What setting-specific materials should become generic?

[Rechan]

Everything is core. I personally love that mantra.

Dragonmarks, spell plague, draconic prophecy, daelkyr, kalashtar, mul, dragon kings, draconians, lightning ships, earth motes, undead elves, sea elves, kender, dinosaur-riding halflings.

There comes to a point, though, where enough is enough. Simply because if you take Every sort of facet from every campaign setting, things get crowded.

If you have mummy-demi gods and Drow spidermages and Dark Knights and Halfling Abominations and Beholder Cabals all crammed into the same geographical space the size of Rhode Island, they're going to be tripping over eachother's feet. You need to spread them out, geographically.

In the same way, if you have too may things crammed into a setting, it gets Crowded, or it Conflicts. Take for example Dark Sun's defiling and perserving. If all magic defiles (or perserves), then it doesn't make sense to drop in all of Eberron's magi-tech, because the world would be dead ten times over before the PCs can touch anything.

The trick is layering and mixing-and-matching. For instance, the Harpers as an organization works great for Eberron - because Eberron has tons of secret societies and organizations. A Good one of bards and such fits right in.

Another important thing is Themes. If your campaign is about post-cataclysm, the spellplague makes sense. The Draconic Prophecy is a great steal if you want some sort of Fate theme.

But if you pour all the options into one setting, every setting is going to look the same, and there is going to be nothing unifying it all. Nothing tieing it together and making it fit into the setting's history/theme/etc. It comes across as a kitchen sink.

This goes back to me feeling crowded by all the humanoid species plus all the monsters out there. There are so many humanoids, plus so many monsterous species, all of which need food, all of which need space so they're not ontop of one another. If they ALL existed, there'd be overpopulation and no food and everything would die fast. So I have to be a bit more selective on what races are there, what monsters are there, AND where they're all located. Otherwise it comes off as a big muddled mess (and you come across the 21st level monster sitting beside a 1st level village and wondering why the 21st level monster hasn't destroyed everything around).

Going along with the above paragraph, and AllisterH's example, here's what I did: I let my players pick any race, and pull material from relatively any source (and wound up with two revenants, one of which is an assassin, and a hybrid invoker|cleric deva). Then I said:

"The races that you picked for your characters are the only player races in the setting. From now on, if you want to play something else, that race is now either 1) one of a kind (for whatever reason), 2) mechanics reflavored as something else, or 2) member of something New (as in a race just appearing on the horizon)."

This lets me make anything else they encounter that isnt' of those few races very exotic.

 

[Klaus]

I allow almost everything from the FR and Eberron Player's Books.

None of it seems out of place. Right now, I have a Genasi Swordmage and a Changeling Artificer in my game.

I do not, though, allow Dragonmarks. I think of those as inextricably attached to Eberron in a way that (IMO) FR's Spellscars are not. I also don't allow Channel Divinity feats (or the gods themselves) for non-default settings.

-O

IMC, if a PC wants to have a dragonmark (i.e. a birthmark that grants magical powers), it can be the blessing of a god (Mark of Healing), the touch of the Shadowfell (Mark of Shadow) or a mystical tattoo bestowed by one of the merchant guilds to their elite agents.

 

[Remathilis]

So far, the 4e mantra has been "Greatest Hits" of D&D. Keeping that in mind, I think a few more things could work:

* Lord Soth: The quintessential death knight. He's already lost some of his unique DL flavor (thank you Ravenloft) so genericing the rest of the details seems inconsequential.

* Rakasta: Mystara's catmen race. D&D could use a catman race, and of all the names used (Tabaxi, catfolk, rakasta) rakasta seem the most interesting. Bonus points for the Isle of Dread tie-in, but negative point for being too close to raksasha.

* Mordenkainen: D&D could use a meddling wizard, and Elminster is too goody-goody. Mordie keeps the balance, so its easy to explain why he's not involved in this event but keen on that event.

* Menzobarazan: Sure, the Vault of the Drow was older, but Drizzt's hometown much better known.

