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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sword of Spirit" data-source="post: 6574077" data-attributes="member: 6677017">This is, in my opinion, one of the things that D&D is ideally suited for. D&D has traditionally included a variety of world-simulation resources (random encounters, weather, political events, crafting and item creation, etc). Other role-playing games I'm familiar with do not have these resources to such a degree. (I'm not saying none exist, but I'm not personally familiar with them).I play D&D specifically to get that exact experience, because D&D has been designed to better facilitate it than other RPGs.When I'm looking for a different experience, I play a different RPG better suited to it. In the case of the sort of experiences being discussed on this thread, I feel that almost any RPG other than D&D better supports the story-based GMing mode.Unrelated to the topic, but could you give me some thoughts on the difficulty of the kraken encounter and how it played out? I'm planning on running one against 5 level 20 PCs and I want to make sure it is neither too easy nor a TPK.I feel this really does express the essence of the position. On one end of the spectrum you have stats as a firm indication of the state of elements within the world.* On the other end of the spectrum the world exists in something like a state of quantum uncertainty, where the stats have no set numbers until the DM decides the outcome desired at the moment.In the middle you have DMs doing things like acting according to the "firm state" position unless they feel that an exception is needed to create the "desired outcome". Or they may assume a "desired outcome" position, but use "firm state" numbers as a simple guideline most of the time to avoid having to constantly make decisions.Theoretically though, it appears to me that if you do not abide totally by the "firm state" position, then you are really abiding by the "desired outcome" position. The positions are actually mutually exclusive. *The case of changing numbers because you made a mechanical mistake at some point can be harmonious with the "firm state" position, because you are attempting to return to the firm state that was accidentally altered.Example: You were rolling d8s for damage when you should have been rolling d6s. You discover this error, and refund a few hit points to the target based on your best estimation of how many hit points they should not have lost. You could also roll a random number for correction if you feel your estimation skills aren't the best.If I'm understanding you correctly, you are saying that you use hp as a guide or suggestion to facilitate the DMs decision making about ending the encounter. So that would be my "desired outcome" position with "firm state" numbers as play aid guides. Is that an accurate assessment?</blockquote>

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