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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mark CMG" data-source="post: 5720973" data-attributes="member: 10479">That's a bad example because it assumes that labeling kobolds as "servitors of dragons" is good fluff and compounds the problem by assuming if that is the fluff then there must always be a dragon present.  Certainly one could imagine all sorts of alternate possibilities where, for instance, a cult of kobolds lived in the sewers of the city and, though never having seen a dragon, sacrificed small pets snatched through sewer grates to some great winged kobold who they hoped would someone day raise them above the station of their misery.  (Look for that in the upcoming Creative Mountain Games Narrative Adventure, "Sewers of the Serpent Sect." <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=";)" /> )Nevertheless, to address your subsequent points, it doesn't present constraints, it stirs the imagination to think of the creatures in terms of environment, culture, etc. even if what you, as a GM, decides, is different than what is presented in some substantial ways.  Flavor text isn't a restraint, it is exemplar, showing typical examples of what is possible as guidance and fodder for GMs.Too often I see monster entries being used by players as trading cards for what they plan to kill or summon fully expactant that what is presented in the books is the exact mechanical way they will function in-game, in any environment, as to their bidding or to be put up as paper tigers to be killed because they have the books, have read their weaknesses, have done the math, and now will kill and level up.Look, I am a big fan of wargaming and skirmish games, and played them even before D&D existed, but that style of play is not what roleplaying games are about to me.  If all we need are the stats on a card or in a book so we can push minis around a table, with a bare minimum of "flavor" just to pretend one pile of numbers is significantly different from another, I've got better games for that and there's no need to put RPG on the cover.</blockquote>

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