07-12-2018, 01:09 PM | #41 | |
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Brighton
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Re: What do we mean by "Realistic"?
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Grand High* Poobah of the Cult of Stat Normalisation. *not too high of course |
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07-12-2018, 02:28 PM | #42 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: New Orleans, LA
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Re: What do we mean by "Realistic"?
I once said during an Asperger rant in a game shop that "if this is true (I dropped and object from shoulder height) then you have to take into account a ton of other things" This was close to 20 years ago and I've grown as a gamer and a person from that time and as a friend of my pointed out "I don't think anyone is interested in Physics the Roleplaying game".
I'll say that there are people out there looking for "Physics the RPG" and there is nothing wrong with that, but what I realized is that I was "weaponizing" realism in that rant to be used against a GM. Realism should be something the table comes to as an agreement and as friends, it shouldn't be something that is used as a weapon in an argument. If it is then you're argument is pretty weak as this is all make believe and based on rules agreed upon by everyone before hand and by using it, you just seem to be grasping at straws to get your way. "You" and "your" aren't meant to target anyone here but just to illustrate my point. |
07-12-2018, 04:44 PM | #43 |
Join Date: Mar 2013
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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. |
07-12-2018, 05:38 PM | #44 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: What do we mean by "Realistic"?
That's why the artistic movement is called "realism." It's about creating works of art that give the impression of reality. If you want more than that you use a camera, not a paintbrush.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
07-12-2018, 06:13 PM | #45 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: What do we mean by "Realistic"?
Sometimes attempting verisimilitude kills itself if you go overboard. One of my problems with Yrth (otherwise a quite likable production) is that the magic is to mundane. When you have magical elevators in hotels it takes the point away. Tolkienite magic is strange and, magical and paradoxically is easier to believe for that reason.
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07-12-2018, 09:28 PM | #46 | ||
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: Melbourne, Australia (also known as zone Brisbane)
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Re: What do we mean by "Realistic"?
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Yrth never really worked for me as a setting. The best game mechanical treatment of magic is mage the ascension. Gurps did a good job of preserving the concepts for the licensed version.
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07-12-2018, 10:52 PM | #47 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: What do we mean by "Realistic"?
Yrth had many problems. Strangely enough, one of the big ones would have been easily solved by a single addition to the spell list. An Ignite Propellant spell with an area effect and a cost of 1/10 per yard (minimum 1) would have given a logical reason for firearms not existing (a ceremonial casting could potentially ignite every propellant within 1000 yards). Other solutions would have been to allow magic to change the economy like it realistically would have with the distribution that existed in Yrth.
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