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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Yaarel" data-source="post: 7154227" data-attributes="member: 58172">Do I want a monotheistic campaign setting? The short answer is, yes. The long answer is, be careful what one wishes for. If the defacto definition of ‘D&D monotheism’ would be the DM is ‘God’ and decides what the Infinite thinks, then that too would objectionable. God is infinite; the DM is less so. Basically, Divine Infinity exists beyond the fabric of space-time, simultaneously past, present, and future. In a monotheistic game setting, the Divine normally intervenes only subtly and indirectly, because, the Divine desires humans to make the world a better place by means of human effort. The risk to humans is real. The good that humans do is real. Normally God is hidden. God is most ‘visible’ when other humans are doing good things. In other words, if the DM wants to supply the team with help via some NPCs or items whose opportune timing is ‘miraculous’, that can be fine and fun. But in terms of actual game rules, monotheism is part of the background flavor without any need for mechanical rules.What I want from D&D, and what would make me happy, is a setting-neutral Players Handbook. On behalf of the player, and on behalf of the DM.For the player, I want the player to always decide the spirituality of their own character. Like gender and sexuality, spirituality is an aspect of the deep identity of a reallife human. You cant mess around with the spirituality of a reallife player, unless you have permission from the player, and an opt-in from the player. Similarly, you cant force straight player to play a gay character, or a gay player to play a straight character. You can invite a player to experiment because they might find that entertaining, but if they say, no, it stops there, or the game becomes unfun for that player. You cant force a deeply monotheistic player to pretend to commit idolatry. It becomes unfun. It is nonnegotiable. The player needs a safe space to create a character on the players terms. I want any rules and flavor that the player consults in D&D to be gentle, and to support player choice.For the DM, I want a setting-neutral Players Handbook. When I DM, I require this. When I create a homebrew campaign setting, I need the game rules to support by world-building DM style. It takes a lot of work to evoke the illusion of a world. I dont want players constantly consulting rules whose flavors and setting assumptions are *wrong*, contradictory and confusing. These disruptions ruin narrative immersion. They break the fourth wall, sotospeak, force meta-gaming, and ruin the vividness of the game. I use flavor to build a world, and am sensitive to flavor text. I find unwanted flavor impossible to ignore, and in the current 5e Players Handbook, the unwanted flavor is everywhere.Compare how one might flavor psionics. If the official rules as written made every single psionic class and psionic power - even their baked-in mechanical rules - explicitly refer to Farrealms flavor, it would be a dealbreaker for many players, even players who would normally love psionics. As a DM, in order to create a homebrew setting where psionics is thematically meaningful, I have to be able to evoke the appropriate psionic flavor in that setting. I need the rules to at least be neutral. So I dont want to fight against every flavor intrusion on every page that a player opens up to consult its rules. Every single time.I want real D&D products that *support* DMs who homebrew campaign settings. Especially the Players Handbook that the players must consult.For both the player and the DM, I need setting-neutral rules. The player needs to define the character, and the DM needs to define the world. The rules need to support this fun that requires alot of work.I have given up on D&D 5e. As-is, Players Handbook → Forgotten Realms campaign setting assumptions → polytheismFor me the current PH, thus the 5e game, is unusuable.Even if WotC put out a pdf, with the 5e Players Handbook content but with neutral rules, that would go a long way to support homebrew campaign settings.They dont even need to call it ‘Dungeons & Dragons’, maybe call it ‘Quintessence’ (referring to the ‘5th’ edition and to the essential rules), a product line designed to support DMs who homebrew.</blockquote>

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