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<blockquote data-quote="Ratskinner" data-source="post: 6152384" data-attributes="member: 6688937">I second KM's post and just wanted to highlight this part as being the&nbsp; most important to me. I haven't seen any evidence that the existence of a&nbsp; &quot;default&quot; setting helps the game in any way. (There are games&nbsp; where it does, but I don't think D&amp;D is one of them.) I also think&nbsp; that linking all the worlds in some grand D&amp;D metaverse isn't really&nbsp; that great a thing (either for Planescape or Spelljammer).I don't think anybody is assuming that, but...This is exactly the problem with a default cosmology. So now, if I want to run a game with a different/unique cosmology, I have to go back and rework all the monsters, spells, and the like. Why? What is gained? Why not just have nameless/formless references in the monster descriptions? &quot;Servants of a dark power&quot; works just as well as &quot;Servants of Asmodeus&quot;, &quot;from a distant plane&quot; is just the same as &quot;from the Astral plane&quot;. At least, in the core (i.e. generic) rules. Put whatever you want in the settings.Even beyond the mechanics themselves, you have the problem of player/DM expectation. New players show up and simply assume that they can, should, or must utilize the default cosmology. The more any default cosmology is written into the rules, the more profound this problem is. &quot;We gave you a way to fix it&quot; doesn't exactly excuse &quot;We gave you a problem in the first place&quot;.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ratskinner, post: 6152384, member: 6688937"] I second KM's post and just wanted to highlight this part as being the most important to me. I haven't seen any evidence that the existence of a "default" setting helps the game in any way. (There [I]are[/I] games where it does, but I don't think D&D is one of them.) I also think that linking all the worlds in some grand D&D metaverse isn't really that great a thing (either for Planescape or Spelljammer). I don't think anybody is assuming that, but... This is exactly the [U]problem[/U] with a default cosmology. So now, if I want to run a game with a different/unique cosmology, I have to go back and rework all the monsters, spells, and the like. Why? What is gained? Why not just have nameless/formless references in the monster descriptions? "Servants of a dark power" works just as well as "Servants of Asmodeus", "from a distant plane" is just the same as "from the Astral plane". At least, in the core (i.e. generic) rules. Put whatever you want in the settings. Even beyond the mechanics themselves, you have the problem of player/DM expectation. New players show up and simply assume that they can, should, or must utilize the default cosmology. The more any default cosmology is written into the rules, the more profound this problem is. "We gave you a way to fix it" doesn't exactly excuse "We gave you a problem in the first place". [/QUOTE]

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