On Mar 28, 1:02 pm, Brandon Blackmoor <bblackm...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> I think you may be on to something. However, it's worth pointing out two
> things:
>
> 1) There is no perfect system. What the human mind wants and what
> reality is capable of providing will never match.
>
> 2) Even if there were such a thing as the perfect system for *one*
> person, no two people, however similar in taste they might be, will ever
> both be satisfied by the same definition of perfection.
This reply immediately brought to mind an old joke (which, as an
engineer I'm fond of) that you've likely seen:
___
A mathematician, a physicist and an engineer were each given the
following problem to solve.
A school dance floor included a straight line down the middle dividing
the floor in two equal halves. Boys were lined up against one wall and
girls against the opposite wall, each facing the centre line. They
were instructed to advance in stages towards the centre line every ten
seconds, where the distance from the person to the centre line at each
stage is equal to one-half the distance at the past stage.
i.e.: If the starting distance from the wall to centre line was D, the
progressive series of distances at t = 0, 10 seconds, 20 seconds...10n
seconds to the centre line is (D, D/2, D/4, D/8, .....D/2n)
The question is, when will they meet at the middle?
The mathematician said that they would never meet.
The physicist said they would meet when time equals infinity.
The engineer said that in one minute they would be close enough for
all practical purposes.
___
Looking back at our problem of either 1) find the perfect system or 2)
shut up and roll dice, it would seem clear that any on-going rpg
campaign would break down as follows:
Mathematician: option #2 is the only valid outcome. Accept it and go.
Physicist: given infinite time and work option #1 is can be successful
completed.
Engineer: we can get close enough to option #1 to make option #2 far
more acceptable.
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