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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 5494954" data-attributes="member: 18280">I admit that I am a bit confused.I have been told by many since 4e came out that, in order to grok 4e, one had to accept that the rules weren't meant to simulate what occurs in the game universe.  That the rules should work as written (so as to not negate or nerf carefully balanced characters).Now, in this thread, where that idea is being questioned, I keep hearing the opposite.  And I could be wrong, but it seems as though I am hearing the opposite from some of the same individuals.Which is it?Should the RAW take precence over the fiction (i.e., the fiction must be shaped to explain the outcomes by RAW) or should the fiction take precedence over the RAW (i.e., the RAW is only applied as makes a priori sense from the fictional world)?Either one is okay, although it will obviously colour your view of the game based upon what you want.  But to imagine that the game doesn't do simulation whenever the question comes up why X is a poor simulation of Y, and then to imagine that the game has simulation in spades when the question comes up why it doesn't do simulation well, seems to me more than a little wonky.While it might be fairly said that all editions of D&D fail at providing true simulation, it must be noted that there are degrees of failure.  IMHO, and certainly based on my reading both of the designer blogs and on this board, 4e doesn't attempt to simulate outside of combat (where it attempts to simulate a specific type of combat), but rather attempts to facilitate collaborative storytelling between combats, where the mechanics spur creative narration (rather than arrising from and arbitrating the outcome of narration).To help make the difference clear, you can either look at Strength and say "This is what strength is....what should that mean in game terms?" or you can say "This is the balanced effect that we want within game play.....how should the fluff reflect this?"  There is a degree of each in all rpgs, but how much of each has a drastic effect on design and game play.RC</blockquote>

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