What is the [reality-check] tag? Should something be done about it?

Question

Currently the reality-check tag exists on three questions:

• How Should Speed and Range Affect Hit Probability?
• Non-Cinematic DR of Advanced Body Armour
• Using the slide recoil of a semi-auto pistol as a weapon

The last question (the oldest at 5 months old) has the following two comments below it:

What is the new "reality-check" tag you just created for?

A "reality check" is (or at least used to be) one of the core principles of GURPS -- used to check whether a rule or ruling made sense. Perhaps they're irrelevant with the emphasis on "cinematic" play in recent editions, add-ons, and "powered by GURPS" publications. To me, the question appears to be as much about "would this even work" as it is about "how can I model this in-game."

A tag description was made 9 hours ago, and it states:

Questions relating to how closely a given mechanic (or, rarely, some part of lore) approximates the outcomes expected in reality (or of what reality would be with adjustments that are part of the premise), and/or how such approximation be improved, as distinct from concerns of balance and of emulation of genres of fiction.

I'm honestly just unsure what (if anything) should be done about this tag, I haven't seen other similar tags and I'm a bit confused as to where the description came from. I'm unsure whether the tag should stick around or not; though perhaps it's just a lesser-used tag.

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I'm especially confused given that the simulation tag exists; its description states:

For questions relating primarily to simulation in RPGs, the aim to approximate situations, creatures, or actions in a realistic-seeming manner, as a primary focus or virtue of an RPG.

Simulation, simulationist, or simulationism refers to games or play styles that focus on rules that produce consequences that approximate observed reality. Rules of the game generally result in events or consequences that could occur in observed reality, or reality given some modification, like magic.

Simulationism is often contrasted with narrativism and gamism. There are three significant RPG theory models that deal with the relationship between and application of these terms: the Threefold Model, GNS Theory, and The Big Model.

Answer 1

simulation and reality-check are actually somewhat different concepts, and the tag description for reality-check needs improving.

simulation tends to be interpreted in the context of simulationism/narrativism/gamism. GURPS was not designed or revised within that kind of model, and doesn't fit it very well.

Simulationism is an semi-abstract philosophy about how a game should be run. GURPS' reputation for simulating reality is exaggerated; the numbers have always been assessed with an eye to dramatic tension, rather than simulation (source: Sean Punch, line editor for GURPS for more than two decades). What it strives for is emotional impact via an impression of plausibility.

reality-check was coined as a GURPS term-of-art for actually and physically trying some action in the real world to see if it worked. That's one way to make something seem plausible, by showing that it actually works. It has become somewhat more metaphorical, as GURPS has grown to include settings and genres where that's impossible, but it's still about a specific action, rather than a philosophy of how to run a game. Making this tag an alias of simulation would tend to conceal this distinction.

I don't know the conventions for revising tag descriptions that are under discussion, but I'd change it to something like:

Questions relating to how closely a game's rules' modelling of a particular action or activity approximates the outcomes expected in reality, and/or how such approximation be improved, as distinct from concerns of balance and of emulation of genres of fiction. Originates in the early GURPS practice of actually trying things to see how they worked; has become metaphorical for dealing with things that are impossible or impractical in reality.

Answer 2

simulation and reality-check are the best kind of distinct: only technically distinct.

Simulation stipulates that it is a game play style (or rather, for questions about such a style) where the desired outcome is the logical outcome given a set of rules (of reality, not of the game), with the real world only being a possible set of rules.

Reality-Check, as defined in the tag wiki, is just simulation with the rules (of reality) set to the real world exclusively.

Given those are the only differences I can see between the two... Burninate reality-check, possibly alias it to simulation.