Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6883642" data-attributes="member: 42582">Per me, post 344: &quot;if a certain state of affairs is known to be true in the fiction . . . then the outcomes resulting from mechanics must conform to that prior fiction.&quot; In the case of Eloelle, we know something to be true in the fiction - she is a genius who is precluded from deploying her genius by the instructions of her patron, to whom she accedes. Hence the outcomes resulting from mechanics must conform to that fiction. Also, &quot;if a certain outcome is mechanically mandated than the fiction must somehow accommodate and express that&quot; - in the case of Eloelle, the mechanically mandated outcome is that she not deploy or act on any better information than any other character with an INT of 5.The only times this causes any real complexity is when a mechanical effect (some sort of compulsion or mind-reading effect, such as Zone of Truth) purports to give direct access to the contents of Eloelle's mind without it being mediated by her voluntary choice of what to disclose. But it is easy enough for the fiction of such effects to accommodate and express the mechanical mandate (resulting from the 5 INT) in a way which also conforms to the established fiction of Eloelle's thwarted genius: if the player rolls and fails the save against the effect then Eloelle shares all the ignorance and nonsense that her patron has obliged her to speak; and in the fiction this is the result of her patron's intercession to blunt the full force of the effect.This is a high degree of fortune-in-the-middle (or if not exactly that, some similar principle of narrative flexibility) but it doesn't involve any disregard of fictional positioning, or treating fireball's flames as &quot;pseudo-flames&quot;.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 6883642, member: 42582"] Per me, post 344: "if a certain state of affairs is known to be true in the fiction . . . then the outcomes resulting from mechanics must conform to that prior fiction." In the case of Eloelle, we know something to be true in the fiction - she is a genius who is precluded from deploying her genius by the instructions of her patron, to whom she accedes. Hence the outcomes resulting from mechanics must conform to that fiction. Also, "if a certain outcome is mechanically mandated than the fiction must somehow accommodate and express that" - in the case of Eloelle, the mechanically mandated outcome is that she not deploy or act on any better information than any other character with an INT of 5. The only times this causes any real complexity is when a mechanical effect (some sort of compulsion or mind-reading effect, such as Zone of Truth) purports to give direct access to the contents of Eloelle's mind without it being mediated by her voluntary choice of what to disclose. But it is easy enough for the fiction of such effects to accommodate and express the mechanical mandate (resulting from the 5 INT) in a way which also conforms to the established fiction of Eloelle's thwarted genius: if the player rolls and fails the save against the effect then Eloelle shares all the ignorance and nonsense that her patron has obliged her to speak; and in the fiction this is the result of her patron's intercession to blunt the full force of the effect. This is a high degree of fortune-in-the-middle (or if not exactly that, some similar principle of narrative flexibility) but it doesn't involve any disregard of fictional positioning, or treating fireball's flames as "pseudo-flames". [/QUOTE]

Verification