D&D 5E Should Published Settings Limit Classes and Races Allowed?

[TwoSix]

Again this is for WOTC-DESIGNED OFFICIAL D&D SETTINGS ONLY. 3PP, other games WotC wants to make, or what an individual DM wants to do with his/her game adhere to none of this.

This. There's a major difference between a generic published setting can do (or a DM can do in their homebrew setting), and what WotC should do with a published setting.

 

[AmerginLiath]

We should be limited to playing as Morrus.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Is that true? I mean, there aren't really all that many published third party 5E settings (it would be cool to have a list, actually - that's an article idea!), but of those, is that actually the case?

I'm not super-familiar with Kobold Press' Midgard setting - what are the races of that one? Or Primeval Thule? (I don't actually know enough about other to say one way or the other).

Certainly Adventures in Middle Earth limits classes and races.

I can tell you that the upcoming Lost Citadel setting drastically alters what races (and classes, for that matter) are available, both through additional and removal.

 

[Coroc]

With the new effort to republish popular game settings there is a desire to update them to 5th ed. What also tends to happen is the redesigning of settings to fit the new edition's rules.

This is nothing new. In fact, many settings were designed backwards to fit the rules. 2nd ed Darksun is the perfect archetype for this thinking. Its creative designers stretched the game to the very limits of what was possible with a D&D game setting. Why the limts? Because sometime along the way D&D came to mean not only the core rules, but every class, every race, every monster, every magic item, ad nauseam.

Of course to some degree every version of D&D is its own setting, but the trap is making every setting into edition specific kitchen sinks.

We can all customize our home games, but are buyers open to purchasing published settings where not only new options are given, but some published options are specifically not given? No elves? No paladins? No fire magic?

YES BY ALL MEANS YES!

A limitation in an RPG is nothing but a challenge. Did you ever play Ultima Underworld? You started out thrown into a dungeon with a badly worn leather leggings and a rusty dagger. That is a good starting point for the stuff for heroics.

 

[Morrus]

I think a setting isn’t just Lego - you don’t just build something out of all the available blocks. It’s also like sculpting - you carve a shape out of the solid block of the whole.

For example, a hard sci-setting for NEW (one of the three WOIN games) set a hundred years from now pre-FTL would have humans and androids, but Felans and Borians would be completely out of place.

 

[Greg Benage]

I enjoy settings that offer a different take on D&D, or a different way to enjoy the game, and exclusions, additions and modifications of core elements of D&D are a big part of that. Give me something that's new and different, or just give me one of the existing, interchangeable (for me) vanilla D&D settings.

My only substantive complaint about Primeval Thule was that it left too much plain vanilla in and didn't add enough sword-and-sorcery.

 

[Yaarel]

It is possible to update a setting with new classes and races, but only if those inherently make sense within the tone and feel of the setting.

For example, Ravenloft might benefit from new undead races.

Forgotten Realms and Eberron are intentionally kitchen sink settings, Forgotten Realms more directly, while Eberron more indirectly with each race being repurposed within the setting.

 

[Remathilis]

Okay then. Masque of the Red Death. Victorian gothic horror game using the 2nd Edition D&D rules.

Masque of the Red Death is good example of a good idea and poor execution. The concept was so rich, it should have gotten its own custom system rather than try to be crammed into a supplement to a game system with 90% of the rules became invalidated by it anyway. I mean, how much of the PHB did MotRD use anyway? 20%? Ability scores, most of combat, and 1/2 of the spell descriptions. It completely invalidates the race, class, proficiency, equipment, and spellcasting chapters. TSR could have put all that stuff to complete MotRD in a hardback with the MotRD player's book and called it a day. Better yet, they could have fixed some of the oddities of trying to run Victorian horror using D&D's combat system (like AC in a world without armor).