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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6386892" data-attributes="member: 42582">For me, I found the 4e PHB has more flavour and inspiration than any other D&amp;D PHB.The races all have mythic histories presented, for instance. Gygax's PHB tells me that dwarves are short, live in mountains and like beer. The 4e PHB tells me that dwarves were once slaves of giants, who were liberated with the help of their god. That, to me, is flavour and inspiration.The history of the dragonborn and tieflings, the relationship between elves and the fewywild, etc are all similar.The books also has gods which, to my mind, have more mythic character and inspiration than the 3E gods. (And earlier PHBs had no gods at all.)I'm not saying you're wrong to see more mythic inspiration in the 3E or AD&amp;D PHB, but I personally can't see what it is that you're seeing in them. To me, they are completely devoid of game-inspiring backstory for PCs, whereas the 4e PHB is full of that.For me, the difference between the 4e MM and Gygax's MM is that Gygax's MM has statblocks plus advice on demography, whereas the 4e MM has more dynamic statblocks (I can read those statblocks and envisage dramatic encounters resulting from them) and information on how the monster fits into an epic backstory.Again, I'm not disputing that some people find Gygax's demon and devil entries more rich and inspiring than those in the 4e MM, but I personally can't see it. The 4e MM has a whole history of both the Hells and the Abyss, which locates the demons and devils, including their leading overlords, into an overall cosmological dynamic. Even the AD&amp;D MMII didn't go that far (though it had more backstory than the original MM).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 6386892, member: 42582"] For me, I found the 4e PHB has more flavour and inspiration than any other D&D PHB. The races all have mythic histories presented, for instance. Gygax's PHB tells me that dwarves are short, live in mountains and like beer. The 4e PHB tells me that dwarves were once slaves of giants, who were liberated with the help of their god. That, to me, is flavour and inspiration. The history of the dragonborn and tieflings, the relationship between elves and the fewywild, etc are all similar. The books also has gods which, to my mind, have more mythic character and inspiration than the 3E gods. (And earlier PHBs had no gods at all.) I'm not saying you're wrong to see more mythic inspiration in the 3E or AD&D PHB, but I personally can't see what it is that you're seeing in them. To me, they are completely devoid of game-inspiring backstory for PCs, whereas the 4e PHB is full of that. For me, the difference between the 4e MM and Gygax's MM is that Gygax's MM has statblocks plus advice on demography, whereas the 4e MM has more dynamic statblocks (I can read those statblocks and envisage dramatic encounters resulting from them) and information on how the monster fits into an epic backstory. Again, I'm not disputing that some people find Gygax's demon and devil entries more rich and inspiring than those in the 4e MM, but I personally can't see it. The 4e MM has a whole history of both the Hells and the Abyss, which locates the demons and devils, including their leading overlords, into an overall cosmological dynamic. Even the AD&D MMII didn't go that far (though it had more backstory than the original MM). [/QUOTE]

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