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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wyrmshadows" data-source="post: 4340248" data-attributes="member: 56166"> Every setting has it options and limitations. Thats just the way things are. FR, Krynn, Athas, Greyhawk, etc. all of them have a set of assumptions and it is these assumptions that define a setting. A setting is defined as much by what you subtract as by what you add. On Krynn there are no orcs so therefore if you want a half orc maybe I can work with you to create a half-hobgoblin character or some other half monster to fit the bill. If your heart was set on a helf-orc then I can't help you.  I don't play kitchen sink settings because they are all the same and IMO uninteresting. There are always reasonable workarounds for someone's character vision. However, if I am willing to create a half-hobgoblin race for your character concept, then you have to meet me and get the half-orc out of your plans...compromise is a 2-way street.  Every setting has its own banes and boons...or they would all be bland copies of one another. If I am DMing in settings similar to Arthurian Britian, Africa, Arabia, etc. then you can choose amongst a cornicopia of available options. When I play, I fully expect that there are noticable differences between the various settings and I respect my DM's right to allow or disallow that which he decides is appropriate. I do more DMing than playing...but I respect the DMs right to choose what is appropriate for his campaign. I am not a DM who believes that just because WoTC (or whoever) creates a splatbook I am obligated to add it to my campaign/setting. If it fits, its allowed, if it doesn't...it isn't.  Devoted tourists? Arbitrary decisions? Well aren't we just jumping to conclusions? My arbitrary decisions are my decisions that as a DM I have every right to make. I don't play favorites and I don't make descisions arbitrarily despite your assumptions. Is a DM running a game in the Midnight setting, a setting without gods...except for Izrador...the Lord of Evil, being arbirary for not allowing a cleric of Pelor or any clerics in the party? Is a Greyhawk DM being cruel for not allowing a PC to be a cleric of Mystra when Mystra is an FR goddess and the DM isn't doing a world mixing campaign? My PCs aren't tourists, they are heroes in a setting that happens to contain much more than just them. My players feel as though their PCs are part of a broader world with history and flavor. They are the stars of the campaign which is a smaller subset of the entirety of the whole setting. Their heroics have real impact because it is my setting so I can have whole chains of cause and effect happening because I don't have to be beholden to a game company's authors to come up with canon.  I meant to say thematic elements such as those found in published settings like Athas, Midnight, Ravenloft, etc. Settings with peronality have thematic feels to them. Some of them are easier to spot than others, but they are there. Thematic elements are like the personality of the setting and set the atmosphere. Strong thematic elements are IME able to dictate the type of game to be had nearly wordlessly. IME only in those settings with weak thematic elements ie. vanilla RAW D&D in a "Known World" kind of thing, tend to create more DM player conflicts because of ambiguous expectations. And Snoweel, there is no need to be a wise arse, I didn't say it was my life's work I said it was a personally fulfilling creative outlet. If you can't tone down the snarky manner in which you respond to my posts, feel free not to respond.   If I am running a game in Conan's Hyboria there are already a set of strong assumptions (low magick, human PCs, lots of cruelty and violence, moral ambiguity, etc.). These assumptions free both the DM and the players to concentrate their energies on what does exist in the setting instead of having to wonder whether or not a Naruto or Drizz't rip off will fit...he wouldn't...question answered and now we are free to worry less about every other potential option that rolls down the track.  There is often freedom in knowing one's boundaries so long as those boundaries aren't destructive. Every setting, whether it is from gaming or literature has boundaries...its just the way things are.   Wyrmshadows</blockquote>

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