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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8312880" data-attributes="member: 82106">Which illustrates 2 things. 1) The suggestions of game authors have the force of canon. OD&amp;D simply purports to be a set of material useful to creating &quot;...Medieval Wargames Campaigns Playable with Paper and Pencil...&quot; and &quot;...they are guidelines to follow in designing your own fantastic-medieval campaign.&quot; However, clearly Gygax (or perhaps the convention started with Dave Arneson, we don't know) must have suggested, though I am not certain where, that clerical spells were 'miracles from the gods' or something of the sort. Certainly AD&amp;D 1e is explicit about it, but I am pretty sure it was at least tacit in earlier play. This became a canonical, absolute, and sometimes enforced rule (IE you could be stripped of your spell-casting, all Men &amp; Magic says is a phrase indicating that Clerics of level 7 and above must declare an alignment and 'lose those benefits' if it is switched). 2) Statements such as &quot;clerics get their spells from gods&quot; are virtually never reflavored. Instead they take on a sort of mythic status as unbreakable rules. Ironically every process of play suggestion or such are easily trampled, but something like this becomes a virtually ironclad guarantee you cannot violate without being exiled into the land of running, at least, a 'variant sort of campaign' or whatnot.5e's statements. Heck, even 4e's outright denials, have nothing like the force of this ancient tradition. I think this is especially prevalent in D&amp;D. I'm not sure if it helps cement the social popularity of the game, or is a consequence of it, I leave that as an excersize for others...</blockquote>

[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 8312880, member: 82106"] Which illustrates 2 things. 1) The suggestions of game authors have the force of canon. OD&D simply purports to be a set of material useful to creating "...Medieval Wargames Campaigns Playable with Paper and Pencil..." and "...they are guidelines to follow in designing your own fantastic-medieval campaign." However, clearly Gygax (or perhaps the convention started with Dave Arneson, we don't know) must have suggested, though I am not certain where, that clerical spells were 'miracles from the gods' or something of the sort. Certainly AD&D 1e is explicit about it, but I am pretty sure it was at least tacit in earlier play. This became a canonical, absolute, and sometimes enforced rule (IE you could be stripped of your spell-casting, all Men & Magic says is a phrase indicating that Clerics of level 7 and above must declare an alignment and 'lose those benefits' if it is switched). 2) Statements such as "clerics get their spells from gods" are virtually never reflavored. Instead they take on a sort of mythic status as unbreakable rules. Ironically every process of play suggestion or such are easily trampled, but something like this becomes a virtually ironclad guarantee you cannot violate without being exiled into the land of running, at least, a 'variant sort of campaign' or whatnot. 5e's statements. Heck, even 4e's outright denials, have nothing like the force of this ancient tradition. I think this is especially prevalent in D&D. I'm not sure if it helps cement the social popularity of the game, or is a consequence of it, I leave that as an excersize for others... [/QUOTE]

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