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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5618052" data-attributes="member: 42582">Good stuff.I would want to add - the action resolution mechanics should also help you imagine yourself as Ralf the Fighter in the course of their application. (This is my version of the "rules vs fiction" debate!) I personally think that 4e definitely satisfies this criterion.No. To say that the game is not about "whether or not some guy that runs around killing monsters for 30 levels has a better understanding of trees or not" isn't to say the game is about killing monsters. It is to say that killing monsters is a core focus of the game, in a way that botany is not.Fighting "monsters" is a core focus of the X-Men, and the Hulk, and the Arthurian legends, and Lord of the Rings, in a way that botany is not (the closest we get to botany in LotR is Sam's remarks to Gollum about seasoning rabbits ie not very close). But none of those stories is about killing monsters.4e is designed around the assumption that fighting monsters, scaling Mount Doom, negotiating with sphinxes and efreets, and sneaking into the palace of Orcus, will be core activities, and that botany, and blacksmithing, will not. This is obvious from the barest familiarity with the PC build and action resolution mechanics.But to infer from that that the game is, or must be, or tends to be, or best supports only, shallow play is completely unfounded. Imaging myself as Aragorn the Ranger, or Lancelot the Knight of the Round Table, or Wolverine the berserker, or Doc Samson the gamma-irradiated psychoanalyst, or even Ralf the Fighter, need have nothing to do with shallow or hack-and-slash play. But as Abdul Alhazred has posted, it also needn't have much to do with thinking about my expertise in botany, nor pondering how I am going to cross the creek without drowning after last night's heavy rain.To put it another way - gritty does not have a monopoly on roleplaying, on imagination, on storytelling, or on fantasy gaming. No doubt some prefer it. But those who want a different experience aren't therefore more shallow in their tastes.</blockquote>

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