D&D General Playstyle vs Mechanics

[AlViking]

Yes, but the crux of the issue is that as participants in a roleplaying game fiction, we take responsibility to author what those "stated otherwise" moments are.

A game in which I can use "shocking grasp" to separate hydrogen and oxygen from water is a very different game than one in which "water" is a fundamental essence of the universe.

I guess I'm just not seeing what the argument is about. Fictional universes make fictional alterations to the accepted reality. I just want a basic understanding of how the world works and what alterations have been made to our perceptions of reality so I don't have to constantly second guess what reality is in the fiction.

 

[MichaelSomething]

I guess I'm just not seeing what the argument is about. Fictional universes make fictional alterations to the accepted reality. I just want a basic understanding of how the world works and what alterations have been made to our perceptions of reality so I don't have to constantly second guess what reality is in the fiction.

You're asking questions the authors themselves may have not thought through.

 

[AlViking]

You're asking questions the authors themselves may have not thought through.

Why would they need to? You only need to make exceptions when they're needed, and of course things can in some cases be modified. If you do that you'd better be careful, it's one thing for Luke to find out Mr. Vader was his father but try to change how the force works too much and people scream bloody murder.

Point is that when making fiction you only want to have to explain or show what's different and how. Doesn't matter if it's a movie, book or a game. Everything else? We assume people still have blood flowing through their veins and a heart that pumps it. Even if that's not spelled out.

 

[prabe]

Why would they need to? You only need to make exceptions when they're needed, and of course things can in some cases be modified. If you do that you'd better be careful, it's one thing for Luke to find out Mr. Vader was his father but try to change how the force works too much and people scream bloody murder.

Point is that when making fiction you only want to have to explain or show what's different and how. Doesn't matter if it's a movie, book or a game. Everything else? We assume people still have blood flowing through their veins and a heart that pumps it. Even if that's not spelled out.

The only hiccup in the approach you outline is that the audience for a piece of pre-authored fiction probably needs to know if something isn't going to follow real-world physics--not even classical mechanics--before it turns out not to, especially if that ends up being to the protagonist's benefit. In TRPGs, the rough parallel works kinda the other way, because even something that works to their benefit now might also make them look at least a little daft in retrospect when they didn't take advantage of it before. I've seen this make problems at at least one TRPG table.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Do you really not use giant terrestrial arthropods, and flying dragons, in your FRPGing?

Those things count as obviously supernatural to me.

So yes I do use them.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Yes, but the crux of the issue is that as participants in a roleplaying game fiction, we take responsibility to author what those "stated otherwise" moments are.

A game in which I can use "shocking grasp" to separate hydrogen and oxygen from water is a very different game than one in which "water" is a fundamental essence of the universe.

I can definitely see a world where water is an element from a supernatural and planar point of view, but a combination of hydrogen and oxygen from a scientific one.

 

[clearstream]

The only hiccup in the approach you outline is that the audience for a piece of pre-authored fiction probably needs to know if something isn't going to follow real-world physics--not even classical mechanics--before it turns out not to

It strikes me that generally adding the descriptor "magical" signals to folk that something needn't work how they'd expect in the real world.

Frex, if I create a "magical" fog that lasts for 10 minutes, then even if it is sunny barring further text it lasts for 10 minutes. If I create a real fog and it is sunny, then we might try to estimate from real world experience how long it lasts.

 

[Aldarc]

It strikes me that generally adding the descriptor "magical" signals to folk that something needn't work how they'd expect in the real world.

Frex, if I create a "magical" fog that lasts for 10 minutes, then even if it is sunny barring further text it lasts for 10 minutes. If I create a real fog and it is sunny, then we might try to estimate from real world experience how long it lasts.

Then let us say that it is a magical fantasy world and be done with pretending this world cares about realism.

 

[prabe]

Then let us say that it is a magical fantasy world and be done with pretending this world cares about realism.

I think that we at the table care about the game world conforming to reality mainly so as to make it comprehensible to the people at the table. I think that what that means will probably vary table-to-table, both as a matter of knowledge and as a matter of ability to willingly suspend disbelief. This doesn't seem like any more of a problem to me than any other taste/preference in any other fiction.

 

[prabe]

It strikes me that generally adding the descriptor "magical" signals to folk that something needn't work how they'd expect in the real world.

Frex, if I create a "magical" fog that lasts for 10 minutes, then even if it is sunny barring further text it lasts for 10 minutes. If I create a real fog and it is sunny, then we might try to estimate from real world experience how long it lasts.

I was getting more at the idea that whoever's establishing fictional things needs to consider how what they're establishing changes the past (or how it looks). This pretty obviously more likely to be a problem for permanent things than for transient ones.