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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FrogReaver" data-source="post: 9618653" data-attributes="member: 6795602">To me the primary component of fiat is arbitrariness.  Arbitrary meaning determined by chance, whim, or impulse, and not by necessity, reason, or principle.As such the choice which setting to use is fiat.  Often there is also fiat in particular details about the setting (ones based exclusively on historical settings would be one exception).  However, even after the fiat produced details are derived there are others from those that are then derived by necessity, reason or principle.Initial scene framing is much the same.  Subsequent scene framing (aka action resolution) though tends to have a greater degree of necessity, reason and principle involved, but there are often some novel and unexpected details that are still produced by fiat.But honestly, what keeps getting referred to as fiat really sounds to me like it would more accurately be called artistic expression.  IMO we need the chaos of that artistic expression to keep the fiction fresh and interesting, while the order we achieve by deriving other elements from necessity, reason and/or principle keeps the fiction grounded and coherent so that the player can successfully interact with it.  All chaos/fiat would make a fiction crazier than a lucid dream.  All order/principle would make a fiction more boring than watching paint dry.</blockquote>