Hussar
Legend
That's the point though. The disappearance of the elves is an established fact of the setting. Fair enough. It's not in flux. It's a fact of the setting, same as... Waterdeep exists in the Sword Coast. Once it's established, it's no longer in flux.I don't think it's an answer of convenience. Degree is the difference between a tap and a punch, or a glass of water and a swimming pool, or an ultralight and a 747 jumbo jet.
My last post had a question mark at the end because I don't know how "setting element" was used in your discussion, so I was was guessing. My guess was along the following lines.
Suppose I had a homebrew setting and as part of its history elves disappeared 10,000 years ago and since that time that has not been a single sighting reported. Elves are gone from my setting, and there is a critical reason for them to be gone. Changing that is going to be a crapton harder than deciding to hit the party with 4 orcs instead of 6.
But, that's not the issue is it? No one is saying DM's should be changing established information. But, it has been repeatedly stated that in any sim or sandbox game, nothing is in flux once the game starts. The DM is forbidden in these games from changing stuff - if that town exists in Hex 2023, then that town must always be there. And it must be a town. It cannot be a village or a city. It must be exactly as the DM has outlined it to be. Nothing can be in flux.
But, now, apparently, everything that hasn't been previously established is actually in flux and may be changed at any time.... so, basically the last five hundred pages or so of this thread has just gotten ejected out the window.