Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dungeonman" data-source="post: 6290791" data-attributes="member: 6775975">Yes, that's a great way to summarize it: I think many action heroes are oblivious risk-takers. In many cases, I think they are both: they know they're better than everyone else AND they're oblivious.Heroes actually do what they do because it advances the plot in an  exciting way that pleases the audience and makes money for the  producers. Similarly, D&D heroes do what they do to please the  gamers. The in-character motives are then subject to intepretation as Aenghus  says. I think that attempts at plausible explanations for action hero  risk-taking are merely to  help suspend disbelief just enough. But "knowing" your hit points throughout a campaign is  more than the usual suspension of disbelief. It requires behaving with  self-awareness, and I don't think most heroes (paricularily heroes in  dumb action settings) have that.I'd say that, esp when it comes to hit points, a brave kid in an action movie and Average Joe protaganists are oblivious idiots. The ex-CIA op in a gritty 'realistic' movie who takes on 4 opponents at once, counts his lucky stars,  recovers in the hospital for the next 48 hrs with his family, and leaves the rest to his CIA colleagues knows he's better than everyone else. The ex-CIA hero who takes on dozens of armed opponents and various obstacles over 48 hours and succeeds and kisses the dame -- such a  hero knows he's better than everyone else but he's still rather  oblivious. He can't be self-aware, because if we was, he'd probably act differently or at least  question the rationality of his superhuman endurance and the improbability of these  events.But even in an unrealistic fantasy world, the characters need some understanding of cause-and-effect in order to draw those conclusions. Let's say a cleric believes he's surrounded by a protective divine forcefield. He believes this aura is damaged by attacks and regenerates with rest, and once that forcefield is gone, the cleric feels vulnerable. Such a cleric can be roleplayed (more or less) consistently with player's out-of-character knowledge. (Furthermore, theoretically, if the cleric was in anti-magic shield and believed this aura was gone, the players knows he still has 60 hit points, but the cleric in-character would fear that he's vulnerable to a single strike, and wouldn't rush to the front of the battleline as boldly as if he knew he had the full divine protection -- or 60 hit points -- left.)In most cases, I think, fantasy characters don't have access to in-game cause-and-effect undertstanding that would lead to naturalistic behavior consistent with player knowledge of the character's mortality, just like the typical action hero that engages in oblivious risk taking to please the movie audience. D&Disms and fun requirements and obligations to the gaming group can often require us to roleplay characters in ways that aren't quite rational, which is why I think they're oblivious, and if they're not self-aware, they can't "know" their hit points -- at least not to an extent that is meaningful to me anyway.</blockquote>

Verification