Line #10 ShownTheirWork/TabletopGames


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9	* ''TabletopGame/ArsMagica'' from Atlas Games has several supplements whose entire purpose is to Show Their Work, most notable for this being Art et Academe. Most of the authors have some qualification in Medieval History or a similar topic.
10	* You wouldn't expect a game with technology and statistics as soft as ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' to have shown their work, except in some places, they have.
11	** For instance, in defiance of the rule that '[[StuffBlowingUp ammunition bins explode when hit]]', Gauss rifle rounds do not detonate... because they are inert pieces of ferrous metal that are fired from a large [[MagneticWeapons coilgun]]. However, the Gauss rifle itself ''will'' explode on a critical hit, because a major component of the weapon is its capacitors. Real-life capacitors can release energy in a rather aggressively uncontrolled fashion if damaged...in other words, an explosion. Subsequent critical hits to a Gauss rifle will ''not'' cause another explosion, because the capacitor is already ruined after the first hit and can't store enough energy for another explosive release if damaged.
12	** In another one of the game's few nods to realism, the use of [[KillItWithFire Inferno missiles]] allows a player to set any terrain tile on fire, including water. This seems like an oversight, except that the fluff notes that Inferno payloads are at heart a variation on petroleum jelly, which floats. This is also why a single warhead is able to burn for over a minute after striking a target. [[RealityIsUnrealistic Contrary to expectations]], straight petroleum jelly doesn't burn...until it vaporizes. What ''does'' burn is the outer layer of petroleum jelly, constantly boiling off for a long period of time and catching fire as it does so, much to the dismay of the target. It is also why the target can't simply wipe off the burning Inferno fuel to end the effect early -- ''you'' try wiping petroleum jelly off a surface with your bare hand without smearing it.
13	** The setting does not have ArtificialGravity options, and only recognizes three methods to simulate gravity: CentrifugalGravity, acceleration gravity, and magnetic boots to at least adhere people to a plane and give their bodies some resistance while walking. It also acknowledges that none of these are great answers, due to many individuals suffering nausea from spin-gravity and most ship captains being loathe to expend fuel if they don't need to. The magnetic-boot solution, while crude and not particularly accurate to real gravity, is the most popular due to its simplicity and low cost... making it very desirable to captains, manufacturers, and crews, who usually want to keep costs and breakages to a minimum. After all, if a fundamental universal force like magnetism stops working, everyone involved will soon have bigger problems than just not adhering to the deck.
14	** Fusion reactors don't just explode when damaged beyond the limits of containment--instead, they are supposed to simply stop being able to produce the fusion reaction, resulting in the 'Mech shutting down (and needing to replace the ruined reactor). Exploding giant robots are more commonly caused by ammunition cookoffs.
15	** Speaking of which, ammunition cookoffs can turn otherwise salvageable 'Mechs into total write-offs. This is because the damage is not just destroying armor and components, but completely mangling and warping the frame of the machine such that it is more effort to repair than replace. This is why safe ammo stowage is such a big deal; it allows the damage to be compartmentalized and destroy only ''part'' of a 'Mech without ruining the entire frame.
16	** Just like with current armored vehicles, Battlemech destruction is often accomplished by one of three means: crew incapacitation, volatile detonation, or motive knockout. Because Battlemechs are so heavily compartmentalized, and more to the point vertically oriented, it's possible to accomplish one without the others, unlike tanks. This is what keeps Mechs dangerous even if they've lost a leg, for instance; it could theoretically stand back up and limp along, or even crawl on hands and knees, where a tank might be fully knocked out because its important systems are physically very close to one another and more laterally oriented, making it easier to hit multiple pieces of equipment in a single shot traveling the length of the tank.
17	** The amount of effort needed to keep a bipedal war machine balanced means that less attention can be paid to firing, so walking inflicts a penalty to a gunner trying to hit a target, running doubles said penalty, and jumping triples it. Similarly, range makes zeroing in on a target more difficult, which was reported to be a notable issue for vehicle gunners in World War 2. ''Battletech'' penalizes attackers heavily for fighting at extended ranges, even with lasers, as the challenge is accurate targeting, which is still a mechanical process (a 'Mech's arm has to physically move, its torso has to rotate, its guns have to traverse, etc).
