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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JohnSnow" data-source="post: 4159423" data-attributes="member: 32164">For me, the solution to all the problems has always been to make sure all the parties involved (players and DM) have a "shared assumption" about the kind of world we're simulating.That world is not solely defined by the D&D game rules, because using those rules and logical extrapolations of them as the sole and only base for the gameworld's physics creates a world that I, as a DM and player, am not comfortable playing in. Moreover, I find the notion of having to create a mechanically-based houserule for every single situation where the rules grate against my sensibilities is far more trouble than it's worth.Hence, my games operate with a certain amount of shared genre assumptions. Generally, they start this way:1) Except where stated or obvious by genre convention, the gameworld operates according to physical and natural laws that roughly conform to those of the real world.2) Cinematic sensibilites supercede realistic ones. Wounds operate more like they do in Die Hard or The Three Musketeers than in, say, Platoon (or god forbid, "the real world.")3) Magic and magical creatures that do not exist in the real world are glaring contradictions to "real world physics." These are waived away by genre conventions. In these cases, things exist that defy physics simply because they're "neat." Bipeds over 8' in height (like giants) fall under this category.4) The game rules are a set of probability resolution tools designed to mimick desirable outcomes similar to those in action adventure stories. The assumption is that these sorts of rules predispose certain kinds of conflict to favor the PCs so that they will survive an adventure based on more than just simple luck. In other words, the rules tilt the probability of survival in the PCs favor. Normal NPCs do not benefit from these rules, but non-normal heroic (and villainous) NPCs do.5) Certain things happen due to game conventions. PCs can wander in the woods and expect they will run into "appropriate challenges" when they do. NPCs don't get that benefit.6) Fringe case, low-probability events are not covered by the rules if they are not likely to come up in play. To prevent "swingy" results, the possibility is removed from the resolution mechanics affecting PCs. Breaking your neck falling off a horse is an example of this. Similarly, things that are decidedly 'unfun' if they were to happen to a PC are removed from the list of random possible outcomes in the game's combat mechanics. Mutilation in normal combat falls into this category. That doesn't mean these doesn't happen when NPC armies go to war. It also doesn't mean a player can't elect to have this happen to his character. It just won't happen randomly.7) Things that are patently "gamist" are explained away using fungible reality. For example, in a realistic setting, a martial power that comes up "once a day" is one where the situation is rare enough, or the effort required extreme enough, that it can only be expected to succeed on an infrequent basis. Per-encounter martial exploits function similarly, except that the applicable circumstances for their use are less rare.8) Any attempts to game the system (bag of rats cleave and so forth) will be met with snark and derision.Those are pretty much the maxims under which I operate. They may not work for every game, but they work for mine.As an example, can you survive a fall off a hundred foot cliff in this scenario? Sure. But it might not be a sheer cliff, or there might be a pile of refuse at the bottom, or you might bounce off a few trees, or...Heroes get lucky and survive circumstances that would kill a normal person. That's, to me, what hit points are all about. Maybe they're a little tougher, but a lot of it is luck (or divine favor, or whatever) and skill. Perhaps at Epic levels, we can talk about mythological feats of damage resistance, like swords bouncing off your toughened skin.(By the way, there is an argument, somewhat tautological (that is, true by definition), that goes: "any ruling you make, mechanical or otherwise, including specified genre conventions, becomes part of the game rules, and hence, all physics of the gameworld are dictated by the game rules," That is only true by this, IMO, somewhat unusual definition of what constitutes "the game rules." Personally, I find this argument obfuscated legalese, rather pedantic, and non-conducive to real discussion of this issue. If this is the crux of your argument, you're wasting your breath, because most of us will never agree with this rather fringe definition of "the rules.").</blockquote>

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