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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5638686" data-attributes="member: 42582">Agreed. Purist-for-system doesn't exhaust the scope of simulationist play, even if we're using &quot;simulationism&quot; as The Forge uses it. &quot;High concept&quot; simulationism is a very important category of simulationist play - where the exploration is genre exploration rather than world/setting/causal exploration.Call of Cthulhu is, in my view, the poster child for high quality, high concept simulationist play. Sit down to play it and you'll get the experience of sliding into insanity as you confront truths that human beings were not meant to know!Alignment rules are, in my view, the worst instance of high concept simulatonist priorities creeping into D&amp;D. Part of the problem is that they encourage the GM to use a whole heap of force - in terms of judging behaviour, penalising behaviour, NPC-ifying PCs (at least in many games with a &quot;no evil PCs&quot; clause), etc. Many D&amp;D players have a tendency to try to purist-for-system-ify alignment, though - &quot;moral forces as real parts of the world's causal power&quot; - which I think produces weird outcomes (like angels and devils partying together in Sigil).The most dysfunctional high concept mechanic, though, is the core mechanic of White Wolf and 2nd ed AD&amp;D, namely, the &quot;golden rule&quot; that the GM may suspend the action resolution mechanics willy-nilly &quot;in the interests of story&quot;. One great thing about CoC is that, instead of dysfunctional GM force, it offers a robust mechanic to ensure genre outcomes, namely, sanity.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 5638686, member: 42582"] Agreed. Purist-for-system doesn't exhaust the scope of simulationist play, even if we're using "simulationism" as The Forge uses it. "High concept" simulationism is a very important category of simulationist play - where the exploration is [I]genre[/I] exploration rather than [I]world/setting/causal[/I] exploration. Call of Cthulhu is, in my view, the poster child for high quality, high concept simulationist play. Sit down to play it and you'll get the experience of sliding into insanity as you confront truths that human beings were not meant to know! Alignment rules are, in my view, the worst instance of high concept simulatonist priorities creeping into D&D. Part of the problem is that they encourage the GM to use a whole heap of force - in terms of judging behaviour, penalising behaviour, NPC-ifying PCs (at least in many games with a "no evil PCs" clause), etc. Many D&D players have a tendency to try to purist-for-system-ify alignment, though - "moral forces as real parts of the world's causal power" - which I think produces weird outcomes (like angels and devils partying together in Sigil). The most dysfunctional high concept mechanic, though, is the core mechanic of White Wolf and 2nd ed AD&D, namely, the "golden rule" that the GM may suspend the action resolution mechanics willy-nilly "in the interests of story". One great thing about CoC is that, instead of dysfunctional GM force, it offers a robust mechanic to ensure genre outcomes, namely, sanity. [/QUOTE]

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