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<blockquote data-quote="TheCosmicKid" data-source="post: 6664176" data-attributes="member: 6683613">There's a difference between dissociation and abstraction.&nbsp; Characters are aware of the variables that HP abstracts into a single number:&nbsp; they know when they've been exhausted, battered, and wounded, and can make decisions accordingly.In fact, the abstraction avoids some dissociation that might otherwise be present.&nbsp; If HP represented purely &quot;plot armor&quot;, how many times you could dodge an attack before the next one connects and drops you, then it would be dissociated for a player to know &quot;I can dodge five attacks but not six.&quot;&nbsp; And if it represented purely physical toughness, how many times you could get stabbed before the next one drops you, then it would have the same problem and produce some ridiculous mental images to boot.&nbsp; By being vague about what's going on, it actually improves plausibility while keeping the math simple.Do you really see any value in spending your time psychoanalyzing a strawman?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="TheCosmicKid, post: 6664176, member: 6683613"] There's a difference between [I]dissociation[/I] and [I]abstraction[/I]. Characters are aware of the variables that HP abstracts into a single number: they know when they've been exhausted, battered, and wounded, and can make decisions accordingly. In fact, the abstraction avoids some dissociation that might otherwise be present. If HP represented purely "plot armor", how many times you could dodge an attack before the next one connects and drops you, then it would be dissociated for a player to know "I can dodge five attacks but not six." And if it represented purely physical toughness, how many times you could get stabbed before the next one drops you, then it would have the same problem and produce some ridiculous mental images to boot. By being vague about what's going on, it actually improves plausibility while keeping the math simple. Do you really see any value in spending your time psychoanalyzing a strawman? [/QUOTE]

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