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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 4224054" data-attributes="member: 42582">Agreed. Playability requires consistent application of the rules. 4e seems intended to deliver this - the PCs' actions will be resolved by the consistent application of the appropriate ruleset.In an RPG it may often also require consistency in the gameworld. 4e mechanics do not preclude this, provided that it is understood by all at the table that the mechanics are not intended to model the gameworld.As to how to assure consistency in the gameworld, read on!The rules of the game tell us how to decide that. Depending on what those rules are, the GM might get to say, or the player might, or some sort of negotiation might be required.Most of the time in my experience it is fairly obvious - if the GM says "Cresting the hill you see a castle" or "Your well-timed blow cuts the orc in two" you know what's going on. If you hit and crit what you're pretty sure is a minion, while using a power that let's you take an extra shift if you foe drops, you say "I duck under its blow and stab it in the chest while rushing past". If you've made a mistake, and it's not a minion at all, the GM can reply "With a grunt of exertion the orc parries your blow. The force of the impact stops you in your tracks." And then, to steal from someone upstead, you respond "At last! A worthy foe!"There can be tricky cases, I concede. These can also arise in simulationist play, if the detail delivered by the mechanics is insufficiently fine or incomplete. I general, be guided by the rules - if the rules tell you that a certain outcome is still possible (eg you're only at the 3rd of 4 required successes for a skill challenge, or a foe still has hit points remaining) then don't describe things in such a way that the outcome in question is rule out.I don't have any suggestion as to how to play an RPGA game, in 4th ed or any other edition. When I've played convention games it's generally been for fun, and so I follow the GM's lead but make my own contributions when it seems appropriate.If RPGA play is primarily for points (is that the case?) then I would have thought that a good knowledge of the rules, rather than a good grasp of the narrative intricacies of the gameworld, would be the most important thing.If the concern is that non-simulationist games will suck if GMed in an adversarial manner, no doubt that is probably true.  If the GM won't let the players participate in shaping the gameworld, and then turns around and used it as a stick to beat them over the head with, players won't have a good time of it. But I think 4e is designed under the assumption that the GM is non-abusive. And unlike earlier editions of D&D (especially AD&D) it won't need to include the sort of GMing advice that is prone to produce abusive GMing. I expect the 4e DMG to read in many ways like the rulebooks for HeroWars or The Dying Earth, and nothing like the 1st ed DMG.</blockquote>

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