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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7386622" data-attributes="member: 42582">And I know as both player and GM I've looked at a character sheet and wondered what would become of that character.These are aesthetic preferences. They don't tell us what is possible , or necessary, in RPGing.These are aesthetic preferences. Realism has nothing to do with it.There's nothing more realistic about a story in which the PCs inspect an intersection and one in which they arrive at the giants' cave.The gameworld doesn't let anyone do anything. Nor forbid it. It's just a story.If a group wants to find out what happens when the PCs fight giants, nothing is stopping them. If a group prefers to see what the GM wants to do, that's their prerogative. But you can't tell me that's giving the other members of the group more agency!Iin a game about travelling through a wilderness, shoes might matter more than wealth.And wealth can be "tracked" without a mechanic. I can just write down that someone is rich, or poor - much as I write down that they are young or old, tall or short, amusing or boring, clean-living or a drunkard.In Cortex+ Heroic, if a player wants a piece of gear for his/her PC s/he can spend a plot point to create a resource (eg the player of the swordthane can spend a point to gain a riding resource, typically a horse). Assets can be created. Etc. The game doesn't use equipment lists. It simply isn't about gear in the D&D sense.This just reinforces my point.Let's put to one side that D&D actually has no mechanics for the dropping of swords overboard, or the soaking of spellbooks. There is no reason inherent in RPGing why a random encounter with a sea monster should matter more than a random encounter with a striking individual. THat's a purely wargaming instinct.The thing is, stuff like your cliff can be made up as needed. Stories of magical geology can be made up as needed. Your Godswall doesn't become more ridiculous, or less, because it is authored at time X rather than time Y. And it doesn't become more exciting as an element of the fiction because a reason has already been made up by the GM. It might be exciting even if no one has authored a reason yet!</blockquote>

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