Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="robertliguori" data-source="post: 4033600" data-attributes="member: 47776">I will avoid invoking Forge jargon as much as possible, but I now see the disconnect.&nbsp; Many of us consider everything that happens in the simulated universe provided by the rules both part of the game, and part of the story.&nbsp; We consider the ability of high-level characters to keep fighting through a dozen arrows not a corner case or a failure of abstraction, but a feature, a glorious expected result of being high level.&nbsp; This is not simply a tactical abstraction; non-tactical effects such as falling from a great height or being immersed in lava also do hit point damage, and can be resisted through sheer grit once you are past a certain threshold of cussedness. Consider this; the kind of stories you can tell are entirely contingent on the rules of the universe.&nbsp; (&quot;We need to take the ring to Mount Doom?&nbsp; OK.&nbsp; I cut off my left big toe, teleport to Mount Doom, and have my fellow Istari bull-rush me into the lava, teleport back, and Ressurect me.&nbsp; How much XP did I get?&quot;)&nbsp; Telling a story about a high-level fighter dying from a fall from a horse is like telling a story about Superman dying from the same; it utterly contradicts the expected results of reality.&nbsp; One can assert that a high-level fighter is mortal, and should be vulnerable to mortal injury, no matter his skill; one can also assert that yellow sunlight does not grant superpowers to Kryptonians, and therefore Superman cannot fly.&nbsp; In either case, it is likely that people who are expecting a story in-genre will simply ignore you, or look for how it came to be that expected reality was so egregiously violated.If you don't want to tell stories in which the protagonists can shrug off dips in molten lava through sheer toughness, don't play high-level D&amp;D, or allow high-level characters to exist.&nbsp; Consider the E6 variant, where the high-level characters more closely resemble Odysseus than Hercules.&nbsp; But for all that is good and nice and doesn't involve irate players gashing you to death with the sharp corners of the PHB, change the rules that prevent you from telling the stories you want to tell.&nbsp; Don't just ignore them.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="robertliguori, post: 4033600, member: 47776"] I will avoid invoking Forge jargon as much as possible, but I now see the disconnect. Many of us consider everything that happens in the simulated universe provided by the rules both part of the game, and part of the story. We consider the ability of high-level characters to keep fighting through a dozen arrows not a corner case or a failure of abstraction, but a feature, a glorious expected result of being high level. This is not simply a tactical abstraction; non-tactical effects such as falling from a great height or being immersed in lava also do hit point damage, and can be resisted through sheer grit once you are past a certain threshold of cussedness. Consider this; the kind of stories you can tell are entirely contingent on the rules of the universe. ("We need to take the ring to Mount Doom? OK. I cut off my left big toe, teleport to Mount Doom, and have my fellow Istari bull-rush me into the lava, teleport back, and Ressurect me. How much XP did I get?") Telling a story about a high-level fighter dying from a fall from a horse is like telling a story about Superman dying from the same; it utterly contradicts the expected results of reality. One can assert that a high-level fighter is mortal, and should be vulnerable to mortal injury, no matter his skill; one can also assert that yellow sunlight does not grant superpowers to Kryptonians, and therefore Superman cannot fly. In either case, it is likely that people who are expecting a story in-genre will simply ignore you, or look for how it came to be that expected reality was so egregiously violated. If you don't want to tell stories in which the protagonists can shrug off dips in molten lava through sheer toughness, don't play high-level D&D, or allow high-level characters to exist. Consider the E6 variant, where the high-level characters more closely resemble Odysseus than Hercules. But for all that is good and nice and doesn't involve irate players gashing you to death with the sharp corners of the PHB, change the rules that prevent you from telling the stories you want to tell. Don't just ignore them. [/QUOTE]

Verification