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General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Worlds of Design: Medieval Travel & Scale
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<blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 8040799" data-attributes="member: 177"><p>With respect, the historical accuracy argument for fantasy role playing games that hardly even know what feudalism entailed is not terribly convincing. I have dragons, wizards, and not a serf to be seen, and you're saying we should be historically accurate with our game maps?</p><p></p><p>Our game maps are there <em>as support for gameplay</em>, first and foremost. Our duffer's impression on what they might have looked like in a historical context is not a primary concern.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>And now, we should discuss the difference between precision and accuracy.</p><p></p><p>How "exact" a thing is is a matter of precision. A measurement down to the nearest quarter inch is more exact and precise than a measurement down to the inch. We are talking about maps on the scale of towns, nations, and continents on one sheet of paper, precision is not the primary concern. I don't care how exact it is when the map tells us "somewhere in this 5 mile hex". That, my good fellow gamer, is not terribly precise, and it works just fine for most of our long-distance mapping needs.</p><p></p><p>Accuracy is about how <em>correct</em> a thing is. Having a map that tells us that the Forgarian Monolith is 2.3459 days travel away is not relevant if the map says it is to the east, when in reality it is to the north. Exacting measurement is not helpful if it does not represent the needed thing as it actually is.</p><p></p><p>For game purposes, a vague map that gives us the correct idea is better than an exact map that we have to bend our brains around to use properly.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The game is played in a world with Wish spells, and giants in flying castles, and spirits that can be bargained with, and elves and dragons that have centuries of time to work with....</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 8040799, member: 177"] With respect, the historical accuracy argument for fantasy role playing games that hardly even know what feudalism entailed is not terribly convincing. I have dragons, wizards, and not a serf to be seen, and you're saying we should be historically accurate with our game maps? Our game maps are there [i]as support for gameplay[/i], first and foremost. Our duffer's impression on what they might have looked like in a historical context is not a primary concern. And now, we should discuss the difference between precision and accuracy. How "exact" a thing is is a matter of precision. A measurement down to the nearest quarter inch is more exact and precise than a measurement down to the inch. We are talking about maps on the scale of towns, nations, and continents on one sheet of paper, precision is not the primary concern. I don't care how exact it is when the map tells us "somewhere in this 5 mile hex". That, my good fellow gamer, is not terribly precise, and it works just fine for most of our long-distance mapping needs. Accuracy is about how [I]correct[/I] a thing is. Having a map that tells us that the Forgarian Monolith is 2.3459 days travel away is not relevant if the map says it is to the east, when in reality it is to the north. Exacting measurement is not helpful if it does not represent the needed thing as it actually is. For game purposes, a vague map that gives us the correct idea is better than an exact map that we have to bend our brains around to use properly. The game is played in a world with Wish spells, and giants in flying castles, and spirits that can be bargained with, and elves and dragons that have centuries of time to work with.... [/QUOTE]
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