Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Jer" data-source="post: 3743450" data-attributes="member: 19857">I don't think I've ever heard a player complain about the distinction.&nbsp; Most of the players I've had in the past have either been hardcore gamers who have been reading Monster Manuals since Junior High or are such casual gamers that they might not even realize that the fact that I'm using two different works for &quot;demon&quot; might mean that they're seeing two different types of creatures.&nbsp; (And probably wouldn't care if they were told there was a difference).I've heard of a few folks who have thought about becoming DMs complain about stuff like this, though.&nbsp; In fact, I know one White Wolf player who decided that all the little idiosyncrasies about D&amp;D monsters grated on him just enough to not bother ever DMing (though he's perfectly willing to play D&amp;D, or to run World of Darkness or Exalted stuff - he won't run D&amp;D).But anecdotes aren't data, so I'm not going to try to argue that these folks are any kind of large base being alienated by current D&amp;D tropes.&nbsp; I think a better question is what does keeping the mostly arbitrary distinctions that have grown up around demons and devils add to the game?&nbsp; What harm does the addition of this kind of fluff do to the game?(To admit my own biases, I came into the game via Basic/Expert/Companion/Masters D&amp;D.&nbsp; My view of the game was heavily colored by the idea that I should be building my own world including my own planar geography.&nbsp; The whole idea introduced in 2e that all of the D&amp;D settings were linked together in some kind of grand cosmology - whether through Planescape or through Spelljammer - was foreign to me, and really kind of an unwelcome assumption that I often had to dissuade players of during the mid-90s when they sat at my table.&nbsp; That's probably at least part of the reason why I don't see why any of this stuff should make much difference - it's just fluff and I've been modifying fluff in every D&amp;D product I've bought since I started in this hobby.&nbsp; And, in the long run, fluff is a heck of a lot easier and more fun to modify than mechanics are in my book.)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Jer, post: 3743450, member: 19857"] I don't think I've ever heard a player complain about the distinction. Most of the players I've had in the past have either been hardcore gamers who have been reading Monster Manuals since Junior High or are such casual gamers that they might not even realize that the fact that I'm using two different works for "demon" might mean that they're seeing two different types of creatures. (And probably wouldn't care if they were told there was a difference). I've heard of a few folks who have thought about becoming DMs complain about stuff like this, though. In fact, I know one White Wolf player who decided that all the little idiosyncrasies about D&D monsters grated on him just enough to not bother ever DMing (though he's perfectly willing to play D&D, or to run World of Darkness or Exalted stuff - he won't run D&D). But anecdotes aren't data, so I'm not going to try to argue that these folks are any kind of large base being alienated by current D&D tropes. I think a better question is what does keeping the mostly arbitrary distinctions that have grown up around demons and devils add to the game? What harm does the addition of this kind of fluff do to the game? (To admit my own biases, I came into the game via Basic/Expert/Companion/Masters D&D. My view of the game was heavily colored by the idea that I should be building my own world including my own planar geography. The whole idea introduced in 2e that all of the D&D settings were linked together in some kind of grand cosmology - whether through Planescape or through Spelljammer - was foreign to me, and really kind of an unwelcome assumption that I often had to dissuade players of during the mid-90s when they sat at my table. That's probably at least part of the reason why I don't see why any of this stuff should make much difference - it's just fluff and I've been modifying fluff in every D&D product I've bought since I started in this hobby. And, in the long run, fluff is a heck of a lot easier and more fun to modify than mechanics are in my book.) [/QUOTE]

Verification