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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7098345" data-attributes="member: 42582">I'm talking about fiction that matters to resolution. This can happen in two main ways:(1) It engages a particular mechanic: this is how PbtA "moves" work, and is a factor in some of the systems I GM (eg in BW, if the GM isn't saying "yes" to an action declaration then s/he has to connect this to an appropriate ability - from the long list that is part of the system - for resolution purposes). (2) It shapes the resolution of some other action declaration: eg in 4e combat resolution location is an element of fictional positioning that (via the range/reach rules, the forced movement rules etc) matters to resolution.The examples you gave don't fall under either (1) or (2) - eg describing the 5 hp damage as a wound, as depleted morale, as dropping the weapon and having to pick it up, as wrongfooting that doesn't actual amount to changing the "square" in which the character is located. They are just colour.But this isn't fictional positioning: it doesn't matter to resolution.All you've got is that, at time 1, the player describes the 5 hp loss as a wound, and so - down the track at time 2 - the GM has to describe the NPC as wounded rather than (say) winded. But it's got no teeth at all. For instance, there's not any rule that connects the player's narration to a requirement to (say) mark off a bandage on an equipment list - let alone anything like a wound penalty, or a constraint on future action declarations.Contrast (say) this from Dungeon World (pp 23, 28):Damage is dealt based on the fiction. Moves that deal damage, like hack and slash, are just a special case of this: the move establishes that damage is being dealt in the fiction. Damage can be assigned even when no move is made, if it follows from the fiction. HP loss is often only part of the effect. If the harm is generalized, like falling into a pit, losing the HP is probably all there is to it. When the harm is specific, like an orc pulling your arm from its socket, HP should be part of the effect but not the entirety of it. The bigger issue is dealing with the newly busted arm: how do you swing a sword or cast a spell? Likewise having your head chopped off is not HP damage, it’s just you being dead. . . . Losing HP is a general thing, it’s getting tired, bruised, cut, and so on. Some wounds are deeper though. These are debilities. . . . Debilities don’t replace descriptions and using the established fiction. When someone loses an arm that doesn’t mean they’re Weak, it means they have one less arm.This is not just colour: this is the fiction establishing the parameters for action declarations and resolution. The sort of "creativity" you described in relation to D&D, by way of contrast, doesn't establish this sort of fiction. It is just colour.</blockquote>

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