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Message: <blockquote data-quote="clearstream" data-source="post: 7962461" data-attributes="member: 71699">So with in mind whether errata should change rules, picture the followingD&Dm (mirror-world D&D) has creature sizes smue and tue. Smue creatures have the properties that small ones do in D&D except they can use heavy weapons. Tue creatures have the properties that tiny ones do in D&D except they can use heavy weapons. (In D&Dm only mue creatures cannot use heavy weapons.)1) At some time after release, an errata is published to D&Dm saying that tue creatures cannot use heavy weapons. Should the heavy weapon constraint also apply to smue creatures even though they are not specified?2) A bit later, an errata is published to D&Dm saying that the previous errata is erased and smue creatures cannot use heavy weapons. Should the heavy weapon constraint apply to tue creatures even though this errata "erased" the previous one and prior to that they were able to use them?Perhaps by thinking about smue and tue creatures we can see that assuming that anything that constrains the former constrains the latter (probably inconsistently) amounts to a hidden rule. What Bjork and Holopainen would have called an exogenous rule. It is a rule we add to the game aka a house rule.I'm not saying that it is wrong to have exogenous rules. For one thing, it would be impossible to make any sense of RPG rules if we didn't bring into it a whole host of hidden rules. [USER=6749263]@Envisioner[/USER] is right to point out that there are simulationist aspects of D&D that should inform our interpretations. The risk is that as these assumptions are hidden, we don't know for sure that we share the same ones: almost certainly we do not.I am questioning if it is really the job of errata to reify our hidden rules? What if my hidden rule differs from yours? Are we happy to say that all an errata need do is please the majority? Surely "pleasing the majority" underdetermines the job of errata. Perhaps sending us all ice cream would please us more... but sending us ice cream wouldn't be errata? So clearly errata has some job to do, beyond pleasing the majority.</blockquote>

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