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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ariosto" data-source="post: 5268179" data-attributes="member: 80487">I don't recall anyone in LotR reacting in disbelief or apparently never having seen magic in his or her life. Nor does it seem to me at all unbelievable that the protagonists, who are seeking some magics and trying to avoid the far-reaching attentions of others, should encounter as much enchantment as they do.Which means what, Doug? It means the PCs are "always" (to use your word) not in "the setting" they inhabit.That may or may not be realistic or believable, but using word play to be purposefully misleading as to what we are talking about is not exactly a help in assessing it!Mount Kilimanjaro is at 3°4' South latitude. It also rises 5882 m, to an elevation of 5895 m above sea level. As a consequence, a climb to the peak is like going from the equator to the Antarctic.Now, if you leave out that information, and the fact that we're talking about someone who climbs the mountain a lot, and define the setting as "tropical Africa", then it might -- at least to someone who is too hasty in leaping to conclusions -- be "unbelievable" that an inhabitant of the setting happens to encounter a lot of arctic conditions.Moreover, "arctic conditions" would not encompass the high-altitude reality of something like half the oxygen as at sea level.Planet Earth, indeed, is a "setting" that encompasses tremendous variety in environments and life forms. See James Cameron's "Aliens of the Deep" documentary for some awesome examples of things beyond our usual experience.Are these things 'unbelievable' to you?I do not find the Land of Oz any more believable for having however many more books' worth of silliness packed into it. I do not find the world of Normalman more believable than that of Superman.I do not find you unbelievable simply because most people are not Scots. I do not find it unbelievable that there are billionaires in a world of people with much less wealth, or that there are people manning submarines armed with nuclear-warhead missiles in a world in which most people have never seen any of those things except in pictures.What I would find unbelievable is the rich on the whole giving up their riches, and the nations on the whole giving up their preparations for war, to buy the world a haggis and keep it company.Now, if there were some rationale for it, then maybe I could suspend my disbelief!</blockquote>

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