D&D General The Monsters Know What They're Doing ... Are Unsure on 5e24

[QuentinGeorge]

Yes, my poor beleaguered players who are laughing, getting excited about rolling crits, happily chatting away. Having tense moments when the rogue goes down and is about to be eaten by the black pudding. Then the monk does enough damage for it to split and the wizard takes them out with a thunderwave and they all cheer. AKA Sunday's game.

Poor pathetic souls.

Have you considered that asking them to create a character that fits the setting is unfair though?

 

[EzekielRaiden]

If you're the one running the game, then yes it is? If they want a tortle heavy world, time for them to DM.

(Doesn't seem complicated to me)

As just freshly argued, I disagree.

Yes, the person running the game and the setting is given a lot of power, because if they don't have it, the game falls apart.

Except it doesn't.

Like literally it doesn't. I don't exert that kind of power in the game I run. The game does not fall apart.

 

[TwoSix]

I can compress all the relevant campaign guide information into a single wiki page, including allowed species etc.

1-2 pages of setting notes sounds about right.

 

[Mecheon]

You mean like orcs and drow, which are specifically non-existent in Krynn? Demanding to play one in a Dragonlance campaign is pretty much the sign of a problem player who is not going to engage in the setting at all. If you are going to chuck a tanty at being denied something that the setting explicitly sets out as "not a part of it" then I'm not going to want you in my game.

I mean, there was a half orc in at least one officially published Dragonlance work, and aren't that random third group of aquatic elves basically flat out called dark elves at points? You've certainly got options therein

 

[Thomas Shey]

If you don't like my limits don't join my game. Sometimes there is no compromise.

I believe I've said that's sometimes necessary. I just think "No one actually wants to compromise" is not an accurate description when what's actually going on is your acceptable compromises just are in different areas.

As I've said, the proper response to "I want to play a humanoid turtle" is not "Here's all these other things that are not a humanoid turtle" and expecting people to think it is--off. That doesn't mean you're required to give on that point, but when determining a compromise, you have to look at the core wants are and see if there's any potential compromise possible. Trying "compromises" that don't look at those core wants is a waste of everyone's time.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Yes, my poor beleaguered players who are laughing, getting excited about rolling crits, happily chatting away. Having tense moments when the rogue goes down and is about to be eaten by the black pudding. Then the monk does enough damage for it to split and the wizard takes them out with a thunderwave and they all cheer. AKA Sunday's game.

Poor pathetic souls.

"I don't do this bad thing, therefore this bad thing never happens" has never been a valid argument.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

IDK, I have never experienced anything like that nor have I seen many DMs talk about their game worlds like that. I would guess you are taking a few extreme cases and extrapolating them to the majority of even many DMs. I just think the DM you generally present is a fantasy. I can only think of one DM on these forums (and none that I have ever met) that is complete against any type of world-building with the players and one other that is fairly hostile to it. Everyone else falls somewhere closer to the middle.

I mean, it's partly based on what someone on this very forum has said, which got a bunch of upvotes from other users. Hard for me to take that as a weird extreme when it's an actual viewpoint argued here and supported by other users.

 

[Dire Bare]

You mean like orcs and drow, which are specifically non-existent in Krynn?

Yes. Exactly like that.

I love Dragonlance, it's an amazing setting that I do think strikes a wonderful balance between "being D&D" and "being different".

But the canonical lack of orcs and drow are not what makes Dragonlance unique or special, IMO. In fact, I think this official TSR world-building by subtraction is the weakest part of the setting.

If, in your homebrew Dragonlance, there happens to be a drow city deep under Ansalon . . . it really doesn't change the setting much, other than adding a new element. If you add orcs . . . you'll barely notice, especially if they hang out with the goblins and hobgoblins.

 

[Dire Bare]

I mean, there was a half orc in at least one officially published Dragonlance work, and aren't that random third group of aquatic elves basically flat out called dark elves at points? You've certainly got options therein

Well, "dark elves" means something different in Krynn. Dalamar is a "dark elf" despite his fair skin and coming from the surface elven realms. Dark elves are elves who have turned towards evil and away from the gods of good.

Having said that, there is at least one official Dragonlance adventure module from back in the day that featured drow. It's considered a goof, canonically. I think orcs show up at some point too, also considered a goof. But, IMO, not serious ones.

 

[Maxperson]

"You're a human cosplaying" is not really a compromise for anything. Telling someone they can't be an elf but have to instead wear fake elf ears isn't a compromise for playing as an elf

It is if they get elf abilities. If its cosmetic only and you are a human with human abilities and have fake elf ears, it would not be.