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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 5711942" data-attributes="member: 7006">The point for me is that I don't have hang-ups about EITHER system.  I've played them both and I've enjoyed both, but I come at it from a GAME and not a NARRATIVE perspective.  I don't get hung up on the realism or unrealism, the heroic or the gritty, being able to justify or not justify etc. etc. because I feel using ANY game (board, role, video or otherwise) as a method for presenting combat narrative is flawed from the get-go.  Games are not novels.The game rules for combat are in place to make the GAME fun.... not to make a narrative (that makes sense or doesn't make sense or anything else).  Sure... all these games layer story and fluff ON TOP of the game rules so that you can approximate a narrative with it... but I feel that in ANY combat game, the narrative will always have holes in it.  It will never be consistent.  There are too many variables within the game itself.So your choice is either you close eyes to those holes that you think don't lend credence to your narrative, or you not worry about narrative consistency based upon the game rules and create whatever narrative you want.  Which is what I do.  If the narrative I create happens to align pretty well to what the results of THE GAME has presented to our table... so much the better.  That's great!  But I'm never going to beholden myself or my narrative to EXACTLY what the game results are (because as I've said... the game and any sense of cohesive narrative are usually not aligned).  If someone falls below 0 HP (whether in 3E or 4E or OD&D)... that can and will mean ANYTHING at all that I want it to mean, based upon the story I wish to tell for and with my players.  And each time it happens, it's not going to be exactly the same because my story will never be the same.  Sometimes the monster is killed upon reaching 0.  Sometimes he's alive but unconscious if the PCs wish to question one.  Sometimes when a PC drops below 0HP he has suffered a major injury because it works for the story at that point.  Sometimes the PC has fallen unconscious.  Sometimes the PC is just exhausted, and an Inspiring Word from the warlord will get him back into the fight.  Sometimes a failed 3rd save the PC is dead.  Sometimes a failed 3rd save the PC's soul has transferred to a different plane and the party has to go on a quest to retrieve it.  It's always different.  The story is always different.  Even if the game rules are exactly the same... the story is always different.  So I just don't worry that some game rules don't make narrative sense.  I'm telling my story with my players... the game itself be damned.I understand completely that's not how most of you look at the game.  Which is fine.  I just don't really care.</blockquote>

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