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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ezrael" data-source="post: 1054786" data-attributes="member: 6262">I actually agree with half of your statement: sure, there's lots of setting built into D&D, especially now with 3E using the Greyhawk gods and such as the default. It can, however, be divorced wholly from the game, unless you count the very class concepts as setting material. I don't. I think a fighter can be anything from a massive brawler to a quick and deadly archer, a rogue can be a stealthy assassin or a nimble pilferer, a bard can be a master seducer or a friendly banterer, etc, etc. There's plenty of room to strip the game down to the bare essentials and rebuild it however you want, and you can do that if you choose using just the big three books.However, in my disagreement with you, I'm not a fool (at least I hope not): using the critters from the MM unmodified, as an example, *does* impose setting ideas on you, as does using the races and gods from the PHB. A lot of good gamers and designers have taken those setting ideas and run with them, of course...both the Forgotten Realms and Dark Sun use elves, dwarves, humans and halflings, as an example, but those worlds are leaps and bounds away from each other. (In fact, I had an interesting idea while reading through the recent Dark Sun 3 PDF, that Arcana Unearthed would be an interesting way to shake up your Dark Sun game. Imagine if, just past the tablelands of Athas, a whole new verdant world awaited, the lands of the Giants whose degraded offspring are the half-giants of Athas...but I digress) That doesn't change the fact that to use them is to accept a certain level of setting.I guess what I'm saying is that I agree with you that the setting material is setting, but not that you can't reject it and still use the game. But that might in fact be what you mean after all, since you did use the terms "awesome game but can't be played out of the box" - you do need to put the work in to use the PHB to create a wholly new world, just like you would to use AU. Most people, I expect, would simply use the parts they like and discard the parts they don't...I know in my case, the biggest problem I'm having while thinking about how to use AU to create a new campaign is the idea of losing some of those setting ideas from D&D that I really like. In the end, I'll probably cheat and find a way to shoehorn them in.</blockquote>

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