Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 07-11-2018, 01:21 AM   #1
pestigor
 
pestigor's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: New Orleans, LA
Default What do we mean by "Realistic"?

The Thread on "Balance" got me thinking about another aspect of role playing games in general and Gurps specifically. What does it mean to have a "Realistic" campaign? Gurps allows some pretty detailed options to have communicable diseases in your fantasy world, or crazy logistical issues with a science fiction setting using Gurps Space Ships if you want them. I've seen a lot of people asking if "such and such" is realistic or is this character concept realistic and from my perspective the question these people should be asking is "In this game I'm putting together where do I want "realistic" to be?

I personally like Gurps High Tech and tactical shooting because I run a Twilight 2000 game for a bunch of gun enthusiasts with hundreds of rifles each.

They want that detail, and to be honest, while it is "pretty good for a game" there are some decidedly unrealistic things we've encountered during play.
Fortunately we're all over 40 and we aren't trying to "one up" one another, but after a session we'll talk about the game and what seemed "off". We like the level of detail as where we have so we just laugh at some of the silly things we find happen in our game that are very unrealistic.

I think an obsession with this as opposed to running a fun game can make Gurps (or any game for that matter) very unfun and more of a chore.

What is your personal level of reality when you run a Gurps game?
pestigor is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-11-2018, 01:39 AM   #2
(E)
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: New Zealand.
Default Re: What do we mean by "Realistic"?

For me personally I set the bar for realism at different heights for different genres.
I might run one game at a Bernard Cornwall level of grittiness with the occasional plague thrown in, while the next one might be closer to a Simon R Green book where minutiae of all sorts is just glossed over.

Every so often I run a game where the implausible happens just because it follows the conventions of the genre (a dungeon crawl world)
__________________
Waiting for inspiration to strike......
And spending too much time thinking about farming for RPGs
Contributor to Citadel at Nordvörn
(E) is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-11-2018, 02:33 AM   #3
evileeyore
Banned
 
evileeyore's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: 100 hurricane swamp
Default Re: What do we mean by "Realistic"?

Quote:
Originally Posted by pestigor View Post
What is your personal level of reality when you run a Gurps game?
As a rule I set the knob between "Die Hard" and "Conan The Destroyer" and just leave it there.
evileeyore is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-11-2018, 03:44 AM   #4
The Colonel
 
The Colonel's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Default Re: What do we mean by "Realistic"?

We probably need to differentiate between "congruent" and "realistic" - "congruent" being how we account for specific changes in reality based on setting. For example, FTL travel probably isn't "realistic" given what we know about general relativity but, given its presence in a setting, consequences must ensue ... and if those consequences are absent or non-credible, congruence has left the building. Congruence is the basis on which we slap people who claim "a wizard did it because dragons" and may include genre conventions if necessary.

Of course, setting a game in the real world is going to have a greater demand for realism - but even then you will have standards for things like stringency (how hard does the world respond to PCs actions?). As in all things, looking at what you are taking for granted can be enlightening ... and difficult.
The Colonel is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 07-11-2018, 04:30 AM   #5
DanHoward
 
DanHoward's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Maitland, NSW, Australia
Default Re: What do we mean by "Realistic"?

We should be aiming for verisimilitude, not realism, and then discarding everything that isn't fun.
__________________
Compact Castles gives the gamer an instant portfolio of genuine, real-world castle floorplans to use in any historical, low-tech, or fantasy game setting.
DanHoward is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-11-2018, 04:44 AM   #6
Alonsua
Banned
 
Join Date: May 2017
Default Re: What do we mean by "Realistic"?

Quote:
Originally Posted by DanHoward View Post
We should be aiming for verisimilitude, not realism, and then discarding everything that isn't fun.
I prefer to aim for "realism/congruency" in a thread about realism XD
Alonsua is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-11-2018, 04:57 AM   #7
Gollum
 
Gollum's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: France
Default Re: What do we mean by "Realistic"?

For me, there is a difference between “detailed” and “realistic”.

Some games are not as detailed as GURPS, for instance, but are still “realistic”. Call of Cthulhu, for instance – especially the 7th edition. Pathfinder, to the contrary, can be very detailed, but is not realistic for all that.

I believe that a game is “realistic” as soon as it gives you the feeling that things could have happened like that in reality. And a game is unrealistic if you consider that things couldn’t happen like that in reality …

GURPS (as long as you try to play a realistic campaign) really gives me the feeling that things could happen like that: the strongest most often wins, a bullet in the head can kill even the most experienced warrior … While D&D-like games give the opposite feeling: a warrior can withstand dozens of battle axe wounds or a hundred-yard fall without the least penalty to his fighting abilities …

Note that I don’t discredit Pathfinder and D&D-like games, here. They are not designed to be realistic. They authors wanted them to be heroic.

Of course, no game is totally realistic, unless being overly complex. A game is not a reality simulator; it is just a game, that is, something designed to be fun.

And another problem is that we don’t all have the same point of view about reality. Are superpowers real? No. Nobody won’t debate it. But what about intuition, empathy … and luck? We all have our own beliefs about those things.

Likewise, how many bullets in the chest can withstand a man without dying? During the war of Algeria, a friend of mines’ father was hit by 17 MAT 49 PM bullets (9mm parabellum). And he still survived. Players of a roleplaying game would surely have found that totally unrealistic.

That is what I love, with GURPS rules. Things are usually very “realistic” (things will happen as you can expect them to happen) but, sometimes, something totally surprising occurs. Thanks to the critical success and failure system, and thanks to the damage system.

To me, GURPS is more than realistic (contrary to Call of Cthulhu). It is like life: predictable but still very surprising.

Last edited by Gollum; 07-11-2018 at 05:02 AM.
Gollum is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-11-2018, 11:42 PM   #8
whswhs
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
Default Re: What do we mean by "Realistic"?

I mainly oppose "realistic" to "cinematic," and distinguish that from "mundane," which I oppose to "fantastic." I suppose the first has to do with how you approach the action and the characterization, while the second has more to do with how you approach the worldbuilding and the premise.
__________________
Bill Stoddard

I don't think we're in Oz any more.
whswhs is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 07-11-2018, 11:54 PM   #9
tanksoldier
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Default Re: What do we mean by "Realistic"?

Realistic for me equates to internally consistent.
tanksoldier is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
realistc

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 05:42 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.