How much do characters know about game mechanics?

[Kask]

These differences still end up being the same thing, though: certain characters can do a certain amount of things in a day. Wizard spell slots compared to Barbarian daily rages, for example, or Paladin smites, Cleric's turn undead...

Those're some obvious examples from 3E, though, and the examples from 4E are patently obvious as well. I don't know about prior editions, though.

Right, I never liked the Barbarian rage thing. Clerics & Paladins are using deity granted powers and are governed by things that don't follow physical laws like swinging a sword so, aren't relevant to the example.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Paul,

You are free to design your campaign world in such a way that the world's reality exactly parallels the game rules. As others have pointed out, it would create for a variety of...unusual...laws of physics, which could be intriguing to RP.

However, that doesn't invalidate others' choice to treat the game rules as an abstraction meant to further the narrative, rather than distort it.

 

[Alex319]

Clerics & Paladins are using deity granted powers...

CSR: "Thank you for contacting the Lathander Incorporated customer support hotline, how may I help you?"

Cleric: "Yeah, one of my teammates is unconscious. I'm trying to heal him but it's not working."

CSR: "What spell are you casting?"

Cleric: "I'm casting Cure Light Wounds. It worked fine half an hour ago but it's not working anymore."

CSR: "What do you mean, it's not working?"

Cleric: "I'm casting the spell, but he's still unconscious. The spell isn't working."

CSR: "Are you sure he's unconscious due to hit point damage? Are you sure it's not ability damage, or some kind of sleep spell?"

Cleric: "How do I check that?"

CSR: "Never mind that for now. Let's try something else. Can you give me your name and hometown so I can open up your account details?"

Cleric: "Sir Robert Thalarin of Stormhaven."

CSR: "Okay, I'm looking up your account details now. According to this, you should have six uses of 1st level spells per day. You've already used them up."

Cleric: "What do you mean, I've already used them up? I've only used four of them today! Did somebody break into my account?"

CSR: "Let's go over your last first level spell castings. I'm showing one at 6:45 PM, one at 4:12 PM, one at 4:10 PM, and one at 2:43 PM. Is that right?"

Cleric: "Yeah, I think that's about right. But that's only four."

CSR: "Let's see. It also says you prepared your spells for today at 11:03 AM."

Cleric: "Yes. I only cast the spell four times since I prepared it."

CSR: "It also says you cast the spell twice before that, once at 4:17 AM and once at 4:21 AM. And when you prepare spells, any spells you cast less than 8 hours before that count against your preparation total."

*Loud crash*

CSR: "What just happened?"

Cleric: "Part of the cavern just collapsed right on top of him. Let me check ... I think he's dead. You can resurrect him, right?"

CSR: "Let's see. We do offer Raise Dead, but that's a 5th level spell, so it's only available to account holders with level 9 and higher accounts. I'm showing you as having a level 8 account."

Cleric: "Can I upgrade my account to level 9?"

CSR: "You're not eligible for an account upgrade at this time. You only have 35,120 experience points. You don't become eligible for an upgrade until 36,000."

Cleric: "Isn't there anything you can do?"

CSR: "Well, this weekend we're having a special Undead Hunt promotion. All undead kills are worth double experience points towards account upgrades."

Cleric: "Thanks. So I've got to kill some undead before I can get my friend raised. That's the information I needed."

CSR: "Thanks for calling Lathander Incorporated customer support. Have a nice day."

 

[Kask]

CSR: "Thank you for contacting the Lathander Incorporated customer support hotline, how may I help you?"

That's too funny!

Not relevant, but, funny nonetheless.

 

[Alex319]

That's too funny!

Not relevant, but, funny nonetheless.

I actually was trying to be relevant. We were talking about how "deity granted powers" don't follow normal physical laws so it's okay for them to have use limitations, and I was speculating as to how those use limitations might work.

 

[darjr]

It is also very good at pointing out the disconnect between the fluff, the reality of the world, and the rules. What do the characters know about how the rules work vs how the world works.

Exactly what this thread is about, I think.