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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nemesis Destiny" data-source="post: 6097035" data-attributes="member: 98255">The bolded section of this statement is something of a sticking point in these arguments. The way you've worded it makes it sound like what you're really against is the perception of player-entitlement versus GM authority within the rules.One of the many problems with this approach as  @<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/member.php?u=27160" target="_blank">Balesir</a>  very <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?334907-Legend-Lore-says-story-not-rules-(3-4)&p=6096842&viewfull=1#post6096842" target="_blank">nicely illustrated above</a>, is that often what a given GM finds plausible, is utter nonsense. This happens all the time with GM judgements in a "rulings not rules" environment, because most of us are not experts at all the subjects a given game is likely to run across.That is one reason why I think it's better to let genre-appropriateness and dramatic tension drive decisions, rather than some GM's wonky idea of how "reality" works (because most of us will get it wrong). For the same reason, I find the attempts of verbose effect descriptions to cover all kinds of side-effects dubious at best, and immersion-wrecking at worst (the AD&D and SRD fireball is a prime example of this).I'm not trying to fault those who want a process-sim game that models a fictional "reality" - but how do you go about modelling that reality when most people don't have a clue as to how it really works or should work?This becomes especially problematic when you introduce "magic" elements into things. How does magic interact with physics? Even a magical fireball has a specific temperature in AD&D - it specifies how it affects certain metals for example (though I largely suspect that this was a misguided attempt to "balance" the spell in dungeon encounters), but how does that affect humanoid flesh? I'm no expert, but I'm fairly certain that any heat sufficient to melt metals, even soft ones, is going to outright kill any fleshy thing caught in the blast, and yet characters survive fireballs (or dragon breath, etc) on a regular basis. Now that breaks my brain and sense of immersion.As I alluded to above, I think the style divide is more along the line of Player Agency vs. DM authority than sim vs narrative. You can still have a completely logically simulated environment (in theory) in which the fiction is the focal point, but it's a lot harder to do compelling fiction in a world of arbitrary and nonsensical judgements, IMO.</blockquote>

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