Gaming philosophy conundra

[Anders]

If I play GURPS 3rd edition and replace the rules with new rules from 4th edition one at a time, at which point am I no longer playing 3rd edition?

I am a DM who's writing the perfect D&D campaign. Each time I'm almost finished WotC release a new edition and I have to start over. Am I happy?

There's a trolley that is barreling down a train track, but the track splits into two separate lines. On one train track is an orc. On the other are your party members. You can pull a lever to send the train down to kill the orc, or your party members. If you kill all your party members, you get enough XP to advance a level. What is the morally right action?

[Michael Cule]

If 3d6 fall in the forest with no one to add them up, how do you know if you've criticalled?

If, contrary to Einstein, God does play dice what sort does He/She/It use?

How to apply John Rawl's Veil of Ignorance to the design of a gaming world? (Easier with random character generation, I think. People who design characters are always going to want to create loopholes.)

[sir_pudding]

Can a cleric turn a p-zombie?

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Michael Cule

If 3d6 fall in the forest with no one to add them up, how do you know if you've criticalled?

If, contrary to Einstein, God does play dice what sort does He/She/It use?

How to apply John Rawl's Veil of Ignorance to the design of a gaming world? (Easier with random character generation, I think. People who design characters are always going to want to create loopholes.)

He's the GM. Only PCs play dice.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

He's the GM. Only PCs play dice.

In the prototypical RPGs, the GM rolled dice to find out if a dungeon room or a wilderness hex was inhabited, what kind of inhabitants it had, how many there were, if they had treasure, how much, what kind, and if there were traps, among other things.

A world created in this way tends to have a certain lack of coherence, as the dice rolls in successive spaces are not correlated with each other.

My experience in creating alien races, for example, using the rules in GURPS Space has tended to be that they also have a certain lack of coherence.

Does physical reality have enough coherence to support the conclusion that God is not rolling dice to create its occupants? Or is God an old school GM?

[Michael Cule]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

He's the GM. Only PCs play dice.

So the world is Powered by The Apocalypse?

Worse, the world is Player Centered!

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by Michael Cule

So the world is Powered by The Apocalypse?

Worse, the world is Player Centered!

Watch out - some of the dodgier fringes of the men's rights / incel / PUA group of communities talk about men who don't agree with them as NPCs.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by RogerBW

Watch out - some of the dodgier fringes of the men's rights / incel / PUA group of communities talk about men who don't agree with them as NPCs.

I suspect that thinking of the outgroup as not really being people may go back to the Paleolithic, even if the word for "not really people" changes.

[Varyon]

I know these aren't meant to be answered but...

Originally Posted by Anders

If I play GURPS 3rd edition and replace the rules with new rules from 4th edition one at a time, at which point am I no longer playing 3rd edition?

Over 50%. Below 50%, you're playing "3e with some 4e rules." At 50% you're playing "an even mix of 3e and 4e." Above 50%, you're playing "4e with some 3e rules."

If you were going for a "Ship of Theseus" logic puzzle, I think a better question would be "If I play GURPS but replace the rules with houserules one at a time, at which point am I no longer playing GURPS?"

Originally Posted by Anders

I am a DM who's writing the perfect D&D campaign. Each time I'm almost finished WotC release a new edition and I have to start over. Am I happy?

Depends on how much you enjoy building the campaign. It's clearly a lot, given you decide to start over each time a new edition is released, rather than finishing and playing with the older edition.

Originally Posted by Anders

There's a trolley that is barreling down a train track, but the track splits into two separate lines. On one train track is an orc. On the other are your party members. You can pull a lever to send the train down to kill the orc, or your party members. If you kill all your party members, you get enough XP to advance a level. What is the morally right action?

Is the orc female, if so is she hawt, if so is she more or less likely to let you do her than the hawt female members of your party? If you get to the last question and the answer is "more likely," kill the party.

More seriously, the correct action is to disable the Trolley Problem Trap (you brought your Thieves Tools, right?) to get the XP for doing so (and a "party wipe" trap should be worth a lot of XP), then team up with the party to kill the orc and take his/her stuff (which will be in much better condition than it would be if the orc were splattered by a trolley), then convince your party to camp on the tracks, steal all their stuff while they sleep, and reactivate the trap to kill them.

Originally Posted by Michael Cule

If 3d6 fall in the forest with no one to add them up, how do you know if you've criticalled?

Threaten your GM with your dice throwing arm, and you'll crit whenever you want. I mean, would you want to get dice thrown at you by someone who can send them into a desolate forest from your kitchen table?

Originally Posted by Michael Cule

If, contrary to Einstein, God does play dice what sort does He/She/It use?

I believe Revelation 13:18 made it clear God uses 3d6 - "This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666." That's obviously a roll of 18, there.

Originally Posted by Michael Cule

How to apply John Rawl's Veil of Ignorance to the design of a gaming world? (Easier with random character generation, I think. People who design characters are always going to want to create loopholes.)

That sounds like a game where the players essentially generate the game world, which is certainly a fascinating concept. In that case, yes, you'd need to randomly generate the characters - or at least randomly generate those aspects that have relevance to the bits of the game world the players designed.

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Can a cleric turn a p-zombie?

If they're animated by a power/spirit that the cleric can Turn, sure. Otherwise, I think a p-zombie is basically a machine made of meat, and clerics generally cannot turn Constructs, so no.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Varyon

I believe Revelation 13:18 made it clear God uses 3d6 - "This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666." That's obviously a roll of 18, there.

Sounds more like an entry on a d1000 random encounter table to me.