Fluff vs. Mechanics

[Rafaelfras]

I like fluff and think it's important to the world in general. But i don't think it should be super strict, especialy with players.

If it was as clear cut as Rafaelfras mentionned :

There wouldn't be The Hobbit, cause Hobbits don't adventure. There wouldn't be Drizz't or Elistraee, seems Drows are always evil. There wouldn't be that albinos red dragon in that module, because red dragons are always red.

Different things for different situations, the hobbit is a story about a hobbit that left his home for an adventure, Elistraee is part of the lore, as drows not being allways evil. Albino is just a condition, the dragon is still red. Druids on metal armor is just power grab.

I also think that you can often let the player pick a mechanic but change the fluff if he wants it. Eldritch Knight with a spell book for his known spell (not being able to exceed the max) cause he learned from a wizard. Human that made a pack with devils but instead of getting eldritch blast and spells, he gets a super strong body ( Orc ) and amazing fighting prowess ( barbarian). Evil druid that stole the secrets from a Circle through torture and dominate nature to his will instead of protecting it.

Sure, i have nothing against some of it. If they dont break fundamental rules of the setting I am using. For example the druid one wouldn't fly on my table because on Forgotten realms druids get their powers from the nature gods so his method wouldn't work (same as you cant get sorcerers powers by torturing sorcerers)

This is a false dichotomy for RPGs in general, but especially for 5e. The book is the rules. Some things are more defined in a mathy way, some are less, but there is no "fluff vs mechanics".

There are some exceptions in the RPG world, such as some things written by Heinsoo. Like D&D 4e or 13th age, where descriptions are explicitly descriptive and rules are explicitly not descriptive.

But 5e isn't like that. It's all rules. Just different kinds of rules. For example, there are roleplaying rules, there are how to resolve things rules, there are how to build things rules, there are what it looks like rules. Among a variety of rules. Some are designed to be more flexible and DM or even player tuned. Others less so.

Fully agree.