Frank, I think. Could have been Oberoni wrote:
P1) Different people want to play different things,
and that's OK. My character conception is not the same
as yours, and there is no reason why it should be.
P2) People should not be punished for having different
character conceptions. There is no "right way" to play
D&D. Thus, by failing to play a certain way we
shouldn't automatically be playing the "wrong way".
P3) This is a collaborative game. What one player does
or does not do effects the entire story for all the
players. Everything from character creation to
personal speech patterns to battle tactics has a
direct tangible effect on the story and on every other
player character in that story.
P4) Part of this game is adversarial. There are
monsters that are trying to eat all of the player
characters. The players do not want their characters
to be eaten. The rules mediate between those two
pressures on the story and give the game an element of
risk and uncertainty.
C) If a character's conception makes them inherently
less "powerful", they are less able to contribute to
the party, and thus less able to keep the monsters
from eating the characters of the other players.
Or to put it another way: If you want to play an Ogre,
you want to play an Ogre, not an Orcish Barbarian/
Rogue/ Assassin character who happens to be able to do
just as much damage in combat. It doesn't matter to
you if your Ogre character is two levels weaker than
the other characters, because the story you want to
tell involves an Ogre, and nothing else will do.
However, the story I want to tell with my character
includes my character living, and being able to
complete whatever goals I have for him or her. It's a
cooperative story and I'm willing to shape my
character to some degree to fit in with your
character, just as you are going to have to shape your
character to fit mine. I'm OK with you being an Ogre,
and I'm OK with ou being a Knight in Shining Armor,
basically I just need your character to be a because
you said you had that taken care of so I brought in a
Wizard or something.
If you play an ineffective , you are trampling on my
story because you are making it more likely for the
monsters to eat my character. This is not different
from you being disruptive during important character
defining moments or changing the subject when I try to
form a plan for dealing with the dark fortress of
Jhokstorh.
If the game mechanics of your race make your character
ineffective, it means that your character is being
made worse because of your character conception. It
also means that your character conception is being
used as an excuse to trample on my story.
That's why it's not OK. When the DM allows some races
to be "worse" than others he is forcing players to
choose between the story they want to tell and the
story their friends want to tell. And this is a
cooperative story telling game where everyone should
be able to tell their story.
I copied it and emailed it to some folks that I game with. There responses are below.