| From: | davek@***.lonestar.org (David Kettler) |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Physics and Realism in SR (and other games) |
| Date: | Thu, 18 Aug 2005 16:19:40 +0000 |
>
> Doesn't the fact you are playing a fictional game and still trying to
> apply reality to it loose the overall plot a bit though?
> If I play a game where someone whistles and a dragon drops buy to ride
> as his Holy steed or a Game where one guy is a mesh of human and steel
> cyberzombie and the other is a Shamanic spell caster I usually try to
> avoid real-life down-to-earth explanations of physics and reality...
> A problem that might be considered is the fact that if players could
> identify and ration with the cause-effect of a situation or, more to the
> point, a spell's details; they might come up with an ingenius way of
> using/avoiding it which does make things more interesting. On the other
> hand one might say fine as a player but what if I am a GM and am forced
> to explain why something happens to the players?
>
> I personally tend to see my roleplaying sessions and games mainly from
> the perspective of a storyteller/writter whether as a player or GM. When
> you are telling a fictional story, even more when it is based on another
> reality with differing laws than the one you have grown up and gotten
> accustomed to, you concentrate more on the plot and less on the
> real-life explanation of why and how something happened. Otherwise the
> story looses its essense and magic. It doesn't matter what a manabolt
> really is; what molecular reactions happen in its area of effect; when
> the important stuff is that the specifc Personae used it , in the
> specific plot scene for a reason.
>
<more stuff along the same lines cut>
I have to disagree vehemently. Good stories and good physics are hardly contradictory.
In fact, I would say that they go hand in hand. Why? Because it forces consistency. If
you find yourself doing things one way one time, and a different way another time then
that is no different from using a lot of deus ex machina and destroys suspension of
disbelief. Yeah, it's easier to write such stories. It's really easy to write stories
with deus ex machina too, but in the end they're pretty crummy stories.
Now here is a system that involves magic, so obviously it doesn't follow the laws of
physics as we know them. That's kind of the point of magic. But the way in which it
violates those laws is generally pretty specific and consistent. This is a good thing.
So, yeah, when people wave their arms and say "it's magic, who cares how it
works" I get a little annoyed. Even magic has its limitations, and it's important to
stick to those limitations.
It may not matter what a manabolt is, but making sure that manabolt B has the same
properties and limitations as manabolt A is important. To do otherwise "for the sake
of the story" is NOT good storytelling. It's a crutch.
--
Dave Kettler
davek@***.lonestar.org
http://davek.freeshell.org/
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org
