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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SweeneyTodd" data-source="post: 4293057" data-attributes="member: 9391">This is exactly how I view the issue (and more clearly written than I've managed).There is nothing inherent to roleplaying games that says that the rules have to describe *both* the mechanical effect of actions and the "in-fiction" effect of those actions. As we're seeing with the hit points discussion, HP provide a game mechanics measure of how long you can stay in a fight. The in-fiction description of how this is expressed in terms of actual wounds, etc. is largely independent of that. This is honestly true of any game with hit points.I remember a 3.x campaign (around 10th level) where our DM described every HP loss as an actual physical wound. We also faced a number of monsters who could cast fireball and repeatedly did so on us. At some point after a few sessions, we sort of came to the realization that unless magical healing restored hair, every one of the characters would be completely bald. Then we went, "No they're not", and just pushed forward. We essentially rejected the DM's "flavor text" descriptions of damage. The mechanical effects didn't change, but the folks at the table were imaging it differently. Encounter and Daily powers mean that, from a mechanics perspective, your character can perform actions that have significant effects on the battle, and the amount that they can do so is limited. What does that mean in terms of the game fiction? Does it mean that the fictional characters are aware that they have X Encounter powers and Y Daily powers? Probably not, so that needs an "in game" explanation that works for your group. One example would be that the characters are just plain fighting hard, looking for openings, and that the player's decision to use a power maps into the fiction as an opportunity to strike a decisive blow. That's not the only explanation, it's just one of the options.Does this mean that 4e doesn't try to provide mechanics that directly map into a description of the game world? Absolutely. That flavor text listed below a power's name -- it's not what happens, it's an example of how you might choose to describe what happens. The idea of having to map mechanical results to in-game descriptions goes back as far as roleplaying games themselves. Think about AD&D's 1 minute combat rounds; in the game text it's made clear that an attack roll does not represent one single swing. So everyone's been doing this mental trick for as long as they've been playing RPGs. It's just that 4e does it a bit differently.</blockquote>

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