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Implied Setting and Flavor |  |
Since time immemorial, D&D has been a generic heroic fantasy game. That is, the focus has always been on heroic fantasy, and the flavor of the game has always been pretty setting-neutral. The intent, I’m guessing, was to give budding world-builders a blank slate as far as setting goes, allowing them to create their own setting and feel with which to use the rules provided. 3rd Edition, despite using Greyhawk as an implied setting, was still pretty generic. Sure, there were specific gods, all from Greyhawk, and some of the spells had the names of famous wizards attached to them, but really, the game was almost wholly devoid of anything resembling original flavor; it was all pretty typical fantasy stuff, nothing too out there. If you wanted something more flavorful, less generic, you could use Forgotten Realms or Eberron.
That seems to be changing somewhat in 4th Edition. Wizards reps have stated that there is no implied setting within the game, Greyhawk or otherwise. However, some of the changes that have surfaced on the various Internets strongly suggest that there will be more inherent flavor within the game. It’ll probably still be highly adaptable to player-created settings, but they seem to be making it somewhat less generic in feel. There is, for example, the addition of core races like eladrins, tieflings, and dragonborn, races that are not an intrinsic part of the School of Tolkien (with the possible exception of eladrins, whom I perceive to be “high elves” of a sort). There is the introduction of minor races without mythological counterparts, such as shifters and warforged, into the core rules. And there is the fact that the different races are being thematically tied to specific types of environments. Halflings, for example, are now diminutive river-folk. Elves are tied to the woods, while eladrins are tied to the Feywild. Dragonborn are tied to the desert; even humans are tied to the plains. It’s a small thing, but goes a long way toward injecting some flavor into the races of D&D.
