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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mustrum_Ridcully" data-source="post: 4548744" data-attributes="member: 710">But I think in the context of role-playing games, it doesn't have to be a problem. It can in fact be something players enjoy, especially if it grants particular freedoms that a harder game-rule/game-world mapping can't provide. If you are free to interpret certain game mechanics in different ways, you avoid the problems of rules that can become too complex. If you try to have a rules framework that allows you to map any (or at least a large enough subset) conceivable gameworld actions into rules, your rules might become to complex. You might, for example, want to have a rule for called shots, the difference between an uppercut and a bashing attack, the rules for fighting (and perceiving) with or without a helmet, and so on. All these can be things to describe in the game world and probably would matter in it - but we don't always want to bother also applying rules for this. I think the goal of rules is not just to provide a way to resolve situations at all, but to resolve them in interesting ways without requiring to much of our mental efforts. Maybe this is just a "gamist" approach, but I think rules complexity should be geared towards providing a certain "tactical" element - how do I solve a problem? That is basically the same thing we do outside the rules framework: "How do we free the captured slaves? How do we navigate through this dungeon?" One of the disadvantages of matching game rules and game world to close is that you think constantly in rule terms. You can't just freely narrate what your character does, you have to describe everything accurately in the rules. But that's not really how your character would think - he just does his thing. When you're swinging a sword, you probably don't think about skill checks, DCs, weapon hardness, handedness and what-else the game rules offer. And removing the rules a little more from this strictness means you can operate more freely on the descriptive level, and still have all the fun of using the rules in a clever way. Though maybe words of encouragement make you willing to go on despite painful or nasty-looking wounds? That would bring us back to "Schroedingers hit points" - we don't know what the hit points you currently have represent - do you have all those hit points due to experience, training and a good health? Or is it because you're still highly motivated?</blockquote>

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