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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8673752" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>What I think is that you can take the baseline position &quot;society looks like a pastiche of modern tropes about medieval life&quot; and then just sort of assume that anything like dragons, clerics, whatever, all just kind of cancels out. Where it gets pretty dicey is when play reveals specific attributes of one of these things, at which point we're just hanging out there in a place where the &quot;this doesn't change things&quot; cannot be sustained, but we choose to ignore it and continue. Now, when someone says &quot;but why can't I do the same thing with my fighter's jumping distance&quot; it really isn't all that consistent to say &quot;no, you are not allowed to do unrealistic things!&quot; I mean, go ahead and say 'no', but at least acknowledge that it isn't realism that is driving that! Its just a genre trope, not a logical one, not one that can withstand examination, but one that can be upheld in play precisely because we 'squint' as the OP says. Nothing is wrong with that, I just think it is a misuse of the term to call any of that 'simulation'.</p></blockquote><p></p>

[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 8673752, member: 82106"] What I think is that you can take the baseline position "society looks like a pastiche of modern tropes about medieval life" and then just sort of assume that anything like dragons, clerics, whatever, all just kind of cancels out. Where it gets pretty dicey is when play reveals specific attributes of one of these things, at which point we're just hanging out there in a place where the "this doesn't change things" cannot be sustained, but we choose to ignore it and continue. Now, when someone says "but why can't I do the same thing with my fighter's jumping distance" it really isn't all that consistent to say "no, you are not allowed to do unrealistic things!" I mean, go ahead and say 'no', but at least acknowledge that it isn't realism that is driving that! Its just a genre trope, not a logical one, not one that can withstand examination, but one that can be upheld in play precisely because we 'squint' as the OP says. Nothing is wrong with that, I just think it is a misuse of the term to call any of that 'simulation'. [/QUOTE]

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