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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 4510906" data-attributes="member: 18280">Not so.  D&D, thankfully, hasn't embraced "death flag" mechanics."There is, IMHO, no difference between preferring survival-guaranteed and preferring no-paralysis-guaranteed" =/= "There is, IMHO, no difference between survival-guaranteed and preferring no-paralysis-guaranteed."Don't try to cloud the issue with ad hominem attacks.In the case of, say, a James Bond movie, the audience cannot predetermine the outcome, and is not in control of Bond's actions.   The audience knows that there is a limit to what can happen to Bond.  The audience doesn't, however, want to believe that Bond knows that he is in no real danger.  The fact that the audience cannot control Bond's actions heightens the experience -- the script can highlight dangers we can see but Bond cannot, so that we can anticipate future problems for our hero.Now, let us say that you are in an RPG where you are playing Bond.  The risks you are likely to take are based not only upon what you know of Bond's fictional world (where the dangers are real), but also upon the mechanics of the game you are playing.  If, in those mechanics, the dangers are real, then it is easy to suspend disbelief.  If, in those mechanics, the dangers are not real, then you are likely (based upon your knowledge of same) to take risks that you wouldn't otherwise take.  It becomes inherently harder to suspend disbelief, because "good play" within the context of the game rules doesn't support your doing so.  It is inherently far, far easier to suspend your disbelief about potential risk to your character when your character actually faces potential risk.  That isn't a nonsense statement.  That is tautological fact.Sure.  Potentially even one with almost the same level of risk (risk being inversely proportionate to how much the outcome is preplanned).  Just not one with the same risks.RC</blockquote>

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