Anthtriel said:Why? How is storytelling at all related to the gamist approach?
The way I see it, the gamist DM considers it all a game, and therefore tries to make the decisions that will be most "fun" for the players, whereas the simulationist DM tries to make the decisions that will seem most like "what should happen" by the rules of the campaign world.
The way I see it, the advantage of gamism is that "unfun" and frustrating situations are mostly avoided. No one needs to make a roll to see if a robber comes along and kills the party in their sleep.
But taking it too far ruins the suspension of disbelief.
The advantage of simulatism are more difficult to define in my opinion. I once ran a completely simulationist homebrewed game that had about two or three pages of rules and relied on realism for everything else. The game had all sorts of problems of course. It had combats, and nearly all of them were fairly anticlimatic, as the players would find very creative, and overpowered ways to kill off their enemies. However, coming up with clever ways to use their abilities ended up incredibly satisfying for the players. I wouldn't run a totally simulationist game to often, and it is hard to get attached to characters if they can die on a moment's notice. But it is a very nice breath of fresh air.
My own personal opinion but i generally dont think DMs run games in a gamist fashion. I think DMs might enjoy games with gamist types of rulesets though.
Just a general perception and could be convinced otherwise.
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