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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arial Black" data-source="post: 6781581" data-attributes="member: 6799649">Novels written specifically for the various editions of D&D have certainly alluded to game mechanics to a greater or lesser extent, and some have even had the characters voice some of these mechanics. Some of the FR novels toward the end of 3.5 did that.But the Forgotten Realms is not a rule of D&D!Sure, certain game worlds have been published as game aids, but you cannot say that "If you aren't playing in the Forgotten Realms then you're not playing D&D".When Gygax created the game, he was making a system that a.) allowed a game to be played, and b.) allowed us to create characters like the ones in the books he read.In the back of the 1E AD&D DM's Guide was a whole list of fantasy novels which inspired the game: Poul Anderson, Michael Moorcock, Jack Vance, et al, all influenced the game, and now the game allowed us to create characters from those worlds.I used to have Deities & Demigods, the one with Elric and The Grey Mouser. It had Arthurian knights and heroes of ancient Greece and Norse gods and so on, and it was a great aid to those who set their games in those environments.To model Elric from the novels, for example, someone had to sit down and try to stat him up in D&D terms. IIRC, they said he was a 17th level magic-user, 10th level assassin, fighter...I can't remember, but I think it was around 13th or so. BTW, it was impossible to be all those classes by the rules, but since the Elric books weren't written with D&D rules in mind, it shouldn't surprise us that he doesn't fit D&D class descriptions perfectly.The point is this: given that the writer of Elric's D&D stat block was making it up as he went along, and could've come up with different stats/classes/levels, how can the game mechanic of 'class' be known to the characters in The Young Kingdoms?Does Moonglum ever say anything like, "Elric, why don't you stab him in the back? Assassins of your level do three times as much damage when they backstab, don't they?" "Hey, Elric, can you cast 9th level spells yet?"If Moonglum asked, "Elric, what class are you?", would, could Elric ever reply, "I'm a magic-user 17/assassin 10/fighter 13"?No, classes are not a real thing in character, unless you deliberately (and perversely, IMHO) add it in. It would be just as absurd as characters knowing their own hit point total.</blockquote>

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