Quote Originally Posted by Lord Raziere View Post
Why does it "need" to be realistic?

this hobby is full of escapism just like a lot of fantasy fiction is. we take shortcuts to make things more fun all the time. I see no difference between my desire and that of those who want to kill orcs for being chaotic evil, yet no one bats an eye at the latter.

also more importantly to this thread, if a transgender person wants to use fantasy to escape to a world where the transition is easy, what is wrong with that? what makes taking shortcuts on this any different from taking shortcuts on any other details we do in roleplaying?

everyone has to decide for themselves what is acceptable escapism vs. an issue that needs to explored through suffering and complexity.

if always realistic all the time was the right answer, fantasy wouldn't even exist.
It doesn't.

But the idea that the DM is required to allow the PCs an unrealistically easy victory is what I am objecting to.

Also, trying to avoid RL politics, but the fantasy that you live in a world where problems can easily be solved with violence does have some unfortunate implications in the real world; sort of like when someone at Bioware decided that homosexuals didn't exist in Star Wars; it is a fantasy world, but ignoring realism to serve a certain sort of politically charged fantasy can easily be harmful and / or offensive.