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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 6133501" data-attributes="member: 82106">D&D is unabashedly a toolbox right from the very earliest days of its existence when the OD&D rules said outright that they were a set of rules and guidelines which you could use to design a campaign of fantasy adventure. The literal intent was the DM would create rules based on what was in the books but with additions and changes etc as required to produce the desired result. There was a vast range of variation and in terms of setting OD&D gave only the vaguest hints and whatever inhered in the rules themselves (IE the existence of clerics implied gods, vancian casting mechanics implied some 'rules of magic', etc). Now, built-in lore has continued and grown and taken on somewhat of a life of its own, but I think its still quite possible to make a distinction between system and setting. Perhaps recent edition recruits to the game may feel different? I don't know 3e super well, but its true that many of the rules and elements added in official settings were adopted wholesale into the game and WotC didn't call ANYTHING "optional" or "non-core". So I don't know, perhaps 4e blurs that line a bit. Still, its pretty clear to me that while a Swordmage might be drawn from the FR players book that class is separate from the setting.</blockquote>