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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7749248" data-attributes="member: 42582">I'm going to disagree with this - not with your preferences, obviously, but with this take on 4e.First, it's simply not true that the 4e MM has &quot;just stats&quot;. Just off the top of my head, the Demon and Devil entries set out backstories and details of the Abyss and Nine Hells respectively, the Goblin entry has a whole history of goblins and their relationships with one another, the Spider entry has backstory on Lolth, etc.Second, I also like a &quot;consistent and logical&quot; world, but it may be that my measure of consistency is different from yours. In a fantasy RPG, especially a cosmological fantasy of the sort that 4e is by default, I want thematic coherence, which locates all the little local conflicts and loyalties within a larger cosmological context. 4e is the only version of D&amp;D that does that. (The next closest I know of is AD&amp;D OA, but it's cosmology is less clearly presented.)Third, the absence of a map of Nerath, and a timeline, is a boon, not a weakness. It means that the thematic elements can be brought into play as needed, to drive the fiction forward, rather than the fiction being cabined within someone else's conception of what makes for an exciting geography and history.I found the 4e cosmology and &quot;setting&quot;/backstory, which is presented first and foremost in the PHB and MM, inspiring as a GM.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7749248, member: 42582"] I'm going to disagree with this - not with your preferences, obviously, but with this take on 4e. First, it's simply not true that the 4e MM has "just stats". Just off the top of my head, the Demon and Devil entries set out backstories and details of the Abyss and Nine Hells respectively, the Goblin entry has a whole history of goblins and their relationships with one another, the Spider entry has backstory on Lolth, etc. Second, I also like a "consistent and logical" world, but it may be that my measure of consistency is different from yours. In a fantasy RPG, especially a cosmological fantasy of the sort that 4e is by default, I want thematic coherence, which locates all the little local conflicts and loyalties within a larger cosmological context. 4e is the only version of D&D that does that. (The next closest I know of is AD&D OA, but it's cosmology is less clearly presented.) Third, the absence of a map of Nerath, and a timeline, is a boon, not a weakness. It means that the thematic elements can be brought into play as needed, to drive the fiction forward, rather than the fiction being cabined within someone else's conception of what makes for an exciting geography and history. I found the 4e cosmology and "setting"/backstory, which is presented first and foremost in the PHB and MM, inspiring as a GM. [/QUOTE]

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