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<blockquote data-quote="Mallus" data-source="post: 4705720" data-attributes="member: 3887">I believe the first part of that sentence is more important than the second. Before you can begin to talk about the internal logic of a setting, you need to recognize that internal logic must ultimately be in service of an interesting story, which is to say a good, playable gaming experience. I'm not criticizing attempts to make the game world logical or consistent. I'm not knocking simulationism. But I'm wary, well, critical of statements that suggest it's somehow logical that game environment protects PC's from random deaths. That's a metagame requirement. &nbsp;Cel, that fact that you can skillfully create a logical in-game explanation for it doesn't alter the fact you're addressing a metagame need (ie playability). I'll go so far as to say that reasoning like this is at the heart of a good setting, but it's still a form of rationalizing the game conventions into something plausible inside the narrative of the game. And we both know why goblins aren't extinct in those settings. Low-level PC's need goblins, or something similar, to smack around. To paraphrase Spock, the needs of the game outweigh the needs of the simulation (at least when it comes to mass-market published supplements).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mallus, post: 4705720, member: 3887"] I believe the first part of that sentence is more important than the second. Before you can begin to talk about the internal logic of a setting, you need to recognize that internal logic must ultimately be in service of an interesting story, which is to say a good, playable gaming experience. I'm not criticizing attempts to make the game world logical or consistent. I'm not knocking simulationism. But I'm wary, well, critical of statements that suggest it's somehow logical that game environment protects PC's from random deaths. That's a metagame requirement. Cel, that fact that you can skillfully create a logical in-game explanation for it doesn't alter the fact you're addressing a metagame need (ie playability). I'll go so far as to say that reasoning like this is at the heart of a good setting, but it's still a form of rationalizing the game conventions into something plausible inside the narrative of the game. And we both know [i]why[/i] goblins aren't extinct in those settings. Low-level PC's need goblins, or something similar, to smack around. To paraphrase Spock, the needs of the [i]game[/i] outweigh the needs of the [i]simulation[/i] (at least when it comes to mass-market published supplements). [/QUOTE]

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