ruleslawyer said:
IMO, creatures or cultures are only problematic in D&D games if they're bringing specific baggage from a specific literary or historic (or game) context with them, AND said literary/historic/game context is at odds with the overall game world, at which point any pretensions to having a consistent game world go out the window. Otherwise, it's all fair game.
I concur, but feel the need to elaborate. I think a food metaphor is more appropriate here.
The things I generally do not like showing up in my D&D games are Psionics, Space Aliens, and any form of technology that does not fit the setting (usually guns). There are reasons for each. In most cases those elements just do not fit very well in a world that has standard D&D magic / tropes. It is like making a sandwich that has both peanut butter and mustard. Both have their place, but usually not together. Not that games with those elements cannot be fun, but it is just not what I go looking for.
Pseudo tech and Dinosaurs to me are somewhat borderline. In most cases, mechanical men and train systems do not sound like the sort of thing I want in a D&D game. But I actually did not mind playing in the Eberron setting. The elements that normally would not fit had a very specific explanation for their presence. In this case, it is more like convincing my mother to eat sushi. I like it. It tastes great. But there is no way I would get my mother to eat of her own choice. She just cannot get past the idea that she would be eating raw fish.
My point?
There are all kinds of tastes in food. Some people are vegans. Some do not like exotic food. Some like absurdly spicy food. Those are matters of taste and preference. But there are some things that while edible, almost no one would ever actually eat, like beef and butterscotch flavoured ice cream. There are some things that just do not belong together. I might like both, but not at the same time.
Cooking a decent meal takes a bit more effort than taking your 5 favorite foods, sticking it into a blender, and then attempting to cook and eat it.
Likewise, running an awesome game together takes more than taking things that are cool on their own (Dinosaurs, wizards, psionics, robots, conan, and space aliens) and throwing them together.
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