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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5910537" data-attributes="member: 42582">I think "I want to be X, but have the advantages of Y" is an unhelpful way of analysing these examples. Because, as Arlough indicates, there is no mechanical advantage at stake.WotC itself reflavours Goliaths as Half-Giants in Dark Sun.This brings out the key issue for me - it's about the relationship between mechanics and .Is the purpose of the dwarf mechanics, or the wizard's spellbook, purely to create a viable and interesting mechanical subsystem? In which case reskinning doesn't matter. Or is the purpose of these rules also to create a certain setting? Say, one in which short tough Scottish-accented demihumans and muttering, bumbling, bookish wizards, are common occurences.To be clear, I don't think there is a single correct answer to my question. Different players, and different groups, want different things from the rules. What would be nice, however, is for the rulebooks to help make clear what mechanics are in place for reasons of balance, and what to reinforce setting. In AD&D, for example, the prohibition on halfling fighter progressing beyond 4th level is a setting issue, not a balance one (halfling fighters are weaker than dwarven fighters, for example, who are permitted to advance to 7th+). Whereas the prohibition on wizards using armour (and perhaps swords?) is a balance issue.Here's an example, from the Burning Wheel Magic Burner (p 189), of a mechanic which is clearly written to indicate the relationships between system, balance and setting; it's a variant magic system (default BW magic is at will casting of any spell known, with a risk of fatigue associated with each casting):The Arsenal Method limits the amount of spells a sorcerer can have on hand at any one time, but allows him to return to home base and change his current line-up . . . <s>pells are supernatural creatures fighting for space in the wizard's consciousness. A wizard ony has so much room to work with before the spells just blot each other out and he can't remember anything. . .</s> <s></s> <s>If a wizard character possesses more spells than he can hold in his crowded memory at one time, the extra spells are kept writte in his precious, really-too-big-to-carry-around spell book or similar, campaign-appropriate edifice. . . The spell book is not designed to cut a mage off from the source of his power. It exists only to limit what he has acces to right now. Feel free to chaneg the spell book to some other campaign-appropriate format - a temple, a grove of trees, tattoos, a gaggle of imps, the spirit of your dead father.</s><s></s><s></s><s>As a general rule, D&D books have not spoken so frankly about the role of mechanical features as story elements. I think this is, at least in part, because there is a tendency for the books to be written from an inworld persepctive ("You are a fighter, a peerless warrior of the realm;" "You a wizard, a master of magical tomes whose words reconfigure reality.")</s><s></s><s>Whereas, as soon as you start talking about campaign-appropriate edifices, you're givin away that this is a rules sytem to help you develop an imaginry setting for the purposes of play, rather than a description of how things are within some particular imaginary setting.</s></blockquote>

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