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<blockquote data-quote="howandwhy99" data-source="post: 5081235" data-attributes="member: 3192">I see this discussion on the nature of truth relating to roleplaying because roleplaying itself was debunked in the late 70's-early 80's.&nbsp; That occurred, perhaps wholly, as a result of RPGs, which focused on fantasy rather than reality - a big no-no up until that point.&nbsp; For example, if Umbran's PC attempts to drop an apple on my PC's head, then there is no &quot;right way&quot; for the apple to behave.&nbsp; It doesn't need to fall or hit or cause damage to a predictable extent or whatever.&nbsp; It is simply the rules behind the screen as enforced by the DM.&nbsp; This is often called DM fiat.An interactive pattern finding game means a rule (or more than one rule) is being enforced repeatedly with every attempted action in a game. Discovering those underlying rules is what allows an exploration of the unknown into the game.&nbsp; It brings to bear all the things requiring such an exploration into the game: mystery, magic, horror, suspense, and, above all, discovery of something other than one's self desires.&nbsp; Exploration of the unknown is something definitive of the human condition in my opinion.&nbsp; An interactive PFG is a game where one searches for the truth rather than determining the truth for oneself.&nbsp; It is in the nature of pattern finding that no answer can ever be known to be absolutely true, but statistical regularity allows players to accept certain results as pragmatically true and then to reason from them in future situations.Whether or not objective truth is used to denote reality or shared agreement of truth between people is not something I think will be settled here.&nbsp; IMO, it is one of the defining questions of our current age, an age still grappling with the end of the Age of Reason.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="howandwhy99, post: 5081235, member: 3192"] I see this discussion on the nature of truth relating to roleplaying because roleplaying itself was debunked in the late 70's-early 80's. That occurred, perhaps wholly, as a result of RPGs, which focused on fantasy rather than reality - a big no-no up until that point. For example, if Umbran's PC attempts to drop an apple on my PC's head, then there is no "right way" for the apple to behave. It doesn't need to fall or hit or cause damage to a predictable extent or whatever. It is simply the rules behind the screen as enforced by the DM. This is often called DM fiat. An interactive pattern finding game means a rule (or more than one rule) is being enforced repeatedly with every attempted action in a game. Discovering those underlying rules is what allows an exploration of the unknown into the game. It brings to bear all the things requiring such an exploration into the game: mystery, magic, horror, suspense, and, above all, discovery of something other than one's self desires. Exploration of the unknown is something definitive of the human condition in my opinion. An interactive PFG is a game where one searches for the truth rather than determining the truth for oneself. It is in the nature of pattern finding that no answer can ever be known to be absolutely true, but statistical regularity allows players to accept certain results as pragmatically true and then to reason from them in future situations. Whether or not objective truth is used to denote reality or shared agreement of truth between people is not something I think will be settled here. IMO, it is one of the defining questions of our current age, an age still grappling with the end of the Age of Reason. [/QUOTE]

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