9034670" data-attributes="member: 7023840">I do, but not just about ephemeral mechanics! With apologies to Ronald Coase, I feel somewhat like I just saw you give a lecture at UChicago with the first part quoted in italics. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Allow me to explain- usually, when we talk about rules qua fiction, most people talk about the ways in which rules establish the fiction. Which makes sense- the rules provide the shared framework for the participants to interact with the fiction. But I think that what you've said might actually be the correct way of viewing rules- they don't establish the fiction (especially w/r/t norms), they supersede the fiction. Let me dig a little deeper though. The reason I think that there is a difference between the two terms (establish and supersede) is the following:"The fiction" that we keep talking about is just a highfalutin' term for the imaginary world in which the game occurs- the playing space that is created during the game. Every participant in the game in the game has their own version of this imaginary world, and the intersection of these versions is "the Fiction." I would say that the Fiction exists separately from the rules- that is to say that the rules, alone, cannot establish the fiction. However, they can not only establish fiction, they can supersede the fiction (the norms that the participants might have). Which is what you're saying, although I haven't thought about it that way.Arguably, many conflicts in D&D occur because the rules, for various reasons (usually "game" reasons), supersede the fiction that participants have. A classic example of this is conversations about hit points and falling damage. In the world of 5e, high level characters can survive massive falls automatically. This often doesn't map on to the fiction that people have, but the rules supersede the fiction. So that's just my initial, albeit unformed, thoughts on the matter.Anyway, w/r/t ephemeral mechanics, I think that's accurate. I would say that it's fairly common in FKR games for participants to note something on the character sheet, and for that something to have "an effect," without that effect being a written rule.</blockquote>

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