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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Li Shenron" data-source="post: 8456456" data-attributes="member: 1465">Realism is important only as far as it supports basic expectations from real life experiences. These are not the same for all. Everybody expects basic stuff such as a falling object to accelerate or that when it's pitch dark you can't see. At the same time everyone accepts that magic and the supernatural can create different results. But there's a deeper level of knowledge that only a few people have on specific topics. You might have a player who studied biology and can correct the DM who describes plants wrong such as putting the wrong species in a certain environment, or the historical expert who can lecture on medieval weapons and armors, or the architect who points out that a certain building is physically impossible...Bringing out this sort of stuff at the table as a mere curiosity is a good thing, why wouldn't I want to hear from an expert and learn something new? Ideally I WANT to be as realistic as possible but I can't study all these topics before running a a game. But if the player makes their lectures more important than the game, then it means they are not into the right spirit, which is to put the game first (unless your original purpose is to gamify a lecture on biology or medieval weapons and armors). They can disrupt everyone's fun by shifting the focus away from what the rest of the group probably wants the evening to be about. If I were a professional game designer I would certainly consult an expert source to make sure my publications comply as much as possible with realism in all relevant fields, because that would mean to provide DMs with a solid basis. But as a hobbyist I don't have that luxury, so I expect my players to help me with their expert knowledge but not be pretentious or disruptive. Besides, that biology expert player is likely an ignorant on medieval weapons and viceversa.</blockquote>

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