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Old 03-01-2010, 08:01 PM
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Webstral Webstral is offline
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There's nothing wrong with these questions, except when insisting on having answers to them blocks forward progress. Answering questions about the details can lead one in hitherto unforeseen directions of creativity. Just remember that questions about the details are meant to serve you, not the other way around.

Knowing where every man is on the battlefield and what kind of weapon he is carrying might be nice; but this kind of knowledge is divine, not human. The commanders of real units in many ways have very limited knowledge about what is happening in their commands. Similarly, if you can answer a question about just how an engineer has dealt with a problem, do so. If you can't, draw a mental box around it and move on. Once you have decided that the problem will be solved, the means often come to hand.

There are answers to how the food is grown, and it's perfectly appropriate to ask these kinds of questions. Worrying about how big each garden plot is and which crops are grown in each garden plot is probably taking things a bit too far, although all of that can be done for specific characters. Thinking about details like the growing season, soil types and rainfall, crop mixes, labor inputs, and the like is perfectly appropriate. If you re-read my guide to Poseidon's Rifles, you'll find references to the types of crops grown. What I haven't provided is a list of quantities of each crop because nobody knows and that kind of detail isn't necessary. Suffice to say that the people of First District generally get enough calories and enough micronutrients to keep themselves at acceptable levels of health and energy. If I want, I can always go back and draw a detailed map of one area to illustrate how things work at a nuts-and-bolts level.

Hope this helps.

Webstral
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