Defining its own Mythology

[Rechan]

Maybe I don't want half-demons and dragon people swimming in my soup? You know as well as I do that the play notes in the monster manual for playing monster races don't have near as extensive a treatment as they do in the core rule books. So now gnomes are relegated to a mere footnote in 4E. Hack! There's the machete.

The gnomes are there. In the Core. That's not a machette, that's just de-emphasizing their presence. You are still given the option of making them core in your home brew by saying "Gnomse are allowed, they're on page X of the MM."

Just like you can say "Tieflings and dragonborn are out."

It's simple.

 

[Rechan]

I wonder how many "pro-assortment of fantasy" people absolutely hate the Asian style and flavored classes.

Adore it.

But then, for a character I've taken the Monk class, filed off the name, and called it "Secret Agent" or "Body Guard". Mechanics are just a package of abilities that can be flavored any way you want, imho.

I wish there was more Indian, Arabian and African mythos/flavor in there, too. Instead of "Lalala European fantasy - oh look, a ninja. Wave hi." "Hi!" "Lalala European fantasy."

 

[Rechan]

However, one can say the same of Shadowdancers, Clerics, almost all the teleportation spells and a large chunk of monsters who all require a very specific setup of planes in 3.5.

Specifically the ethereal, postivie and negative energy planes. Oh, and the plane of Shadow.

Feywild = Ethereal plane.
Shadowfell = Plane of Shadow.
Astral Sea = Astral plane.

Whenever something in 3.5 references one of the above, just substitute the other name in. If you need specific planes like, the mechanical plane, you can drop it into the Astral sea if you must.

There, done.

 

[Lurks-no-More]

Feywild = Ethereal plane.
Shadowfell = Plane of Shadow.
Astral Sea = Astral plane.

Whenever something in 3.5 references one of the above, just substitute the other name in. If you need specific planes like, the mechanical plane, you can drop it into the Astral sea if you must.

There, done.

Isn't that supposed to confuse everyone, take tens of minutes of explanation whenever anything comes up, and bring the wrath of the WotC Gaming Police on your group, however?

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Isn't that supposed to confuse everyone, take tens of minutes of explanation whenever anything comes up, and bring the wrath of the WotC Gaming Police on your group, however?

No more than explaining why Elves and Dwarves don't hate each other in your world, that halflings are or aren't fat, or why on earth there are or aren't dungeons lying around everywhere filled with random creatures.

I've yet to play in a game that didn't involve a serious amount of explanation.

The WotC Gaming Police are another matter.

If I get one more citation they're going to cancel my dice insurance. I'm a signed risk as it is, but now that I got my GleeBuster I should be able to slow down before they ping me.

 

[Kesh]

Maybe I don't want half-demons and dragon people swimming in my soup? You know as well as I do that the play notes in the monster manual for playing monster races don't have near as extensive a treatment as they do in the core rule books. So now gnomes are relegated to a mere footnote in 4E. Hack! There's the machete.

That's not a machete. You were arguing that you had less selection with 4e, but you don't. Now you're saying that you don't like the selection, which is a different argument.

Besides, I already have the same rather lame "racial footnoting" with the current monster manuals.

Again, you're making an assumption here. We don't know what the racial writeups in the MM will look like for 4e. Considering gnomes are core to Eberron, I doubt we'll get a half-assed treatment in the MM for them.

Also, even World of Warcraft has gnomes!

Yeah. I played one. They bear little to no resemblance to D&D's gnome, or the Travelocity gnome, or other gnomes in general. Plus, they still get made fun of more than any other race. D&D will still have gnomes, just as an optional race from the MM. You haven't lost your selection at all.

 

[RandomCitizenX]

AWizardinDallas

I keep seeing you claim that the write up in the MM for gnomes will be less than the write up for the PHB races based on previous editions of the game. I'm not sure if anyone else agrees with me on this, but that seems to be an unreasonable assumption. We have not seen the format of the MM, of the PHB races, or of the Monsters as PC's in the MM. How can you know that the gnome write up in the MM will be subpar when compared to the PHB race write ups?

 

[Doug McCrae]

Greyhawk, IMHO is NOT the quintessential D&D setting. Forgotten Realms is.

Because FR is an even bigger, madder mess than Greyhawk? I think you're right.

 

[Rechan]

I keep seeing you claim that the write up in the MM for gnomes will be less than the write up for the PHB races based on previous editions of the game. I'm not sure if anyone else agrees with me on this, but that seems to be an unreasonable assumption. We have not seen the format of the MM, of the PHB races, or of the Monsters as PC's in the MM. How can you know that the gnome write up in the MM will be subpar when compared to the PHB race write ups?

Especially given that races get abilities as they level, so they have to at least have the abilities of the race in the MM listed.

 

[RandomCitizenX]

Especially given that races get abilities as they level, so they have to at least have the abilities of the race in the MM listed.

Exactly... If someone doesn't like the new flavor that has been shown I can accept that, but as far as mechanics go it boils down to there being way too many variables to make any assumptions.