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<blockquote data-quote="Mattrex" data-source="post: 5687006" data-attributes="member: 81794">I think that could be an interesting creative exercise, but I don't think it would rise to the level of what I expect out of a tabletop RPG. One of the difficulties of this hobby is that there is a huge variation of what people mean by &quot;roleplaying game&quot;, not to mention &quot;roleplaying&quot; and, indeed, &quot;game&quot;.A game with physical laws exactly like our own--essentially taking place in a fictional version of the real world--would be much easier to manage as a rules-free or hidden-rules game, certainly, and as a player I'd probably have a better grasp of what's possible and what's not. But I think a game where even the PCs have no idea what's going on wouldn't be particularly fun in the long run: in that situation, you're asking people to perform actions and make decisions when the outcome is random, at least from their perspective. When people start to get the idea that their choices do not have a meaningful impact on the results of their actions, they lose investment and stop caring.And that leads me to my next point: player choice. As a player I like to decide what kind of character I want to play, and I like having the freedom to customize and craft them (within the limits of whatever system I'm playing in). If my character advances, I want to be able to make some choices to advance them, and those choices are more meaningful to me if I actually know what it is I'm advancing and how much, and how that changes the overall configuration of my character. I'd frankly rather have a +1 Intelligence than &quot;a little bit smarter&quot;, because the former has a quantifiable effect (on skills, knowledge, magic, whatever) and the latter still leaves me a bit in the dark as to how much &quot;a little bit&quot; means.While some players may enjoy, for dramatic reasons, the sense of uncertainty and vagueness that would accompany such ignorance, I find precisely-defined characters more interesting and tangible and immanent. Is it strange that the presence of the numbers actually aids my immersion?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mattrex, post: 5687006, member: 81794"] I think that could be an interesting creative exercise, but I don't think it would rise to the level of what I expect out of a tabletop RPG. One of the difficulties of this hobby is that there is a huge variation of what people mean by "roleplaying game", not to mention "roleplaying" and, indeed, "game". A game with physical laws exactly like our own--essentially taking place in a fictional version of the real world--would be much easier to manage as a rules-free or hidden-rules game, certainly, and as a player I'd probably have a better grasp of what's possible and what's not. But I think a game where even the PCs have no idea what's going on wouldn't be particularly fun in the long run: in that situation, you're asking people to perform actions and make decisions when the outcome is random, at least from their perspective. When people start to get the idea that their choices do not have a meaningful impact on the results of their actions, they lose investment and stop caring. And that leads me to my next point: player choice. As a player I like to decide what kind of character I want to play, and I like having the freedom to customize and craft them (within the limits of whatever system I'm playing in). If my character advances, I want to be able to make some choices to advance them, and those choices are more meaningful to me if I actually know what it is I'm advancing and how much, and how that changes the overall configuration of my character. I'd frankly rather have a +1 Intelligence than "a little bit smarter", because the former has a quantifiable effect (on skills, knowledge, magic, whatever) and the latter still leaves me a bit in the dark as to how much "a little bit" means. While some players may enjoy, for dramatic reasons, the sense of uncertainty and vagueness that would accompany such ignorance, I find precisely-defined characters more interesting and tangible and immanent. Is it strange that the presence of the numbers actually [I]aids[/I] my immersion? [/QUOTE]

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