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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6871800" data-attributes="member: 42582">I absolutely agree that these aren't definitions or stipulations, but illustrative examples.I think &quot;affecting dice rolls&quot; is too narrow. For instance, here's an instance of a mechanical event that doesn't involve dice rolls: I write &quot;Detect Magic&quot; on my list of memorised spells; later on in the game I declare &quot;My guy casts Detect Magic&quot;; now the GM is obliged to tell me something about whatever magic items and effects are able to be perceived by my character.That's mechanical, but it's not about dice rolling.I'm not sure if it's possible to give an &quot;if and only if&quot; definition of what's mechanical in a RPG, but I'm not sure that we need to. For instance, I'm not sure what's at stake in deciding whether or not the application of ZoT to your Eloelle example is &quot;RAW&quot; or &quot;house ruling&quot;. To allude to one of [MENTION=205]TwoSix[/MENTION]'s rival devotions: in the original, notorious &quot;dissociated mechanics&quot; blog post the Alexandrian described filling in the narration around mechanical effects that don't bring their own narration with them in a straightforward way as &quot;house ruling&quot; (his example was narrating the 4e War Devil's &quot;besieged foe&quot; power). My response to that was, and remains, that what he calls &quot;house ruling&quot; I call &quot;playing the game&quot;!Consider the following:It seems to me that, once we have classified effects that inflict fire damage can set timber structures alight as a house rule, the category of &quot;house rules&quot; has lost whatever analytical utility it may have had.By the same lights, inflicting a penalty on a reaction check because a player declares that his/her PC greets the NPCs with an insult about the circumstances of their births is going to count as a house rule. Likewise deciding that if a sack has a hole in it, then gold pieces put into it will fall out. Etc.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 6871800, member: 42582"] I absolutely agree that these aren't definitions or stipulations, but illustrative examples. I think "affecting dice rolls" is too narrow. For instance, here's an instance of a mechanical event that doesn't involve dice rolls: I write "Detect Magic" on my list of memorised spells; later on in the game I declare "My guy casts Detect Magic"; now the GM is obliged to tell me something about whatever magic items and effects are able to be perceived by my character. That's mechanical, but it's not about dice rolling. I'm not sure if it's possible to give an "if and only if" definition of what's mechanical in a RPG, but I'm not sure that we need to. For instance, I'm not sure what's at stake in deciding whether or not the application of ZoT to your Eloelle example is "RAW" or "house ruling". To allude to one of [MENTION=205]TwoSix[/MENTION]'s rival devotions: in the original, notorious "dissociated mechanics" blog post the Alexandrian described filling in the narration around mechanical effects that don't bring their own narration with them in a straightforward way as "house ruling" (his example was narrating the 4e War Devil's "besieged foe" power). My response to that was, and remains, that what he calls "house ruling" I call "playing the game"! Consider the following: It seems to me that, once we have classified [I]effects that inflict fire damage can set timber structures alight[/I] as a house rule, the category of "house rules" has lost whatever analytical utility it may have had. By the same lights, inflicting a penalty on a reaction check because a player declares that his/her PC greets the NPCs with an insult about the circumstances of their births is going to count as a house rule. Likewise deciding that if a sack has a hole in it, then gold pieces put into it will fall out. Etc. [/QUOTE]

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