Inflation in RPGs, Part III and Conclusion
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From the very inception of RPGs, there has been something of an argument going on. On the one hand (apparently in the majority) there are those that argue, "It's all Make-Believe! So let's make believe that absolutely anything goes! The Laws of Physics need not -- should not apply in a fantasy world!" On the other side, there are those of us that contend, "We exist in the Real World, with real physical laws. These we are familiar with. Even if it is a fantasy setting, the closer we stay to what is realistic, the more able to identify with their characters people will be." That is, if you want the players to invest themselves in their characters, to closely identify with those characters, to actually play the role assigned to them, they must literally put themselves into their characters' shoes. The more unreal the game environment is, the harder it is for the players to do that.
You will recall that the original D&D had _two_ authors: Dave Arneson and E. Gary Gygax. Their co-creation initially premised only three character classes: Fighter, Cleric, and Magic-User. When the game quickly caught on, Gary started to see the virtue of having a character class modeled after Bilbo Baggins in "The Hobbit", i.e., a Thief. Dave's counter-argument was, "If you want to be a Thief, steal something." Their markedly different styles could be readily seen by anyone that played in the dungeons of both of the authors, which were Greyhawk for Gary and Blackmoor for Dave. Gary tended to keep adding new monsters, new sub-classes, LOTS of treasures and magical items in existence, etc. Dave was more inclined towards a Reality with only a nominal amount of the magic and the fantastic in evidence. In a Greyhawk adventure, players would return with hundreds of gold pieces and several magical items after they had stomped on dozens of monsters. In Blackmoor, much of the fighting was with humanoids, and the players would be fortunate to have a handful of silver to divvy up, and perhaps one magic item to squabble over.
