NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jester David" data-source="post: 6423185" data-attributes="member: 37579">The proper names are handy because they give people an option: they can use the existing names or make their own, rather than having no option but to create a culture.It also leads to shared language and assumptions.If I, as a DM, tell my players that they see an encampment of gnolls up ahead that's all the explanation I need. If I say they see a group of flibbertigibbetlings then I need to explain. (Excluding settings like Dark Sun where the point is familiar things being unfamiliar.)This established flavour  gives players a consistent framework for the game and narrative. An experience DM's and a brand new DM's portrayal and concept of creatures like goblins and orcs should be comparable. There's less likely to be a cultural divide based on assumptions of the race from other media. An old school players might hear "orc" and assume twisted copies of elves spawned from the earth that cannot stand the light, while a newer player might hear "orc" and picture a race of shamanistic warriors from another dimension. So any difference in portrayal is on purpose rather than accidental. Mearls has also talked about the compartmentalization of rules. So the fighter character doesn't *need* to know the concentration rule, but it could be handy to know if fighting enemy wizards. Lore can be viewed the same way. You don't need to know of Gruumsh, but if fighting orcs and one only has a single eye, then someone who knows orc lore has a strategic advantage. So long as that lore is constant.</blockquote>

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