NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5472901" data-attributes="member: 42582">Here's a link to a <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/5459152-post171.html" target="_blank">recent post</a> that describes 4e as a "tactical skirmish platform". Here's <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/5455075-post270.html" target="_blank">another post by the same poster</a> that describes non-exploration play as "a game of random encounters strung together" that is "not the purpose of D&D".Why would you possibly say that "it doesn't really matter"? Or talk about "justifying the incongruity with some half-baked narrative"?If you are playing a role playing game (as opposed, say, to a skirmish game) then the narrative should be crucial.I know you are providing an under-specified hypothetical here. But to what extent is it meant to bear on the difference between 4e and AD&D? In 4e, I would expect that an attempt by a player to douse a fire elemental in water would be resolved differently from an attempt by a player to douse a fire elemental in oil (page 42 sketches the relevant resolution parameters).This also bears on Nagol's example of a lightning bolt:Assuming that those at the table are interested in verisimilitude, and if the issue became salient, then the description of the fictional reality might be amplified to include an explanation of the behaviour of the rules manifestation.A concrete example from actual play: <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/299440-exploration-scenarios-my-experiment-last-sunday.html" target="_blank">as I posted not too long ago</a>, the wizard PC in my game used Twist of Space (a level 7 encounter teleport attack) to free a person trapped inside a magical mirror. The resolution followed the guidelines on page 42 of the DMG. What should I infer from this about "rules/metagame first" vs "fiction first"?</blockquote>

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