Ovinomancer
No flips for you!
If we're adhering to the rules of the game, then, yes, everyone's on the same page. But those rules don't describe anything close to a coherent model of 'normal human' but are a pastiche of arbitrary toggles. We can navigate this well enough because everyone can see where the toggles are. I can only jump STR feet but I can go toe-to-toe with a dragon and not just be murderized (portmanteau of murdered and tenderized). Rules say this, we can see it, so there we go.Which could potentially be fodder for interesting discussion.
Is it possible for folks (either all players of a given game, or just all players at a given table) to communicate about and be on the same page about where quasi-reality ends and fantasy logic begins? At least well enough that players can make good, informed decisions?
Or is it just something, at least in D&D, where the players are always going to have to double-check where "reality" ends/begins in the DM's conception?
It may just be the latter, given how all our Invisible Rulebooks about reality differ.
Where it breaks down is those areas outside the rules, or in the places that the rules say "the GM says what happens here" and where there's little to no guidance at all for that decision space. Here we get into trouble with different imaginings of what is being modeled, or simulated if you prefer, in the fiction.
100% I do now. Usually session 0. It's essential to make sure people understand how you're going to be ruling things, and agree to that, in those areas that are bound to come up and have an impact. You can't get all of it, so my approach is to have a conversation when we hit a new snag and go from there. It also helps that I happen to also love playing games where such discussions are mandated parts of play. That gave me some great insights into how to handle these things in more Trad games with strong assumed GM authorities.When you're running a game, do you talk about this boundary/dividing line with your players? Either in a session zero or a written packet or something, along with house rules and world info?