Crothian said:
How does core rules only limit the type of setting?
A core rules only game WILL have:
Elves, dwarves, hobbit/kender hybrids - er, halflings - and orcs - the Tolkien races, albeit stripped of their thematic weight and dialled up to 11.
Wizards and sorcerers who can't heal and clerics who can't blast (as well) but can wear heavy armor.
Magic divided between spells and items, with no supernatural abilities available to, say, a high-level fighter.
Lots of magic items.
It will NOT have:
Races outside the Tolkien/epic fantasy mold, except for gnomes, which are hardly far outside it.
Generic spellcasters who can either heal or blast depending on their particular expertise.
Healers whose secondary focus is skills, not combat.
Fighter/mages (until mid-high levels).
Light armored fighters.
More than one oriental-themed class.
Magical abilities that don't fit the mold of either spells or items, such as warlock invocations, Bo9S maneuvers, and the supernatural abilities of some warrior PrCs.
Psionics.
Firearms. (Technically, the DMG does have these, but not in a fleshed-out form, and they're presented as optional in any case)
Steam or higher tech.
Non-magical (or only semi-magical) airships.
Now, if you're giving the GM the option to homebrew any or all of these features, either adding in races, classes and subsystems of his own design or removing existing ones, you might end up with something I would like better, but I don't consider 'core + extensive homebrewing' the same as 'core rules only.'