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[Baron Opal II]

i agree there is some amount of coherent sense that must be made, but just a flat 'no orcs' that has no why doesn't pass that to me

So, you dislike arbitrary removals from the "default" without reason? I can see that might ruffle a feather or two.

 

[reelo]

I tried to run Ghosts of Saltmarsh, so, I had a nice little primer for Keoland, only a few pages of history, plus a primer for the town of Saltmarsh itself. The players could not give the slightest foetid dingo's kidneys about it. They made characters that in no way touched on Greyhawk as a setting, had zero connection whatsoever to the town of Saltmarsh and didn't even bother to read the primer material.
(…)
Outside of a couple of limitations due to the campaign I'm running, I am never going to do any world building again if I can possibly avoid it.

That sounds incredibly… sad.
I'd have told the players something along the lines of "if you cba to care about the setting, I cba to DM for you guys".

 

[Baron Opal II]

I'd have told the players something along the lines of "if you cba to care about the setting, I cba to DM for you guys".

I'm sorry, I don't quite understand what you mean. "cba"?

 

[GMforPowergamers]

So, you dislike arbitrary removals from the "default" without reason? I can see that might ruffle a feather or two.

kind of...

I look at the setting WotC (or 3pp) put out the same way I do my homebrew ones... If I make a setting and say "no orcs" just to be different it is really a soft "no" because I don't have a reason...

3ish settings ago I made a setting where everyone was 'human' but you could use human, variant human, half orc, half elf or dragonborn for stats... but you were human with some '____' traits. there were once elves and dwarves and dragons but not any more. (there were technicly orcs really far away from the play zone too). I had reasons, and if someone came to me with a pitch for 'halfing' or 'arrakora' or any other race I could explain myself as to WHY those races can't work in this.

in my 2nd to last setting I had a 'don't be druids' and 2 players were like "Come on we just want to be druids now" (and I swear 1 was just to be difficult) but I explained (and this one is quick) druids are 'enemies' they are hunted like monsters. the general reaction would be a 'burn the witch' if someone found out you were one... and the very powerful lord of the land has knights out hunting druids... so you can play them only if every player at the table agrees to 'playing on hard mode'. that got them to calm down about it... and in my last campaign 1 of them got to play there warforged druid useing the keith baker variant of moon druid for warforged.


if you can point out a reason why you can't allow X that is cool (even if you can't quickly type the why here) but 'just cause' seems like bad world design.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I'm sorry, I don't quite understand what you mean. "cba"?

can't

 

[Baron Opal II]

if you can point out a reason why you can't allow X that is cool (even if you can't quickly type the why here) but 'just cause' seems like bad world design.

Okay, sounds reasonable.

Are you asking about this?

I strive to make the setting coherent, you're not going to find an arctic culture in the tropics.

To put more concrete labels on it. by way of example, you're not going to find Inuit culture in Sri Lanka. That would make no sense; they are a culture adapted to a completely different climate and their survival strategies would fail. If you are looking for them you need to go to the Yukon, a part of Nunangat. They exist, just way over there. That said, there could be some Inuit people who, through opportunity and circumstance, traveled to Sri Lanka and are making a home there. They won't be wearing traditional dress, caribou parkas being lethal in 100 degree heat, but probably wearing local dress with traditional accents. Depending how long they have been there, if you could come up with some traditional treat that they can't source in the tropics, that would give you an advantage in making friendships.

For another example, I don't have genasi in my campaign. However, players can play River Daughters (children of the local river goddess who made a pact with a ruler long ago), Children of the Pines (tied to the fae of the boreal forests, immune to winter's chill and blood like sap), or the Qasida Shamal (people bound to where the spirits of dry winds meet the sparkling seas).

Is this what you are looking for?

 

[Micah Sweet]

i agree there is some amount of coherent sense that must be made, but just a flat 'no orcs' that has no why doesn't pass that to me

What about, "no elves", or, "no warforged", or, "no tieflings", or, "no drow", or, "no loxo"? Is it just orcs? Or does every world have to include everything unless their reasoning to do otherwise passes your personal muster?

 

[GMforPowergamers]

What about, "no elves", or, "no warforged", or, "no tieflings", or, "no drow", or, "no loxo"? Is it just orcs? Or does every world have to include everything unless their reasoning to do otherwise passes your personal muster?

yes everything... but not all at once. If you have a reason to say no that's fine, but you have 3-6 players on average, even if everyone of them wants something you said no to (a sign you really need to go back to drawing board) that is 6ish races.

 

[Micah Sweet]

yes everything... but not all at once. If you have a reason to say no that's fine, but you have 3-6 players on average, even if everyone of them wants something you said no to (a sign you really need to go back to drawing board) that is 6ish races.

I don't allow my players to dictate to me what game I run for them. I start with an idea, and I accept session 0 input and will compromise to an extent, but I'm still the DM. You don't just get to tell me what I'm going to run.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I don't allow my players to dictate to me what game I run for them. I start with an idea, and I accept session 0 input and will compromise to an extent, but I'm still the DM. You don't just get to tell me what I'm going to run.

I play/run with a table of DMs if one of us cant orwont give therest of usjust tell them to sit as a player awhile... since we have no lack of DMs as an option we are in the (I guess rare) situation where we all have equal say in what WE run