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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 9029913" data-attributes="member: 6785785">Right, that makes sense as a priority of play. Or of GMing, at least. It’s likely not to be clear to the players. I’m not sure if that matters or not to folks… I expect it varies.What do you think about the players’ view?  Well just deciding that something happens moves us away from what I think of as simulation. I think of simulation as starting with something external, right? Some process or event that we’re trying to replicate in some way. So to use the dragon as an example, how do we replicate a fictional creature? I expect you’d say we give it some thought and ask “what would happen if…” as you mentioned. But then there are all those many factors to consider. The dragon’s intellect and cunning, its ability to communicate and work with others. Its stamina for flight, its ego and other personality quirks… all those factors that need to be considered, how are they determined? It seems to me that all of that is up to the GM, right? If the GM is the source of all those factors, then they’re determining the thing that’s being simulated. And that doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense to me.So if you’ve decided your dragon is clever and cautious and can fly for extended periods with no problem, then you have your dragon attack the PCs from the air at a distance, never getting close enough for them to do much… you’re simulating. If I imagine my dragon as cruel and megalomaniacal and overconfident with a desire to see its foes crushed in its claws, and so my dragon attacks from the air and then lands and closes with the PCs… I’m also simulating. Are both of these true? If so, how do we keep it all straight? I mean, did I design my dragon that way for the purpose of including all the PCs in this scene? Or did I design it that way because it felt right? Is there tension there between simulation and narrative or gamist goals? If the GM decides all the factors that need to be considered for simulation, then is it simulation?</blockquote>

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