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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Balesir" data-source="post: 6154399" data-attributes="member: 27160">On the other hand, why go the non-metagame route when there are clearly a number of 100% metagame ways of revising rule elements to accomplish the same goal? Just as there are plenty of metagame-heavy games around these days, there are plenty of process sim ones around, too - D&D has always been initially conceived as sort-of the former but with seams of the latter running through it. I think it's because it came from wargames roots, but since those days even wargames have recognised the value of "metagame" rules in some cases where D&D hasn't.I think this is a key point.One interpretation, here, requires that characters in the world go around jumping off of cliffs in their spare time in order to test the "non-sensicality" of game-world physics, whereas the other requires that some characters deliberately select suboptimal tactics and learning selections in life-or-death situations (that frequently, oddly, seem to be constructed deliberately to make any optimal selections they make less useful) in order to conform to some sort of extra-worldly concept of "fairness". One of these possibilities seems to me to strain belief more than the other.I see your point, but when I play RPGs I don't nornally cast spells or kill fantastic creatures with medieval weaponry. Normally we just talk about doing this sort of stuff - id est, we construct a narrative about it.Where I agree with you is that the narrative does not neccessarily constitute a "story" - although a story may be made out of it. The narrative is commonly more of a technical account*, using technical terms defined in a game manual (the rulebook). This technical account is frequently condensed down into one or more 'stories' after the fact.* Charles Tilly wrote an excellent book about Technical Accounts, Stories, Appeals to Authority and Formalities as the four classifications of answer to the question "Why?", which is well worth reading. It's called, simply, "Why?".</blockquote>

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