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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mannahnin" data-source="post: 9462544" data-attributes="member: 7026594">I'm basing it on the core books, of course, since that's what we're talking about.  Apples to apples comparison.SETTINGS are very different. While you're right that in 1E and 2E a good bit of setting information was put into generic supplements like Roger E Moore's seminal "point of view" articles on the races in Dragon, and the 2E Complete books, I don't think including those is an apples to apples comparison to just the 5.5 PH.The races that appear in the core books in the TSR years are mostly just directly lifted from Tolkien with a pinch of Anderson. D&D elves being a mix of his and both forms of Tolkien elves- Hobbit and LotR, with Hobbit a little more prominent.  Gnomes apparently being part Hugi from Three Hearts and Three Lions and part the red hatted fellows from Huygen & Poortvliet's 1977 book.My contention is that the only times it seems to me like the races were given any serious consideration as to what mechanical and thematic PURPOSES they served, which Crimson Longinus was talking about, was in the two editions which really questioned assumptions and put a bunch of work into rationalizing and regularizing D&D's core elements.Though I guess to make this any more substantive than statements of pure opinion we'd have to define what mechanical and thematic purposes means.Maybe we can ask [USER=7025508]@Crimson Longinus[/USER] what they meant by the original comment.I inferred that it means each being designed and chosen to fill a distinct mechanical role and thematic concept distinct from each other race.So for example, you see in 3E a consideration and overhaul of what different benefits each race gives, as well as the addition of what Favored Class they get, to each deliberately fit certain themes and mechanically distinguish them from one another.  4E similarly saw a re-evaluation of them, including Elves being split between the Elf and Eladrin concepts to distinguish between two distinct different parts/themes the larger Elven umbrella concept had encompassed in prior editions.  It wasn't the first time that distinction was made either, for example with the different elven peoples in Dragonlance, but it was made more distinct.</blockquote>

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