Lantan and smokepowder

KahlessNestor said:

That was completely not the initial intent. That only became an issue when I got pushback and told "No. Just because". What am I? Four years old, where that is an acceptable answer? No, it isn't. Now it's an issue of fairness.

If a player is expected to follow all the rules (including the rules about refluffing), then there should be reciprocal respect for the rules by DMs. We tell DMs all the time they have to follow them (can't use maneuvers from the DMG like disarm, can't add encounters, etc) or don't DM AL. But for some reason, in this case, it's okay to ignore the tules "because I don't like it" regardless of the fact that the refluff in question does actually exist in the setting? Open play either follows the rules for everyone or it doesn't. That's the entire reason for open play. This isn't a case of "rulings" where DMs can differ.

And yes, I will make all the ruckus about it on the forums and in FB, etc. Because that is the place to do it. I have never made an issue at the table, even when DMs are blatantly wrong.

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Anthraxus said:

I mean, I don't think there is any rule that says you can re-fluff things to the examples I have seen(your Lantan/Smokepowder idea; someone's WH40K space marine). All I've seen is that you can rename a Glaive into "Bill-Guisarme" or use Asian names for your monk's weapons. I have only seen the Admins say "If your DM is ok with it, and mechanical properties remain the same."

In your case, if you had some kind of mechanical smokepowder pistol that Gnomes from Lantan made, and you roleplayed it, and kept it fairly low key, I'd probably be ok with it. If someone in plate mail with a crossbow said he had the "Real Far Traveler" background, and said he was a Space Marine with Power Armor, and his crossbow was a Heavy Bolter, I'd most likely say "Ehhhh, no."

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aramis erak said:

It's not a retheme I'd allow, and if a GM allowed it at a table I'm playing at, I'm complaining to the regional coordinator.

Mechanically, firearms are distinct from Crossbows, and firearms are not allowed.

Further, the visual and social impacts are different, so the effects of threatening with one are different. It breaks the fiction as much as the rules.

I've not seen permission to re-theme anything, either - you, the player, may call your Glaive a guisarm or a pole-seaxe, but you had better put glaive on the sheet, or I'm tossing you from my table for illegal items - the alternate names are in an off-limits chunk of the DMG.

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KahlessNestor said:

Admins have stated you can do such things. LCs and RCs have stated it. I've given several examples where I was specifically told I could, including with the crossbows=smokepowder weapons. Here on this board, even. In this very thread.

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KahlessNestor said:

That is because he's clearly going outside the setting. Obviously that is something non-existent in Faerun.

I have been told by LCs and admins that refluffing is fine. It's what I was told when I wanted to make Oberyn and renamed a pike a longspear. It is what I was told when I wanted to make Dain Ironfoot on his war boar. I couldn't use a boar, but I could use the warhorse stats and just call it a boar. There is nothing different here. I'm using a crossbow and calling it a smokepowder musket or pistol. This is such a non-issue elsewhere in the AL social media that the conversation has been over for more than a week on FB and never even really was argued against on Google Plus. Other than one or two people that were iffy about it, everyone else was "cool idea. I'd allow it". Only here for some reason do people have a problem with an established setting trope (smokepowder) being used. And the only reason they can give is "I don't like it." They need something better than that. Space Marines? "Not in the setting." That's a valid reason for disallowing a legally built but refluffed character. I mean, heck, Acquisitions Incorporated had a magi-mech Power Ranger kaiju battle outside Waterdeep!

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