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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wombat" data-source="post: 1823707" data-attributes="member: 8447">Okay, I'll try my hand at this.1. adventurers as a separate class of peopleNah, hasn't been true for years in my campaigns.  "Adventurer" is only a job description in my comedy campaigns.2. PCs as exceptional charactersWell, more like "PCs and important NPCs", essentially those who qualify to be "Classed" characters, as opposed to "NPC Classed".  I never really had a problem with this one.  To quote W.S. Gilbert, "If everybody's Somebody, then no one's Anybody."3. clear distinction between PCs and monstersNo problem here.  There are civilizations and then there are semi-roaming predators.  Then again, I've taken this further steps (see below).4. arcane/divine magic divideSince I currently use AU, this is not even an issue.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />5. PCs organized into a cooperative party structureThis is rather vague.  Do you mean as opposed to half a dozen individuals going there own seperate ways, only working together if they can't face a particular challange?  Or do you mean parties shouldn't work as small-scale democracies?  In my current campaign everyone belongs to the same club/secret society, thus there are reasons for them to cooperate.  But given how the point is raised, I'm not really sure what the objection is.6. medieval European setting (well, a more hygenic version, anyway)I've worked with a lot of different settings.  The current one is late 16th/early 17th century as far as the Not-Europeans are concerned, but Classical Maya (thus about 500 years earlier) as far as the Native Peoples are concerned, mixed with a third group that is more or less Ming Chinese (thus about 1-200 years off).  Then again, the hygene isn't that much better than reality, given the paucity of healers and still a lack of the germ theory, etc. (I never assumed that magic would lead to modern physical/biological, etc., understanding of the world.)  So it is sort of Renaissance-y, but that is still pretty much "medieval" in the common parlance of the 20th century.  There are lots of religious, social, political, and economic upheavals, if that makes things nicer...  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />  7. race = cultureNah, got rid of this a long time ago.  Species ("race") is the hardwiring of your character -- a litorian is shaped different from a human, etc.  Being Mavargan (one example culture), however, could apply to almost any species, assuming they are brought up within its dictates.  And, of course, there are many identifiable subcultures.  Thus a litorian could be raised under Akapan, nomadic litorian, Mavargan, Hautomoni, or any of a host of other cultures.  More fun this way  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />8. epic or heroic plot scaleI go back and forth on this one.  Sometimes I do have epic (but not Epic Handbook) plots; sometimes I have simpler personal goals.  It all depends on the mood of the players and the needs of the game.9. other things you have noticed and altered.The overabundance of sentient species!  In my current campaign, all the sentient species may be played as PCs, but this also means that there are (compared to most fantasy games) very few sentient species.  The only sentients that the players may not choose are undead (but they might become undead, at which point they may not longer player that PC).  Alignments.  The bane of most games.Vast numbers of planes of existence that all cultures look upon in exactly the same way.  This is out both in terms of how cultures view them (each see them differently) and the number of planes "known" about (only about 3-4 "planes" per culture, including heaven & hell analogs, etc.).  Mortals do not visit these "planes".Easy social mobility, based on wealth and physical prowess.  I prefer much more limited social mobility -- one does not begin life as a peasant and end it as a duke simply due to plundering old graveyards.  Dungeons a la D&D.  What is up with these?  Who would build them?  Why?  Gone.Characters identified by their character class.  People don't go down the road saying, "Hi!  My name is Al!  I am a 3rd level Fighter!"  Instead they say something like "Hi!  I'm Al!  I've fought in the last war against the Akapans as a pikemen and now work as a caravan guard.  I heard you need someone handy with a halberd."</blockquote>

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