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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Henry" data-source="post: 643303" data-attributes="member: 158">As a dyed-in-the-wool fan of Dragonlance since about 1986 or so, I love all things about the dragonlance setting - EXCEPT for the damage that was done by gamers who took the precepts of Dragonlance races and impressed them upon non-dragonlance concepts. Somewhere between 1984 and 1990, EVERY halfling became a kleptomaniac, and EVERY gnome was tinkering with mechanical devices. Every time I saw a "tinker" gnome put into Faerun or Oerth or a homebrew setting, it made me want to throttle the DM who put them there, with no rhyme or reason why they should be there.The dragonlance setting shows how well a D&D campaign can be designed, and it can show how magic can be made to feel wondrous, and to have its own sense of history. Artifacts such as the silver arm of Ergoth, the Hammer of Kharas, the Dragonlances, the tower and Grove of Palanthas, all these things had their place, and the rediscovery of such a thing with a known history can give a world its own characteristic "lived-in" feel.However, there is one post I had to comment on:I certainly understand the need for an exceptional character in a heroic story - but I'm not sure how a hero being a kender, a tinker gnome, or a guly dwarf precludes them from being exceptional. You post seems to indicate the belief that a race needs to be able to be played directly against type, in order to be exceptional - which I have to disagree with.While it would be unusual to have a smart gully dwarf, a non-klepto kender, or a tinker gnomes whose devices worked all the time, one can be quite successful playing a character with other exceptional traits. All good heroes have flaws, and still having, say a compassionate Kender cleric, or a Gully Dwarf Dwarven Defender, who defends his comrades as strongly as he would his den warren, or having a Tinker Gnome who actually gets his inventions right once in a while - enough to save the day at times. These concepts are quite workable, still without need to go directly against type.To me, this is analogous to saying that humans cannot be dramatically appropriate characters just because by the D&D core rules you could not play one that is 400 years old, or play a dwarf who is 8 foot tall. Dwarves are shorter than humans; humans do not have the lifespan of elves. But this still leaves quite a lot of framework to design an exceptional character in.If I misunderstood you, seasong, please feel free to correct me - I'm just not sure how the defining traits of these particular races preclude one from making an exceptional character for a heroic or dramatic story.</blockquote>

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