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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fanboy2000" data-source="post: 2123773" data-attributes="member: 19998">Raven, you're defination of rules is so broad that it is useless in this discussion. You are also arguing against claims that I never made. As Hong has already pointed out, I never said "you can't do that because there are no rules for that." I was presenting an example of where I did something that the rules did not let you do to contrast with fusangite's dislike of doing things there are no rules for. Examples of Fluff and why it isn't as useful as crunch:Elves are short and slim, standing about 4-1/2 to 5-1/2 feet tall and typilcally weighing 95 to 135 lbs.I'm creating a world, let's call it Earth-2, and in this world Elves are 5-1/2 to 6-1/2 feet tall, weighting 150 to 275 lbs. This falls well within the range of medium, and changes nothing in the rules. In fact, I can do nothing but change the physical description and keep the rules (medium, changes to ability scores, etc...) and have a whole new playable race from a world building perspective. This is a nifty little trick I got from the only 2e book I've always wanted, but never got, Creative Campaigning....so dwarves, gnomes, and halfings very rarely become monks.The above quote has no bearing on the rules. In Earth-2 I create a gnome culture that has many monasteries, and thus, many monks. And of course, if a player in a Greyhawk game wants to play a gnome monk, I don't stop her. I don't say "that's too unlikely, play something more gnome like." I also don't have a table that gives the presentige chance that they grew-up in a monastery, they just play a gnome monk. Lidda the togue can walk quickly up to a door, put her ear to it, and hear the troglodyte priest on the other side casting a spell on his pet crocodile. If Jozan the cleric were to try the same thing, he'd probably make so much noise that the troglodyte would hear him.This is an excellent description of skills in use, but it has no effect on the rules. Of course, we know that it dosen't have to be like that. Lidda could fail her skill check, but Jozan could make it. Jozan could have many cross-class ranks in Move Silently and Listen, and wear armor with a a low armor check penalty or no armor at all. The quote illustrates a typical situation, but not the only one posible under the rules.Split treasure evenly among the characters who participated.Good advice. As a DM, however, I just present the tresure to the group. What the group does with it after that is up to them. My only job after tresure is presented, is to keep track of any special abilities an item has that the group is unaware of yet. I've seen groups go into bookkeeping mode when tresure is presented, and I've seen groups grab and run what ever they wanted with no care as to what anything was valued. Whatever the group finds fun. This giant resembles a mammoth dwarf with coal-black skin, flaming red hair, and a prognathous jaw that reveals dirty ivory teeth.Nice description. I often use the descriptions in the MM when deescribing an encounter to my party. However, as with the elf example above, there are an infinate number of descriptions I can attach to the Fire Giant stats.In eons past, the mind flayers enslaved entire races, including the forerunner os the githyanki.In Earth-2, I can say that mind flayers don't exist, and that the Githyanki were never enslaved. No rules need change.Of course it is easy to point out that lots of fulff exists that is much closer tied to the rules. Gods, for example are a curious combination of fluff and crunch.There are rules for deity portfolios, but they have no real in-game effect. Domains have a concrete effect on the game, but aren't useful for describing worshipers who aren't clerics or adventures. Plane statistics, too, alter the implied rules of the game, but thier effect on more concrete rules varies from plane to plane and DM to DM. Also, within my examples, one can point out that if I make Elves 7 feet tall and 500 lbs then I've entered the realm of Large size creature and that does have a game effect. My point is that fluff is far more maluable than rules are. It is often posible to make minor, small, and sometimes even large changes to fluff without changing one rule or peice of physics in the universe the DM has created. In fact, changing fluff is such a common part of world building that many DMs use the same ruleset but play in very diffrent worlds with a diffrent feeling.</blockquote>

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