So to you whats the difference between realistic and grounded in terms of rpgs and fictional worlds? Ive only ever hesrd them used as synonyms
grounded: serious thought is given to how the evil wizard's army is managing the logistics of feeding a dragon, even if that doesn't come up directly on the page
realistic: dragons cant fly because of the square cube law
I think the story's expectations regarding suspension of disbelief are a separate but related factor, too. Two stories might both have dragons that fly, square-cube law be damned, but one might give that dragon visible flight musculature and the other might give it tiny little stick-on wings, and those produce different relationships to verisimilitude.
And a third might never mention the wing size at all because it was a novel, not a movie, and the wing size never turned out to be important enough to focus on for the narration.
