New article - Elves, Eladrin and Drow. Oh, my!

[Goobermunch]

There is also a lot of implied world material being tossed around here. Things like "As kingdoms and empires grew and collapsed -- the human realm of Nerath, the dragonborn Arkhosia, the tiefling Bael Turath"

This is a radical change from previous editions where the implied setting was maybe supported by a sample pantheon and then some flavorful names attached to spells. It is also a 180 from the Spell Compendium's change to completely strip the flavorful names from spells.

Either way it sounds like they might be injecting a lot of fluff into the core rules.

You mean 3.5's implied setting of GREYHAWK wasn't a lot of fluff?!?!

--G

 

[WhimsyTheFae]

New game. New philosophy.

You can say that again.

 

[Wormwood]

Corellon is the God of Magic. So, it's possible that Gruumsh may be what, the God of War?

I'd say he's a great fit for the god of rage or primal fury, etc.

 

[Spatula]

The goddess of the new moon thing is cool, but it makes her transformation into demon queen of spiders (rather than darkness, betrayal, or some creature that embodies those traits) a bit of a non-sequitur...

 

[Rechan]

You mean 3.5's implied setting of GREYHAWK wasn't a lot of fluff?!?!

--G

Here we go again. :\

 

[Plane Sailing]

You mean 3.5's implied setting of GREYHAWK wasn't a lot of fluff?!?!

Well, 3e's setting was more hinted at rather than implied - you had greyhawk gods (I presume) and the names of some greyhawk wizards in spells (which had been there since the year dot) and thats it.

Any mention of old empires or anything else greyhawky in 3e? Not that I can think of, certainly not on the scale of the implied setting here.

Cheers

 

[Wormwood]

You mean 3.5's implied setting of GREYHAWK wasn't a lot of fluff?!?!

--G

3.5's core books provide us with some gods, a little fluff about the races, and some vague historical bits in the Artifact section---all without context.

So if you wanted to just buy the core books and play a campaign, you either had to buy a campaign setting or make up your own.

With 4e, Wizards is finally giving us a 'core setting' . . . something just about every other RPG figured out years ago.

 

[Rechan]

Well, 3e's setting was more hinted at rather than implied - you had greyhawk gods (I presume) and the names of some greyhawk wizards in spells (which had been there since the year dot) and thats it.

As I recall, the Assassin PrC was specific to Greyhawk. Because it was more reserved for a specific Guild or Order, and to join you had to kill someone in cold blood, and you had to be Evil.

Also, the PHB had a lot of very specific fluff. Crack it open and read the racial entry for Elves, and tell me that's not specific fluff.

 

[Sammael]

New game. New philosophy.

Forgive me for not seeing the problem here.

See, I don't see it that way.

There are bazillions of rage-based gods out there (there are at least three or four I can think of in FR alone). And yet, WotC designers chose the one god they knew would be a controversial choice - Gruumsh - and slipped him into the game as a generic god of whatever, and then made a point to mention, in a preview article, that some elves actually worship him, even though he's been their nemesis for a very, very, very long period of game history time.

That's not exactly "New game. New philosophy." That's "being controversial for the sake of controversy." That's not improving the game in any way - it's there merely for the shock factor.

 

[Bishmon]

Will any of this fluff be in the core books, though?

I mean, this is a Dragon article. Dragon articles during 3E provided all sorts of fluff as well.