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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
The Importance of Verisimilitude (or "Why you don't need realism to keep it real")
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9177643" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>I wouldn't touch 3E D&D with a 10' pole. I find the combination of RQ-ish combat manoeuvres, pseudo-RQ-ish skills (I call them "pseudo" because the system has no actual account of what the increasing skill DCs mean; they're purely mechanical abstractions with a fig leaf of fiction over the top like "really well-crafted lock") and abstract Gygaxian core combat (initiative, attacks per round, damage per attack, damage measured in hit points) utterly unappealing.</p><p></p><p>The poster child for my dislike of this system is dragon's natural armour. A red dragon can have a +30 or higher "natural armour bonus" (<a href="https://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/dragonTrue.htm" target="_blank">Dragon, True :: d20srd.org</a>). At the same time, the most enchanted magical plate armour, at +5, grants +13 AC. What is it, in the fiction, that makes that dragon's hide tougher than the strongest magical armour? The system has no answer: it's just maths to make the game work.</p><p></p><p>I find there to be zero verisimilitude in this system.</p><p></p><p>(Contrast AD&D: a red dragon's AC is -1, which is the same as highly enchanted plate mail. Or contrast 4e D&D: an ancient red dragon's AC is 48, which is similar to the 45 and 47 of the heavily armoured 30th level fighter and paladin in my game.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 9177643, member: 42582"] I wouldn't touch 3E D&D with a 10' pole. I find the combination of RQ-ish combat manoeuvres, pseudo-RQ-ish skills (I call them "pseudo" because the system has no actual account of what the increasing skill DCs mean; they're purely mechanical abstractions with a fig leaf of fiction over the top like "really well-crafted lock") and abstract Gygaxian core combat (initiative, attacks per round, damage per attack, damage measured in hit points) utterly unappealing. The poster child for my dislike of this system is dragon's natural armour. A red dragon can have a +30 or higher "natural armour bonus" ([URL="https://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/dragonTrue.htm"]Dragon, True :: d20srd.org[/URL]). At the same time, the most enchanted magical plate armour, at +5, grants +13 AC. What is it, in the fiction, that makes that dragon's hide tougher than the strongest magical armour? The system has no answer: it's just maths to make the game work. I find there to be zero verisimilitude in this system. (Contrast AD&D: a red dragon's AC is -1, which is the same as highly enchanted plate mail. Or contrast 4e D&D: an ancient red dragon's AC is 48, which is similar to the 45 and 47 of the heavily armoured 30th level fighter and paladin in my game.) [/QUOTE]
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The Importance of Verisimilitude (or "Why you don't need realism to keep it real")
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