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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ratskinner" data-source="post: 6250597" data-attributes="member: 6688937">Which is why I finished with:<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />I'm not saying that I think the rules are a good starting place for world design, but let's take a look at the quote to which I was responding:I think that is overstating the rules-neutrality or system agnosticism of D&D worlds quite a bit. FREX: 3e, IIRC, pretty explicitly had NPC classes which were intended to be counterparts to the PC classes. I suggest that the mechanics for that edition, at least, are not intended solely for PC use. At least one 2e source (although I cannot recall which one, possibly the DMG) mentioned worlds that were conceived with silliness akin Tippyverse or the like (including Djinn-powered steam engines, IIRC.) Which does not imply that I think that the rules should be a starting place for designing a world.  I would contend that this, as well, is overstating the reality. For example, building a ball with legos is a bit of task (to extend your metaphor a little.) While there is, indeed, a wide realm of possibility under the D&D umbrella, it is far from limitless. Running games in other freeform systems like Fate has, for me, illustrated by contrast how the D&D rules subtly but profoundly influence many aspects of its worlds.* The mechanics of D&D don't have to come first to have such an influence on the setting, they simply have to be present in the mind of the designer throughout the process. I have a difficult time believing that setting authors somehow divest themselves of game knowledge during the conceptualization phase, only to re-introduce it during some final system-readiness audit. To return to your metaphor, given a bunch of LEGOs and setting about the task of building something cool to play with...one will not likely even attempt to build a playground ball. Rather, knowing the nature of the tools at hand (LEGOs) one will set about building something that is cool to play with that has or utilizes that certain blockiness from the outset. *Which is not to say that those other systems are free from analagous influences or limits on their settings, either.</blockquote>

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