Quote Originally Posted by Carry2 View Post
It's important to note, however, that the elements of Burning Wheel which are arguably the most engaging and vital for many players- specifically, the Artha system, improvised setting content via wises and circle tests, the Let it Ride rule- have little or nothing to do with accuracy of simulation.
Given my comments in the previous post (and elsewhere,) I guess I can amend that statement- these features arguably do promote certain kinds of realism, but possibly at the expense of others.

Simple example- if the players are always permitted to know the target numbers for their rolls, this almost certainly means they will sometimes know things that their characters could not. But if the players do not always know the target numbers for their rolls, what prevents the GM from arbitrarily deciding success or failure regardless of plausibility? And which of these outcomes is more unrealistic?