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<blockquote data-quote="Ahnehnois" data-source="post: 6249094" data-attributes="member: 17106">Really? It seems to me that the settings I'm aware of leverage the distinctive D&amp;D mechanics very strongly. For example, FR was clearly built with the idea of magic dominance in mind (I assume you must play there, since I'm not aware of any other setting where this is true), whereas Dark Sun uses the classes very differently.Of course, this whole line is a bit silly because pretty much every homebrew setting is built using those assumptions.Yes, all those pesky example NPCs built with the same mechanics are clearly not meant to be used. All those references to organizations based on PC classes are clearly referring to the other PCs that other groups are playing. Obviously.Ridiculous? Yes, a world with wizards and dragons and flumphs is ridiculous. I kind of take that as a given. I think it's abundantly clear that any fictional world, whether fantasy or not, does not work. We all have to suspend our disbelief to play D&amp;D. We have to suspend disbelief to watch Law &amp; Order, for goodness sake, and that takes place in the &quot;real world&quot;. It's simply impossible to imagine a world that works the way reality does, because reality is so complex, because we understand our own world so little, and because of the sheer computational limits of the human brain.Just because the human mind lacks the ability to create a completely functional alternate universe does not invalidate the idea of world building.But if the rules aren't for world building, imperfect as they are, I don't know what benefit we gain by using them at all.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ahnehnois, post: 6249094, member: 17106"] Really? It seems to me that the settings I'm aware of leverage the distinctive D&D mechanics very strongly. For example, FR was clearly built with the idea of magic dominance in mind (I assume you must play there, since I'm not aware of any other setting where this is true), whereas Dark Sun uses the classes very differently. Of course, this whole line is a bit silly because pretty much every homebrew setting is built using those assumptions. Yes, all those pesky example NPCs built with the same mechanics are clearly not meant to be used. All those references to organizations based on PC classes are clearly referring to the other PCs that other groups are playing. Obviously. Ridiculous? Yes, a world with wizards and dragons and flumphs is ridiculous. I kind of take that as a given. I think it's abundantly clear that any fictional world, whether fantasy or not, does not work. We all have to suspend our disbelief to play D&D. We have to suspend disbelief to watch Law & Order, for goodness sake, and that takes place in the "real world". It's simply impossible to imagine a world that works the way reality does, because reality is so complex, because we understand our own world so little, and because of the sheer computational limits of the human brain. Just because the human mind lacks the ability to create a completely functional alternate universe does not invalidate the idea of world building. But if the rules aren't for world building, imperfect as they are, I don't know what benefit we gain by using them at all. [/QUOTE]

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