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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7389644" data-attributes="member: 42582">I'm also a big fan of actually following the rules of a game I'm playing!In D&D I can't just decide to track my divine luck and hence decree that I must make the next saving throw. There are rules that require dice to be rolled, which permits the result that the gods have abandoned my PC once again.So likewise in Cortex+ Heroic you can't just track your ammunition and hence decree that you must have enough left for your next shot. The rules of the game permit the GM to trigger your limit, and thereby shut down your Bow power.But the GM can introduce whatever narration s/he likes that fits the established fiction: you miscounted when you filled your quiver (plausible enough for a mediaeval type person); on your last shot you in fact pulled two arrows out when you only wanted one, and you thought the spare one dropped back inside the quiver but in fact it landed on the ground and you didn't notice that and so didn't pick it back up; etc, etc.At any time the GM can trigger a limit, by offering the player a plot point and - if they decline - then spending a die from the Doom Pool. A player can also trigger his/her limit at any time, earning a plot point.This is part of the apparatus the GM enjoys, in this particular system, to manage pacing and introduce complications.Can't you see how arbitrary this is? You standard for the acceptable amount of detail is nothing more than how D&D does it!I mean, consider the following example. OGL Conan distinguishes dodging, which requires moving position, from parrying, which doesn't. RQ doesn't make the same distinction in that respect - dodging and parrying are both just % chances to avoid a blow. Now, suppose a RQ player says "Within reason, more detail is almost always fine with me. So I'd be happy with a system that distinguishes dodging from parrying as far as changing position is concerned. I just don't want to see less detail to the point where important things, like the difference between dodging or parrying a blow, and having armour absorb or deflect it, are getting handwaved."What can you say to that criticism of D&D? All you have to offer is that you happen to like the way that D&D does it - but that's hardly a powerful rebuttal!For my part, when I play D&D I dutifully track my ammunition, because that's what the rules require, but I don't regard it as anything essential for a RPG. When I play other systems that treat ammunition in other ways, I follow the rules of those games.(And not tracking ammunition is not "handwaving" it. I've described an actual alternative mechanic - from Cortex+ Heroic - and an imaginary alternative mechanic that I made up, in recent posts, including this one.)</blockquote>

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