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Why use D&D for a Simulationist style Game?
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<blockquote data-quote="Andor" data-source="post: 6348925" data-attributes="member: 1879"><p>Several thoughts occur to me.</p><p></p><p>1. It depends on which edition you're talking about. 3.x was by far the most sim-like edition of D&D, for my money 4th was the least. </p><p></p><p>2. The rules of D&D are, as you justly point out, sufficiently abstract that they generated endless hours of discussion about what they meant from the eyes of our characters. This trail of thought leads naturally into game-as-sim modes of thought.</p><p></p><p>3. It's fun! There have been, for the entire history of the game, many gloriously deranged thought exercises in how people in these crazy worlds would do things. Remember the "What would a D&D castle really look like" debates? Do you go with a classic design and put up with dragons and wizards incinerating everything in your courtyards? Do you go with the "the sky is scary!" clamshell designs and then deal with bulette herding goblin sappers digging into your belly? How do you stop the teleport squads?</p><p></p><p>4. Some "sim" style games don't actually sim very well after a certain point. Gurps for example is a great system, but it doesn't deal very well with power levels approaching modern weaponry, let alone surpassing it. You can decry the absurdity of HP systems, but the fact is that we know of big strong guys taking a minor fleshwound to the arm and dropping dead from shock and slight women taking multiple bullets to the face and then walking down several flights of stairs to the EMTs. How do you model real world behavior like that accurately? You can't and HP systems do the job well enough.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Andor, post: 6348925, member: 1879"] Several thoughts occur to me. 1. It depends on which edition you're talking about. 3.x was by far the most sim-like edition of D&D, for my money 4th was the least. 2. The rules of D&D are, as you justly point out, sufficiently abstract that they generated endless hours of discussion about what they meant from the eyes of our characters. This trail of thought leads naturally into game-as-sim modes of thought. 3. It's fun! There have been, for the entire history of the game, many gloriously deranged thought exercises in how people in these crazy worlds would do things. Remember the "What would a D&D castle really look like" debates? Do you go with a classic design and put up with dragons and wizards incinerating everything in your courtyards? Do you go with the "the sky is scary!" clamshell designs and then deal with bulette herding goblin sappers digging into your belly? How do you stop the teleport squads? 4. Some "sim" style games don't actually sim very well after a certain point. Gurps for example is a great system, but it doesn't deal very well with power levels approaching modern weaponry, let alone surpassing it. You can decry the absurdity of HP systems, but the fact is that we know of big strong guys taking a minor fleshwound to the arm and dropping dead from shock and slight women taking multiple bullets to the face and then walking down several flights of stairs to the EMTs. How do you model real world behavior like that accurately? You can't and HP systems do the job well enough. [/QUOTE]
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Why use D&D for a Simulationist style Game?
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