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<blockquote data-quote="HeinorNY" data-source="post: 4018409" data-attributes="member: 16178">They are not exclusive. But the design philosophy behind a game can enforce one of them, or at least &quot;prepare the field&quot; for one or two types of style in detriment of the other.IMO, D&amp;D 3E is fairly balanced and flexible regarding the 3 styles of playing. Actually I think it's more flexible than balanced. I can identify gamist, simulationist and narrativism mechanics in 3E. I also think one of the success factor behind D&amp;D is exactly its flexibility towards gaming style. It's very hard to play a gamist session of Vampire, or a narrativistic session of Cyberpunk 2020. D&amp;D is the best in style flexibility by light-years. Or it was...But then came SWSE with its &quot;fast paced cinematic gaming&quot; philosophy and it almost killed simulationist style of playing. Come on... roll 1d6 days to calculate travel time??? Characters have extra HD and &quot;normal&quot; people don't??? Oh yeah, they are the &quot;protagonists&quot;... thus we need narrativistic rules to assure that don't we?&nbsp; Narrativistic gaming is about &quot;destiny&quot;, the characters are supposed to be the heroes, thus the rules are built around that. The characters are supposed to be more powerful than others because they are the main characters. They have extra HD because they are &quot;special&quot;. Destiny points anyone? The gaming World here exists around the PCs and for them.Simulationist is about &quot;choices&quot;, characters are supposed to become heroes. They don't have special privileges in the rules, they are, as much as possible, normal people, until they start DOING heroic stuff. If the heroes are more powerful than others, that's because they had a hard time adventuring, earning that power. Heroes here don't need extra HD, they have more HD because they have more levels because they killed more monsters! Here PCs are just part of the world, and it exists with them or without them.Of course my D&amp;D is not fully simulationist, there ARE powerful PC classes and weak NPC classes, but it is not so narrativistic that I can't be as simulationist as I want to. There are gamist mechanics as classes, levels, CR, expected gold per level, LA, etc. because the game needs to be balanced and easier to play, and I like it. The problem is when a style overcomes another. If 4E goes that same SWSE's path my style of gaming is screwed.R.I.P D&amp;D *1974 +2008I hope not.OBS: All I needed in order to be fine was one of the designer to come here and just write 2 words: &quot;Don't worry.&quot;</blockquote>

[QUOTE="HeinorNY, post: 4018409, member: 16178"] They are not exclusive. But the design philosophy behind a game can enforce one of them, or at least "prepare the field" for one or two types of style in detriment of the other. IMO, D&D 3E is fairly balanced and flexible regarding the 3 styles of playing. Actually I think it's more flexible than balanced. I can identify gamist, simulationist and narrativism mechanics in 3E. I also think one of the success factor behind D&D is exactly its flexibility towards gaming style. It's very hard to play a gamist session of Vampire, or a narrativistic session of Cyberpunk 2020. D&D is the best in style flexibility by light-years. Or it was... But then came SWSE with its "fast paced cinematic gaming" philosophy and it almost killed simulationist style of playing. Come on... roll 1d6 days to calculate travel time??? Characters have extra HD and "normal" people don't??? Oh yeah, they are the "protagonists"... thus we need narrativistic rules to assure that don't we? Narrativistic gaming is about "destiny", the characters are supposed to be the heroes, thus the rules are built around that. The characters are supposed to be more powerful than others because they are the main characters. They have extra HD because they are "special". Destiny points anyone? The gaming World here exists around the PCs and for them. Simulationist is about "choices", characters are supposed to become heroes. They don't have special privileges in the rules, they are, as much as possible, normal people, until they start DOING heroic stuff. If the heroes are more powerful than others, that's because they had a hard time adventuring, earning that power. Heroes here don't need extra HD, they have more HD because they have more levels because they killed more monsters! Here PCs are just part of the world, and it exists with them or without them. Of course my D&D is not fully simulationist, there ARE powerful PC classes and weak NPC classes, but it is not so narrativistic that I can't be as simulationist as I want to. There are gamist mechanics as classes, levels, CR, expected gold per level, LA, etc. because the game needs to be balanced and easier to play, and I like it. The problem is when a style overcomes another. If 4E goes that same SWSE's path my style of gaming is screwed. R.I.P D&D *1974 +2008 I hope not. OBS: All I needed in order to be fine was one of the designer to come here and just write 2 words: "Don't worry." [/QUOTE]

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