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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Professor Phobos" data-source="post: 4158402" data-attributes="member: 18883">Yeah, let me give it a shot. Think about applying a "genre template" to the rules of a game world. Think about how the "rules" are different for the main characters in a television show and the extras. Gaming isn't just a simulation of a world but it's about specific characters and their story- and people in stories don't follow the same rules as people-in-reality. Even a fictional reality. Think of the rules as provisionally applied to only a certain subset of interactions within the world- heroic deeds, sword-and-sorcery stuff for D&D, romantic intrigue for a game about romance, horror investigation in Call of Cthulhu, etc. Everything else is literally just up to the GM. (Though in some games this power is shared w/ the players via bizarre mechanisms of a blasphemous and sordid aspect)What about fluff? Setting information? Common sense?See, no, I disagree. People here have a tendency to exaggerate how rigid the rules are intended to be. They are a loose framework of guidelines. Midsession special case adjudication is not only necessary and expected, it is desirable. House rules are more formal alterations to the existing framework, not special-case applications of the pre-existing framework. Think of a house rule as me attaching a flamethrower to my hammer, and GM adjudication as me swinging the hammer differently.  If, for instance, in Call of Cthulhu I vary the consequences for failure on a skill roll depending on all manner of circumstances, this is not a "house rule." The skill descriptions present only guidelines for that sort of thing. If I say a character rolling a Surgery skill for a comparatively minor injury under good conditions with adequate tools can't kill the patient even if he fails, but later I say a surgery done under terrible conditions with improvised tools with only a terrified Boy Scout Troop Leader's shaking flashlight for light will kill the patient with a failed roll, I have not established a house rule, I have just applied the rules in a manner appropriate to the situation.Coup De Grace specifically applies only to "helpless" opponents.Look, this is just not true. I've never had a player who didn't "get" what I am saying. Never once have I seen someone who couldn't handle this stuff. As Hong has been trying to tell you, this confusion is entirely a construct of your own preconceptions, and if you discard them, then you will not be burdened by it anymore. Why can't you ask? This topic keeps coming up- "uncertainty! I don't know what I can do!" and I can only shudder to think at how bad your DMs have been to have taught this kind of learned helplessness. If you're not sure if a given thing will work, just say, "Hey I'm going to try this, is it going to work?" and the DM can say "Yes, No, Maybe- Roll!" This is how it is supposed to work. Does your gaming group laugh at you if you get this sort of thing wrong? And how it makes your character less sure...your character can't do anything, it is not an independent agent. It's only as confused as you say he is, and again, this confusion isn't at all necessary between people who can communicate with one another. You have to separate your knowledge of the game from your character's knowledge.</blockquote>

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