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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 9642039" data-attributes="member: 2629">I missed this thread during my 1 year hiatus ... but the underlying question seems to be: If we remove all mechanical differentiation between species/races/heritages, what lore would draw you to a particular species/race/heritage?  And would the lack of mechanics be a turn off?In any setting, the second half of that equation, the lore, is campaign specific.  To that end, the question defaults to the generic as the specific is too varied for us to consider collectively.  It would be like discussing what to pair with the best flavor of Jelly Belly if everyone disagrees on which flavor is best.  To that end, this is a question of: Absent mechanics, does the lore of species/rate/heritage provide enough meaning to draw you to want to play one over another?  That would depend upon the lore of each setting and DM technically - but I have rarely played in a setting where the built in lore provided to me was not strong enough to warrant a preference - and that was usually the driving force in me selecting the PC I elected to play.  While alignment between mechanics and species/race/heritage was not ignored per se, it was more common for me to write the back story of a PC and then work in the mechanics to fit.For example, I am playing in a War of The Burning Sky campaign (which has strong ties to Enworld for those not in the know).  I went into it unspoiled.  The DM read the intro, gave us an overview and I decided on a character.  The character I selected was a half-orc / half-elf who had grown up in Gate Pass.  He was on the path to be a druid as he studied under the tutelage of a friend of his elven father.  Then, his father was called back to his Shahalesti home while his Ragesian mother took care of his as he became an adult.  A short trip for his father turned into years away without explanation and only minimal written correspondence.  Then, his father was reported dead.  It shattered his world and let in the darkness.  One night, a force reached out to him in his dreams and promised answers ... and vengeance.  The end result: A half-elf (mechanically) druid 2 / undead warlock 1 that looked far more orc than elf.  I picked the PC to capitalize upon the story hooks given to us - and that included the lore.  If it had been a dwarven and gnomish empires heading into war the PC would have been half-gnome - half dwarf.  As to the third part of the question: Do I want mechanics to differentiate species/race/heritage?  Yes, I definitely do.  I want PCs to feel different.  I want there to be baseline mechanics for each major element of their nurture and nature that created them.  I want their origin/background to give meaning to what they decided to be, just as a want their biological nature to have an impact.  HOWEVER, I also want these to be flexible and adjustable.  This is always the case.  It has been the case since the beginning.  If you want to drop out dwarven mechanics and instill elven mechanics because the dwarven PC grew up amongst elves, not dwarves ... great!  Take the baseline, then make the adjustment.Honestly, the best system for creating a PC I have seen was a homebrew built for D&D.  It had the player select a mechanic, then write story, then select a mechanics, then write lore, then select a mechanics, then write lore, then select a class.Mechanics: Nature (genetic makeup - no cultural elements)Lore: Early storyMechanics: Early life (how did they benefit from nurture/environment decisions in their early life - student?  scoundrel?)Lore: Teen yearsMechanics: Late teen situation (what was their life like as they grew into a teen - acolyte? thug?  student?)Lore: Young adult (what is their recent past after becoming an adult)Mechanics: Select a class.You have 4 phases of mechanical construction and three phases of lore writing that identify who the PC is.  It worked well, although we often were crafting new mechanical options for early life and late teen life.</blockquote>

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