Narrativism vs. Simulationism

I've been seeing a lot of traffic on ENWorld lately about simulating critical wounds, dismemberment, and things like that. I suppose I fall deeply into the narrativist camp when I ask, "Why?"

To me, character-altering things like that should be part of the story, not up to random chance. "Sorry, your guy lost his hand. Sucks to be you." Think about Jaime Lannister losing his hand, or a real-life example of captured English bowman being maimed so they can't draw back their bows. Random stuff happens in real life, but in a story and even a game, random things don't jive well. Anything major has to happen for some reason.

Just my two cents...

Long time

Hey everyone,

I know it's been a while since I updated this and it's been for a variety of reasons. Since 4th edition D&D was announced, I struggled with what direction to take the game. I needed more info to make sure my vision wouldn't be so close to Wizard's vision that it would make my work moot, so I waited and watched.

As it turns out, I like what I see. Based on the plethora of information available from D&D experience, and a few email questions answered from Wizards of the Coast, I've decided to continue forward with Esaene using 4th Edition D&D rules.

The current plan is to have several things ready for demonstration at Origins this year and have them available for sale starting January 1st, 2009.

More updates as we get closer.

-Chris