I mean, when the "default" world has warforged, shifters, genasi, Strahd Von Zarovich, Acerack, Cyan Bloodbane, Asharadon, the Isle of Dread, the Temple of Elemental Evil, King Snurre, draconians, Wave, Whelm and Blackrazor, the Lady of Pain, Sigil, Vecna, Bane and Bahamut, what's a few more references to D&D's history?

 

[Dragonhelm]

Krynn's minotaurs are now borderline generic D&D since the minotaurs in the MM are medium sized.

I've noticed a lot of talk about minotaurs and honor in 4e as well, so I think they're evolving into the Dragonlance minotaur archetype. I think that's a good thing, as it gives minotaurs some flavor, and isn't tied so much to the world as to be unusable.

When elements from a campaign world are made Generic, it tends to reduce the unique elements of a specific world.

I tend to agree. Yet I can also see trends, and as said above, 4e is a greatest hits of D&D. I can see where some of that is good, other bits not so much.

One of the worst things that can happen to setting specific material is to have it diluted, watered down, and stripped of its original details and context in order to make it generic.

While I agree with that mostly, I do think there are times when some elements can be adapted to other worlds to good effect. Honorable minotaurs are a Dragonlance element, but I don't see that as something that has to remaind specific to Dragonlance. Then again, generic draconians loses something. I think it's a matter of finding balance.

 

[Dragonhelm]

* Lord Soth: The quintessential death knight. He's already lost some of his unique DL flavor (thank you Ravenloft) so genericing the rest of the details seems inconsequential.

I will disagree here, as Soth's story is so tied to Dragonlance that it is hard to imagine him in other worlds.

* Rakasta: Mystara's catmen race. D&D could use a catman race, and of all the names used (Tabaxi, catfolk, rakasta) rakasta seem the most interesting. Bonus points for the Isle of Dread tie-in, but negative point for being too close to raksasha.

Agreed. Bring on all the subraces, too. And I'd be happy with having the tortles and lupins from Mystara.

I mean, when the "default" world has warforged, shifters, genasi, Strahd Von Zarovich, Acerack, Cyan Bloodbane, Asharadon, the Isle of Dread, the Temple of Elemental Evil, King Snurre, draconians, Wave, Whelm and Blackrazor, the Lady of Pain, Sigil, Vecna, Bane and Bahamut, what's a few more references to D&D's history?

In a sense, one can look at it as a toolbox. All these rulebooks are suggestions anyway. You use what you want and ignore the rest for your games. Gamers have taken setting-specific materials and used them in other worlds for ages now. WotC is just making that sort of thing official now.

 

[Rechan]

Agreed. Bring on all the subraces, too. And I'd be happy with having the tortles and lupins from Mystara.

And with them come talk of furries.

 

[Holy Bovine]

In general I take what I please from any setting I please. Nominally I run Eberron and Mystara campaigns right now but I add in whatever I and my players like. Never felt tied to any one settings' dictates as far as races, classes, secret societies etc in the past don't see any reason to do so just because of a new edition. I think it makes you a better DM if you can mix and match elements in a setting and make it all make sense. That's the key, imo.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

I think it depends on the setting, really.

For example: Eberron was intended to be a kitchen sink style setting. Dark Sun was not. Most things will work just fine in Eberron, but Dark Sun is the opposite.

 

[Remathilis]

I will disagree here, as Soth's story is so tied to Dragonlance that it is hard to imagine him in other worlds.

I would normally agree, but seeing what they did to Strahd and Cyan, I can easily imagine a similar job done to Soth. ::Sharpens Hatchet::

Besides, its not the first time they ripped him from Krynn and put him in a completely unrelated setting just for the sake of ginning up a few sales, right?

 

[Rechan]

I'll add something.

If for instance, we're stealing NPCs? Then:

Mordain the Fleshweaver. He makes a great candidate because little about him is necessarily tied to Eberron. And I love this guy. He's the typical crazy wizard/mad scientist, but heightened.