Originally Posted by Wormerine
Originally Posted by grysqrl
Starting the game with perfect knowledge of things you haven't encountered before handed to you, on the other hand, doesn't make a lot of sense.
I am just making a guess here, but in TableTop DnD sessions does DM conceal enemy stats, resistances, their health? Does gameplay revolve around some kind of "Battleship" mechanic? Swinging blind and seeing if you hit or miss? Casting counter spells until we find out what buff the enemy has actually active?

Or do players have limited access to info to encourage communication between players? DM needs to communicates how the battle is progressing and he hints enemy weaknesses and strenghts when describing it, players act out their health state after calculating damage etc.?

Because if it's the latter, that means game needs to communicate those things. Showing stats and health is the simplest way to do it, but if we want to remove healthbar and chances to hit, for immersion sake, fine. But how do we communicate this information in a different way? BG1-2 answer was creature health status descriptions, which is essencially a health bar. How do we communicate not only how much we missed, but also by how much. Was out miss caused by a magical effect? As it was discussed before, all those things could be conveyed through in-game graphics, but question remains if it would be practical, or effective.
It varies by DM, but generally in tabletop games that I've played, the DM reveals nothing off the bat (apart from a very rough physical description that you could get at a glance). You don't know any numerical value for a creature. If you want to know more, you can take time to study someone (which usually involves some kind of skill check and probably a stealth check if you're trying to be discreet). This might give you some more information about what to expect e.g. notice unusual things about the armor that suggest that it is magical or something about how they move or something about this creature's skin or how it reacts to things in the environment; you get clues, but it is very unusual for it to be in the form of "This creature has a 17AC and resistance to poison damage."

Or, you can just try attacking and see how effective it is. If an enemy has resistance to the kind of damage that you're dealing, the DM might say "that didn't seem to be as effective as you expected". If your attack roll of 17 misses but your ally hits with a 20, you have a pretty good idea of your enemy's AC. If there's magic involved, you will usually see someone casting a spell or doing something to activate an item - most magical buffs aren't just running 24/7. Your DM might mention when an enemy starts to get low on health (usually around 50% and/or 25% of max HP remaining, though it varies a lot). I've had some battles where knowing the HP of a large enemy really mattered and the DM let you spend your action making a perception check to assess the health of a creature you are fighting.

There are plenty of ways to communicate this information in a video game - I just don't want it given away for free; it should be earned.