NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7006560" data-attributes="member: 42582">Only in the sense that any world building - any decision about the content of the fiction that is not a result of a resolution procedure - is fiat.But not in the sense of a departure or override of a resolution procedure that would normally apply.Yes. That is about applying changes to a stat block. Not about establishing backstory that happens to involve a monster - like a swamp that was magically created by a black dragon.It is not about "giving a monster whatever you deem it needs". To make it true that, in the gameworld, the black dragon corrupted a once crystal-clear pond into a stagnant bog does not require me to "give" the black dragon anything. It just requires me to imagine (and, perhaps, write down) that foregoing story.Much the same as writing that the prince fell in love with his mother's handmaiden doesn't require me to "give" the prince anything (like a "vulnerabiity to falling in love with handmaidens" entry in his statblock).As to where this is set out: for me, it was made clear in Worlds & Monsters (pages 14, 18):When the world team started talking about the D&D world . . . [w]e proposed D&D environments containing fantastic elements alongside more mundane features. These could include an island of rock perched atop a constant waterspout of titanic size, a river of lava that never cools or stops flowing, a grassy plane dotted with monolithic pillars that seemingly dropped from the skies, or a city of floating towers borne up by ancient magic. . . . Magic permeates the planes and the world in the same way that air fills the sky. Normal people . . . benefit from their hedge mage's ability to ward of evil spirits . . . and their priest's capacity to bless crops.Magic permeates the world and creates fantastic environments. Hedge mages ward of evil spirits; priests bless crops. These aren't elements of stat blocks: they're elements of worldbuilding, and of establishing the backstory for the campaign. In the same vein, I don't a stat block to tell me that a black dragon can corrupt the water it dwells in: the MM (pp 75-6) tells me that it is a magical beast that breathes caustic green acid and is "naturally drawn to places where the Shadowfell's influence is strong." The fiction of the black dragon supports the fiction of its capacity, indeed its inevitable tendency, to corrupt water. It doesn't need a stat block.(And to preempt a possible question: if a scneario involved the PCs protecting a pool from a black dragon's corruption, or reversing that corruption, the non-combat components off that would be a skill challenge. And skill challenges don't involve any opposed checks or action declarations by the GM. The GM just has to narrate the adversity in fictional terms; all the mechanical resolution is player side.)Who's denying it? It's obvious, and was a recurrent criticism of 4e.No. It's a statement of fact about 4e. (Hence my phrase "in the 4e context".)4e won't tell you that an ogre has d8 HD - it gives you (in the MM) an 11th and 16th level ogre minion, two 8th level ogres, and an 11th level elite. Which of these a GM wants to use (if any - maybe s/he wants to level some up or down) is up to the GM, based on the fiction s/he is aiming for.It's advice that, if they want that sort of game, they shoudn't play 4e. Because 4e won't deliver it by default, and if you try and get that sort out of 4e in any event you will have to fight the system at just about every point.Advising someone who wants the mechanics to tell them how the world works that they probalby should avoid FATE or Dungeonworld isn't criticising their taste. It's taking it seriously!But the flipside is that someone with those preferences who then criticises FATE or DW for not satsifying them is probably missing the point of those systems.Likewise with 4e. It's designed to work a certain way, and if you don't want to run that sort of game it probably isn't for you. That doesn't mean it's badly designed. It's not as if, in a 4e game, there's no explanation for why the fiction is at is. But that explanation is in further  fictional terms, not mechanical ones. It's a fiction-first system.Well, I think it's handy to note what editions support what sort of play. There's a reason I'll play AD&D or 4e, but not 2nd ed or 3E. Because the first two can give me a play experience I want, and the latter two generally can't.(And if you think there's no difference between editions, then how do you explain all those people who don't like 4e? Of which I thought you were one!)</blockquote>

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