18	** Just having legs does not make you a functioning biped; an ability to ''balance'' on said legs is required. Therefore, destroying a 'Mech's gyro instantly knocks it down, and prevents it from standing back up. However, if the 'Mech is using the extremely uncommon [[TankTreadMecha leg-track equipment]] at the time, destroying the gyro does ''not'' knock it down because its center of gravity is sufficiently lowered, and the 'Mech can continue behaving like a strange tank instead.
19	** In theory, angled armor such as the heavily sloped hull of a ''Marauder'' should be a very difficult target to penetrate for most ballistic weapons and this should in theory give it benefits against autocannons and other ballistic weapons. Should, except that autocannons explicitly fire high explosive shells, which are generally not invested in penetration, and ''Battletech'' armor is ablative, with each layer sacrificing itself upon damage to safeguard the layers below. Given that it's not really possible to angle armor against the energy weapons or missiles of the setting, this compromise makes sense. Gauss rifles are ballistic weapons as well, but also ignore angling on the logic that there are certain combinations of mass and velocity that no amount of armor can resist, and 125 kilogram packages of nickel-iron alloy fired at supersonic speeds provide a convincing argument.
20	* TabletopGame/D20Modern's economic system [[GameplayAndStorySegregation is extremely abstract]] due to [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality the sheer complexity of the economic world]] but interviews and statements by the designers indicate the level of thought and detail that went into its creation. [[RealityIsUnrealistic Why does it hurt your Wealth Bonus less to buy a house than other, similarly expensive things?]] Because [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome the boost in your credit score received by being a homeowner with a mortgage would help you if you needed to take out a loan or apply for a credit card and you could borrow against the equity in that house.]]
21	* Creator/GameDesignersWorkshop was infamous for this.
22	** ''TabletopGame/Space1889'' as an example, where the ''Soliders Companion'' offered information on every regiment in the British Empire, as well as information on real nations of the world at the time, including Hawaii.
23	** ''TabletopGame/Twilight2000'': The first edition was clearly made by people who knew not only a lot about army operations and military gear but also the then-recent political situation and cultural quirks, with meticulous details put into everything. And while the quality of the Polish is just cringe-worthy, the game had extremely detailed tactical maps of different parts of Poland, even including the layout of real streets.
24	* TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} is famous for this. Writers' efforts to provide accurate stats for the real world lead to pages worth of citations and examples in many 4th Edition books. They also have been known to hire people that know what they're talking about as advisers, altering and scrapping sections of the rules in order to allow better simulation of reality. Notes that appear alongside the official rules often include notes on how to make the game ''even more'' realistic, though notes to the effect that using more realistic rules might bog down the game typically accompany them.
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26	** Some of the historical source books (GURPS Egypt, GURPS Imperial Rome, etc.) of the 3rd Edition were frequently noted for being excellent introductions to the periods and locations in question. Some of them were listed as recommended reading for college-level history courses.
27	* Phil Eklund is an actual rocket scientist. His ''High Frontier'' features 12 pages of designer notes explaining how every one of the technologies in the game would work, most of them with citations to the relevant papers. Half a page is also dedicated to documenting the scale used for all the attributes used in the game. An actual excerpt from the appendix:
28	-->To avoid the evaporation losses suffered by radiations that use liquid droplets in space, dust radiators use solid dust particles instead. If the particles are electrostatically charged, as in an ''electrostatic thermal radiator'' (ETHER), they are confined by the field lines between a charged generator and its collector. If the spacecraft is charged opposite to the charge on the particles, they execute an elliptical orbit, radiating at 1200 K with a specific area of 71 kg/m^2 and 213 kW_th/m^2. The dust particles are charged to 10^-14 coulombs to inhibit neutralization from the solar wind. [[http://books.google.com/books/about/Conceptual_Designs_for_100_MW_Space_Radi.html?id=rW73ygAACAAJ Prenger 1982]].
29	* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' goes into this at points when they can justify it. For example, Lasguns are only nonrealistic displayed in art and video games because they would otherwise be really boring. That they make noise and light is generally explained by psychic influences. On the other hand, it might be that 40k really does have [[SlowLaser Slow Lasers]], and the Mechanicum just doesn't know what they're doing.
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Context ShownTheirWork / TabletopGames