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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 8362045" data-attributes="member: 6790260">Which is why it should focus on providing robust analysis of what setting elements can do, and well-structured advice for how you can do what you intend.Simple example, class and race availability. There's the obvious "core four by four" so-traditional-it-makes-my-eyes-bleed option, Fighter/Cleric/Rogue/Wizard x Human/Elf/Dwarf/Halfling, which has a lot of weird idiosyncrasies because of how it formed (e.g. taking Tolkien's juggernaut worldbuilding out of context can leave it...weird or disappointing). But there's also, say, a world where the races are Human/Tiefling/Dragonborn/Kobold and the classes are Paladin/Druid/Monk/Warlock. That leads to a distinctly different feel, perhaps one where dragons and fiends are the central focus, where fae stuff takes a back seat to the raw primal power of nature, and most magic is bestowed or stolen, where most people have SOME amount of magic but most people also learn some martial skill too. Dark Sun, for example, curates both things, adding its own bonus stuff for flair (psionics and thri-kreen, frex) in order to really bring home how different its world is from a typical D&D context.Such stuff ACTUALLY empowers DMs, because it doesn't TELL them what to run. Instead, it shows them what they COULD run. As I said, some amount of product identity is gonna creep in no matter what, so getting hung up on that is pointless. We can still create works that emphasize the unique tools available to DMs and actually help them use them well, rather than telling them "this is what IS, unless you decide to change it, in which case...you figure it out!"</blockquote>

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