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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Marandahir" data-source="post: 8486475" data-attributes="member: 6803643">I think that logically assembled and leaving options open are a bit contrary choices - there's a binary where you can either have plenty of options to tweak and twist the system, or you can have a very specific campaign world that sets the assumptions about different peoples locked in.D&D cannot by its default be the latter or it would cease to be D&D, it would be an individual fantasy game. It's also bad at replicating the needs of an individual fantasy world; when you don't have to accomodate so many different playstyles and worldbuilding choices, you can really dial in the mechanics of the game to suit your particular game-world needs.The issue we're facing is that D&D ORIGINATED as a game in the 1970s with a very specific mechanical system to represent a very specific fantasy world view that, while not confined to a single campaign setting, was confined to very closely akin settings that could easily be stacked into the same world. There's still a place for Blackmoor in the World of Oerth, after all. In Mystara, too.These were different "worlds" but they had the same baseline assumptions and the rules were written to meet those baseline assumptions. But along the way, the assumptions broadened. It's basically impossible to play a Birthright campaign in 5e currently, because we don't have the tools to do so and playtesting those tools would take a long time. The assumptions are just so different that it's ALMOST a different game altogether from D&D proper. But it's compatible. Birthright would likely be better suited with its own mechanics as a tabletop game divorced from D&D. Dark Sun too - it's got so many assumptions that break the mold that D&D's core rules and assumptions are not really compatible with the world. Ravenloft fits into this category of settings too.I'm not saying they SHOULDN'T be D&D. They should be. But that's because what D&D IS in terms of setting assumptions has broadened immensely. And when you broaden like that, you need to be ready for all circumstances and not lock players into the assumptions of one world.That's why we have this new text in the PHB reprints for Drow:    The culture of Lolth's cult dominates Greyhawk and Toril, but not Eberron, Krynn, etc. Your campaign world might have heroic Drow as the norm but they're suggesting that the cult is likely present there too, or seeking to cross-over to your Material Plane to take over the Drow there too. Seeing as Lolth rules from the Demonweb Pits in the Abyss and most worlds have active connections to the Great Wheel, this is more likely than it seems. Maybe not for Athas, Krynn, or Eberron, but your home plane may just use the Great Wheel as an assumption. And if so, you should consider as a DM having the Cult of Lolth exist in your world, seeping over through the Abyss to your Material Plane. But it need not be the assumption. It's an evil culture, not a lineage trait of evil.</blockquote>

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