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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Doug McCrae" data-source="post: 5263219" data-attributes="member: 21169">Realism can be a spectrum as well as an end point. One can say that X is more or less realistic than Y without either being perfectly realistic. It used to be said of Babylon 5 that it was realistic, which is laughable if one means completely realistic, but makes sense if what one means is that it's more realistic than other sci-fi shows, such as Star Trek. Though one could say that being more realistic than Star Trek isn't exactly setting the bar high.It's like that with D&D. It contains elves and dragons and wizards and so forth so it can never be 'kitchen sink' realism but one can speak of degrees of realism in other aspects of the game world. It's not necessary to say that, because it contains non-naturalistic elements, that we cannot use the term realism and must resort to believability, plausibility or verisimilitude.Even the non-naturalistic elements might have many aspects that conform to the way things work in our world. The elven body for example is probably made of flesh and blood, has a brain, nerves, organs etc. It's not constructed of magical material, like the physical form of an angel or demon.</blockquote>