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That's usually what it comes down to. Some people are trying to model a fantasy story or varied genres/styles, with appropriate characters, cliches and story beats. Some people are trying to model reality as it would be assuming that suddenly D&D cosmology, spellcasting, monsters, and the...

Unarmored defense bonus for all classes- or at least the ones expected to take attacks and have decent defenses- makes sense. There's so many settings and character concepts that don't favor armor. I still think armor should provide some kind of benefit though, as it provides incentive for...

That's exactly how it works when dealing with fantasy worlds- and often times the real world, depending on who you're talking to. The human mind is intrinsically geared towards this kind of blurring and it becomes even more true when formulating narratives.

The Fighter warrior feature also gets you a keep and followers, even if those people don't know you, have a high opinion of you, have any wealth or connections of note, etc . It just assumes that by making it to a given level you get followers and a keep whether you were a famous saintly knight...

In the real world, getting your own castle or follower is not an automatic thing just because you're a warrior. Likewise, in the overwhelming majority of fantasy stories, the warrior characters are usually really really good at holding the enemies' attention so they don't target/attack the more...

That's a "narrative" powers/features. Similar to how in 1e/2e, the Fighting Man/Fighter was assumed to get followers and a keep. Similar to how every Warlock receives a Book of Shadows/Pact Weapon/Improved familiar at 3rd level. Not at a point where it would be most logical given their their...

Well the Ranger was the most popular class behind Fighter/Rogue/Wizard/Cleric and people were still unhappy enough with it for WotC to think they needed to do a revision. I also hear a lot of people complaining about Sorcerer's not having enough Sorcery points/metamagic and Warlocks being...

Eberron is a D&D setting defined by a very long civil war that only recently ended. It has some elements of of WWI/II and the five nations also take some very broad influences from Europe with Breland being the US/England, Aundair being kind of French, Karnnath being vaguely Eastern European...

Eventually the classes went into those divergent directions. In AD&D, Priest spell lists were a lot less like Magic-Users, they got more spell slots, and they maxed out at 7th level. I never actually played AD&D, but I figured this was to gear them towards casting a higher number support/buff...

I don't know. For me, the core of D&D has always been the Fighting Man/Fighter, the Thief/Rogue, the Cleric/Priest, and the Wizard/Mage. They're not only the classes from which all the others were originally variants or combinations of. They also define the roles (thematically and...

I actually don't read a lot of fantasy. Heck, I didn't even know what Lord of the Rings was before I saw the trailer in theaters, and I had been playing D&D for about a year by then. I didn't even know about Game of Thrones until I heard about the series being adapted by HBO a couple of years...

I'd be inclined to agree, but Chult/sub-Saharan Africa doesn't even get that level of consideration. Yeah, I'm actually kind of envious of Kara Tur in that regard.

Well there is a difference in that those spells are totally different. In order to keep someone permanently enslaved, you need to be a 17th level spellcaster and give up all your 9th and 8th level spell slots. In order to keep a single skeleton permenantly enslaved, you only need to be 5th...

I've read their Pathfinder adaptation. I'm not surprised that there's a lot of Egyptian/Near Eastern influences which can make it redundant with a lot of settings that already cover those kinds of places, but it still has a lot of useful material for Sub-Saharan African-style places.

It can be hard to see what’s going on when speaking in such broad terms… In Forgotten Realms. There isn’t just one kind of white or one kind of Asian culture that stands as an analogue for all of Europe or Asia. The Viking Barbarian aesthetic is a big part of the Ruathym. The Teutonic...

A very, very good summation of what's going on and the concerns/desires being expressed. While I do agree that gaming has certainly diversified, it would seem that the author of this article, the blogger they talked to, and most people in this thread sharing their concerns and desires have...

I was pretty sure she didn't have an agenda- especially not a recent one- because I've been making, voicing, and hearing the exact same complaint when it comes to D&D and fantasy gaming in general for almost as long as I've been playing. With the implication being that she doesn't do the...

The author has a long hisotry of writing about gaming/anime/nerd stuff, occasionally on social issues, and occasionally the intersection between the two for years before she started writing for Kotaku/Gawker or Trump announced his candidacy for president. You can find a list of her articles on...

The only black RPGs that exist for D&D inspired systems that I can recall are Nyambe and Spears of the Dawn. If there are more please tell me because I'm really starved for content in that regard. So the fact that the only "Africa" in Forgotten Realms is Chult or Mwangi Expanse in Pathfinder...

It would depend largely on context and how deep/shallow you go with it. Wearing some hide and feathers, wielding a spear, and being bare chested alone is not enough to really be a stereotype. That's what Zulu warriors literally look like. It's when there's not much else to it or those traits...