Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mallus" data-source="post: 5619810" data-attributes="member: 3887">Let me see if I can clarify my position a bit...Imagine a 4e rogue's Power called Tricky Dick's Feint. The user feints to left, speaks the words "I am not a crook", then stabs the beegeesus out of the target from the right. It's a Martial Daily. According to TheAlexandrian, this would be an example of a dissociated mechanic because it can only used once per Extended Rest. Why can't the rogue do it more often? There's apparently disagreement between what can be easily imagined in the game fiction and the game mechanics.Now imagine an AD&D player declaring their PC is feinting to the left and attacking from the right. We both agree this action is generalized into the to-hit roll. But a feint to the left is the same as a feint to the right, a wild overhand swing, or cautiously waiting for an opening. To my mind, this abstraction is another example of dissociation. It's another disagreement between what a player might intend their character to do (feint), what's easily imagined and described in fictional terms ("Hadric feints right") and what the mechanics describe (shut up and roll a d20 already!) So while the 4e PC can only feint once, the AD&D character can't really feint at all, since the feint indistinct from other melee combat actions (a PC might be feinting, or not, or they're doing the opposite, like swinging for the fences). The player could describe their minute-long attack sequence as an extremely aggressive Busby Berkeley dance routine for all that it would matter under the AD&D combat rules. A player might be shooting for the slit in an opponent's helm, or going for an easier shot at the opponents body. The difference between them is easy to imagine, easy to describe, and irrelevant to every iteration of the D&D combat system (barring whatever optional called shot rules I'm forgetting at the moment). A PC can get lucky, but never actively try for the more difficult shot. Why isn't this an example of dissociation?This is partly the reason why some people define a dissociated mechanic as: an abstraction I don't personally approve of. A fireball is thrown into an open area. A PC is in the center of the blast radius. The PC makes their save. What, exactly, is this a simulation of? The luck of the Irish? (or elvish?). Saving throws are an early example a D&D meta-mechanic: if they simulate anything, it's the resilience of a typical adventure story protagonist. They simulate genre conventions.I'm not trying to be a contrarian, but I admit to getting a little frustrated, or at least amused, by what I see as the construction of an unnecessary critical framework which attempts to treat as a special case what is better seen in more general terms as a subset of abstraction.</blockquote>

Verification