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Should Published Settings Limit Classes and Races Allowed?
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<blockquote data-quote="Jester David" data-source="post: 7222563" data-attributes="member: 37579"><p>Not necessarily. Not being mentioned doesn't mean something doesn't exist, it just means it wasn't explicitly mentioned. Dragonborn and tieflings in Greyhawk for example. Do they exist? Tieflings were in D&D during 2nd Edition when Greyhawk was published: do they exist on Oerth?</p><p></p><p>And this assumes someone is going to fully read the entire book and notice the absence. Are goblins mentioned in <em>Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide</em>? How about Mind Flayers? Even if you read the book cover-to-cover you might be unaware if a monster was mentioned or not. </p><p>But if you explicitly say "there are no Mind Flayers native to Ansalon" then you actually know. </p><p></p><p></p><p>Okay then. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masque_of_the_Red_Death_(Ravenloft)" target="_blank">Masque of the Red Death</a>. Victorian gothic horror game using the 2nd Edition D&D rules. </p><p></p><p>There's no shortage of examples people using D&D and the d20 system as a generic roleplaying game. Just because you're using it for kitchen sink fantasy games doesn't mean everyone is. </p><p>While you're playing <em>Curse of Strahd</em> and Ravenloft with outsiders, I prefer to use natives to the demiplane. So I prefer the humanocentric characters with no half-orcs, dragonborn, and the like. Because they don't fit the Gothic horror type of game that I really want to play. </p><p></p><p></p><p>Just because people have certain expectationes doesn't mean the DM is obligated to meet those expectations. My players came to 5e right out of Pathfinder and had expectations for the amount of gold gained and magic items acquired. That didn't mean I <em>had</em> to break the game system giving them exactly what they expected. Neither did it mean I had to change how I viewed magic in my campaign setting to conform with their expectations. </p><p></p><p>This is why the DM needs to have a conversation with the players and set out the expectations first. It's uncool to surprise players with a homebrew world without elves. And reading a 300-page campaign document is also out. Any special restrictions and changes that impact character creation need to be outlined ahead of time. Preferably aloud or in a one-page character creation guide. </p><p>(Ideally, the DM should propose a couple different campaigns and let the players pick they one they want. But most players just want to play. And if the DM is excited to do a game in their homebrew world, the players are incentived to play along because the DM is going to give it their all rather than phoning it in. You work with what the DM is excited to run.)</p><p></p><p></p><p>Just because you can't counter the argument doesn't make it a straw-man. </p><p></p><p>Dragonlance, Star Trek, and Star Wars are all established franchises with their own rules. If you can handwave bringing in an orc into Dragonlance or a gnome into Dark Sun, then why not a Wookie into Star Trek? What is the difference? Temporal anomaly. Science genetic experiment. Alternate dimension. Previously unknown life form. It's actually probably easier to just have a Chewbacca in Trek than an orc in Dragonlance. </p><p>But the difference is really entitlement. Because certain races are in the rulebook, people just feel they're expected. And because the fantasy world - especially a DM's homeworld - isn't a multimillion dollar franchise, it's somehow less worthy of respect and adherence to canon. The DM running their D&D homebrew world is just expected to say "yes" when you ask to bring in a Tabaxi while the GM running Star Trek doesn't have that same obligation. Even if it's part of the canon: like allowing a Ferengi on a Federation vessel during Kirk's era, or an Ewok in the Old Republic. </p><p></p><p>But that's BS. The DM is the storyteller. They're the one putting in the work and prep into the campaign. Their effort matters, and they should be allowed some latitude to tell stories in the setting they want.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jester David, post: 7222563, member: 37579"] Not necessarily. Not being mentioned doesn't mean something doesn't exist, it just means it wasn't explicitly mentioned. Dragonborn and tieflings in Greyhawk for example. Do they exist? Tieflings were in D&D during 2nd Edition when Greyhawk was published: do they exist on Oerth? And this assumes someone is going to fully read the entire book and notice the absence. Are goblins mentioned in [I]Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide[/I]? How about Mind Flayers? Even if you read the book cover-to-cover you might be unaware if a monster was mentioned or not. But if you explicitly say "there are no Mind Flayers native to Ansalon" then you actually know. Okay then. [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masque_of_the_Red_Death_(Ravenloft)"]Masque of the Red Death[/URL]. Victorian gothic horror game using the 2nd Edition D&D rules. There's no shortage of examples people using D&D and the d20 system as a generic roleplaying game. Just because you're using it for kitchen sink fantasy games doesn't mean everyone is. While you're playing [I]Curse of Strahd[/I] and Ravenloft with outsiders, I prefer to use natives to the demiplane. So I prefer the humanocentric characters with no half-orcs, dragonborn, and the like. Because they don't fit the Gothic horror type of game that I really want to play. Just because people have certain expectationes doesn't mean the DM is obligated to meet those expectations. My players came to 5e right out of Pathfinder and had expectations for the amount of gold gained and magic items acquired. That didn't mean I [I]had[/I] to break the game system giving them exactly what they expected. Neither did it mean I had to change how I viewed magic in my campaign setting to conform with their expectations. This is why the DM needs to have a conversation with the players and set out the expectations first. It's uncool to surprise players with a homebrew world without elves. And reading a 300-page campaign document is also out. Any special restrictions and changes that impact character creation need to be outlined ahead of time. Preferably aloud or in a one-page character creation guide. (Ideally, the DM should propose a couple different campaigns and let the players pick they one they want. But most players just want to play. And if the DM is excited to do a game in their homebrew world, the players are incentived to play along because the DM is going to give it their all rather than phoning it in. You work with what the DM is excited to run.) Just because you can't counter the argument doesn't make it a straw-man. Dragonlance, Star Trek, and Star Wars are all established franchises with their own rules. If you can handwave bringing in an orc into Dragonlance or a gnome into Dark Sun, then why not a Wookie into Star Trek? What is the difference? Temporal anomaly. Science genetic experiment. Alternate dimension. Previously unknown life form. It's actually probably easier to just have a Chewbacca in Trek than an orc in Dragonlance. But the difference is really entitlement. Because certain races are in the rulebook, people just feel they're expected. And because the fantasy world - especially a DM's homeworld - isn't a multimillion dollar franchise, it's somehow less worthy of respect and adherence to canon. The DM running their D&D homebrew world is just expected to say "yes" when you ask to bring in a Tabaxi while the GM running Star Trek doesn't have that same obligation. Even if it's part of the canon: like allowing a Ferengi on a Federation vessel during Kirk's era, or an Ewok in the Old Republic. But that's BS. The DM is the storyteller. They're the one putting in the work and prep into the campaign. Their effort matters, and they should be allowed some latitude to tell stories in the setting they want. [/QUOTE]
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