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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Emerikol" data-source="post: 6004747" data-attributes="member: 6698278">Yeah the word dissociation is one we are struggling with for lack of a better term.  For me it moves me from actor to author or director.  I wish there was a mutually agreeable word for the specific things I am talking about.  Of course anything could be dissociative to the right person.  But what I'm talking about is a class of thing which is specific but which only really bothers some people in a dissociative way.  The original word I used was metagame dissonance.  I picked up dissociative mechanics because of the blog and hey he was first.So if you have a word for it I'm fine within reason.  But I will argue that what I speak of is a distinct class of mechanics.  Its a class that includes martial daily powers, fate points, and action points but does not include hit points, armor class, etc...  Give me a name for the set of these items.  I've heard the term plot coupon used as well.  I honestly am not trying to speak pejoratively so much as I am to be clear on what I'm talking about.There are plenty of things that have taken on a meaning over the years but originally didn't really make sense.   Why do they call the freeway a parkway in some circles?  Do you park on it?  I will say that these mechanics of which I speak are dissociative for me.  So calling them such is of course accurate when thinking about me.  But since dissociation is subjective, nothing can be called such in an absolute sense.I do feel that in the case of 4e they included these things on a large scale.  I'm not saying there is nothing in 3e that fits this bill but if so it is very rare.  In 5e we already have a few things.  I do think that denying that there is a pretty sizable group of people that take issue with a particular class of mechanics for immersion reasons (right or wrong in your mind) is crazy.  Since immersion is subjective anything could in theory be dissociative.  So in closing, there is a set of mechanics A such that a large group finds them dissociative.  Set A includes some things and not others (see above).  Set A is definable and distinct.  Set A may not matter a bit to you nor may Set A have any dissociative effects on you at all but it does on many of us.</blockquote>

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