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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 5761754" data-attributes="member: 22779">First off - the idea of basing the game on P42 is very cool.  You could dispense with a whole lot of stuff that way.  Classes and whatnot could get largely ejected.  Very cool for a rules light game.  Reminds me a lot of Savage Worlds although I wouldn't call SW a rules light game.  There was a recent bit in DDI Dungeon and Dragon that talked about pre-1st level PC's (and an adventure to boot) that ties very closely to this.  Everyone draws from the same pool of powers.  It's the personality of the player and the character he or she is trying to create that will determine which powers get used which, in turn, shapes the eventual character that's created. Very cool.--------On the whole "Nods to realism" thing.  John Scalzi <a href="http://whatever.scalzi.com/2011/12/11/the-flying-snowman/" target="_blank">in this article about flying snowmen</a> hits this right on the head.  There was a discussion going on about how fast Gollum sinks into the lava in LotR.  The fact that from a realism POV, Gollum actually wouldn't sink in lava - it's too dense to sink into.The discussion continues with an example where Scalzi's wife is reading a story to their daughter in which a snowman comes to life, dances around, eats soup and then flies away.  The wife gets annoyed with the story at that point because "At which point my wife got an unhappy look on her face and said ‘A flying snowman? That’s just ridiculous".  Scalzi's reaction is priceless:  Which brings me back to the discussions in this thread.  Fireball is ridiculous.  You can accept the idea that it's hot enough to melt metal, but not burn hair, but, the idea of only targetting creatures breaks you?  Really?But, at the end of the day, where we draw the line will always be different for all of us.  For me, I have no problem with a selectively targetting fireball.  There's a dozen different ways to describe it.  Obviously, though, there are others for whom this is problematic.  Same with various other mechanics (Healing Surge being a poster child).I guess my question becomes, who should make that decision?  Should the game designers tell the players, "This is how X works all the time - change it if you want to." or should the designers tell the players, "This is the mechanical effects of X - you decide how it works." ?  Obviously 4e has gone with the latter approach.</blockquote>

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