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mr beer · 07-12-2018, 04:44 PM

It's intuitively obvious that you have to make some kind of compromise with 'realism' when you run an RPG because no system, not even GURPS, is a precise model of the real world...and nor should it be.

Some level of verisimilitude or at least internal consistency is important in in most campaigns I think, because without that you get immersion-breaking moments.

How far down the rabbit hole you want to go when you create your setting is a personal choice. I scarcely bother because I tend to run kitchen-sink fantasy ported over from D&D, and the setting is pretty much a hot mess. I don't have the time or the inclination to 'fix' it. I respect for people who do create internally consistent fantasy worlds though, it's something I find overwhelming to consider doing.

What I do try to avoid is using 'realism' as an excuse to promote some kind of agenda. I'm pretty comfortable with the idea that the settings I use are 'unrealistically' tolerant towards women having their own opinions for example. Or that stable, centralised nation states exist, at the other end of the scale.

07-12-2018, 04:44 PM	#43
mr beer Join Date: Mar 2013	Re: What do we mean by "Realistic"? It's intuitively obvious that you have to make some kind of compromise with 'realism' when you run an RPG because no system, not even GURPS, is a precise model of the real world...and nor should it be. Some level of verisimilitude or at least internal consistency is important in in most campaigns I think, because without that you get immersion-breaking moments. How far down the rabbit hole you want to go when you create your setting is a personal choice. I scarcely bother because I tend to run kitchen-sink fantasy ported over from D&D, and the setting is pretty much a hot mess. I don't have the time or the inclination to 'fix' it. I respect for people who do create internally consistent fantasy worlds though, it's something I find overwhelming to consider doing. What I do try to avoid is using 'realism' as an excuse to promote some kind of agenda. I'm pretty comfortable with the idea that the settings I use are 'unrealistically' tolerant towards women having their own opinions for example. Or that stable, centralised nation states exist, at the other end of the scale.