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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 4023603" data-attributes="member: 4937">I'm not so sure about all these tricky definitions, but I'll tell you what I want from the 'simulation' in my game system and let others argue about what category it falls under.To me, a system has good 'simulation' characteristic if a player who does not know the rules can play the game 'blind' to the game by intuitely understanding reasonable cause a effect between the proposition he offers the game referee, and the returned result.Conversely, a game system has poor 'simulation' characteristics if a player has to know the rules in order to get a reasonable understanding of the likely consequences of a proposition he offers to the moderator.  And in particular, if the game system regularly offers up surprising results that run counter to a new player's intuition which are abused by experienced players, then I'm going to apply some sort of house rule the system.Some of my most pleasant experiences as DM have come running brand players in games who haven't even been explained the rules.  In case, what happens is pure role-playing.  They tend to stay in character, and relate to the game world in first person.  And, there is no metagaming going on, and little bickering over the rules or stalling while trying to think up some tactical advantage under the rules.  The player doesn't even have words for some game concepts, so he describes what he wants to do in natural in language and then I translate to the system.  I have never been struck by limitations of game systems as often or as strongly as when I play them with people who don't know them.  Experienced players tend to never offer a proposition that isn't covered well by the rules.  They never want to do anything that they can't according to the rules do.  But a new player doesn't know those artificial limits, and will ask to do things that are perfectly reasonable but which there exists no mechanical resultion for.  Then is when you know the game has poor simulation.</blockquote>

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