Foxbat for President: Sacred Cows and Hamburger
Sacred cows make the best hamburger, or so the saying goes. When it comes to RPGs, they tend to provide grist for the mill.
There are sacred cows aplenty in rules systems, of course. That’s one of the reasons why we have edition wars: change anything, no matter how inconsequential you think it might be, or how much better you think the new version is, and there’s sure to be someone loudly decrying the change and lamenting that the new version just isn’t the same game any more. No more assassins or cavaliers in 2e? Sacrilege. No more THAC0 in 3e? A travesty. No more Vancian casting in 4e? Well, that’s fine, but not for any game whose title includes the words dungeon and dragon.
That’s not the sort I’m thinking about today, though. I’m interested in the sacred cows within the settings. The characters, locations, and other elements that are always present, if only lurking somewhere in the background. The ones that define that setting, that — in a sense — make it what it is. The ones that are iconic — not Tordek and Mialee, but the real icons. The ones with names like Bigby, Mordenkainen, Raistlin, Elminster, Vecna. (There tends to be a good share of wizards among them. I don’t believe this is a coincidence.) The guys you know and love. Or hate. Sometimes both.
A campaign set in one of these published settings must acknowledge its sacred cows at one point. Either it kowtows to them, making use of the pre-existing body of lore that surrounds them (however nebulous it might be in some cases — how much do most D&D players really know about Bigby, other than that he’s the guy with the hand spells?), or it slaughters them, creating some explanation for why they’re no longer present or have no impact. The former option limits the GM somewhat; the latter often infuriates players who have a fondness for that setting. Witness the reaction of Greyhawk fans to Greyhawk Wars, or the more recent reaction of Forgotten Realms fans to the 4e redesign of that world.
Which brings us to Foxbat.
Categories: Philosophy and Rants, Reviews | Comments (6)
