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<blockquote data-quote="howandwhy99" data-source="post: 4651542" data-attributes="member: 3192"><p>The key thing about role playing is, it's the actual "acting out" of the role, not the abstracted elements. By definition, if you abstract something in the game, you aren't role playing it. If someone swings a sword and hits you, they acted it out. If they just say they did, then they didn't role play it. In traditional "role playing" games very little, if anything, is acted out. They are all simulation. But within the simulation the elements that are not abstracted are addressed and this addressing is what is historically termed "role playing" within the hobby (ignoring character characterization role playing, which most games don't have rules for).</p><p></p><p>All of which is to say, if you want Behavioral Sciences, Earth and Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Technology in the your role playing game - define them within the simulation. Address them by giving them absolute definitions. And when you define other things in the game, make sure you include definitions of all 4 in relation to those other things (i.e. people, places, things, etc.).</p><p></p><p>As traditional "role playing" games are incomplete manual simulations, you'll need to continually expand these definitions to new things as new things are addressed (new categories beyond your 4 too, but things and categories all add up to the same result: definitions in a simulation). This breaks down to how there is no difference between crunch and fluff in a traditional RPG, but for the sake of consistency just define whatever is important (folks want addressed in the game simulation) and stick with definitions already used. </p><p></p><p>To clarify with an example, Physical Sciences include rocks, wood, flesh, shell, etc. Hardness might be important to address separately from Combat Defense, so each element is given a definition. It can be numerical or it can be text, but it needs to define Hardness in each case in relation to the action addresssed. In the case of Hardness it's probably "breaking".</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="howandwhy99, post: 4651542, member: 3192"] The key thing about role playing is, it's the actual "acting out" of the role, not the abstracted elements. By definition, if you abstract something in the game, you aren't role playing it. If someone swings a sword and hits you, they acted it out. If they just say they did, then they didn't role play it. In traditional "role playing" games very little, if anything, is acted out. They are all simulation. But within the simulation the elements that are not abstracted are addressed and this addressing is what is historically termed "role playing" within the hobby (ignoring character characterization role playing, which most games don't have rules for). All of which is to say, if you want Behavioral Sciences, Earth and Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Technology in the your role playing game - define them within the simulation. Address them by giving them absolute definitions. And when you define other things in the game, make sure you include definitions of all 4 in relation to those other things (i.e. people, places, things, etc.). As traditional "role playing" games are incomplete manual simulations, you'll need to continually expand these definitions to new things as new things are addressed (new categories beyond your 4 too, but things and categories all add up to the same result: definitions in a simulation). This breaks down to how there is no difference between crunch and fluff in a traditional RPG, but for the sake of consistency just define whatever is important (folks want addressed in the game simulation) and stick with definitions already used. To clarify with an example, Physical Sciences include rocks, wood, flesh, shell, etc. Hardness might be important to address separately from Combat Defense, so each element is given a definition. It can be numerical or it can be text, but it needs to define Hardness in each case in relation to the action addresssed. In the case of Hardness it's probably "breaking". [/QUOTE]
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