The subject of this post is probably one of the most common questions I've heard since I've been active on the D&D Beyond Discord server (where, incidentally, you can find me as FleetfootMike).
I'm very glad of the new upsurge in popularity of D&D, which I guess is at least in part due to the likes of Critical Rôle and other live streamed games giving folks a feel for how much fun it can be. But... next step, you go out and buy the books. Which is getting on for a thousand pages (in the Core books) of what it's very tempting to think of as rules. And that's before you even start with a published scenario. Even if you buy the starter set, they're called the Basic Rules.
The problem is it's not always clear where the rules stop and the setting starts, especially if you're a newcomer. The way combat works? Obviously rules. The available character races? Actually, no. They're part of the core D&D setting, and if you want to create a world where, say, tieflings and dragonborn aren't a thing? Knock yourself out.
Equally, you want to tweak a scenario to fit your world? Go right ahead. There's any number of corners of Altrion (my world) that have had published D&D scenarios pulled and prodded until some or all of them fit to my satisfaction. At the bare minimum, my world has different gods, so I'd change that in a commercial product to make it tie in.
The one thing to remember while you're doing it: communicate. Make sure your players know, for example, that halfling PCs in your world would have had to come from one small country way over on the east of the continent, and that there are, say, no gnomes at all[1]. Manage expectations, give them reasons. You are essentially providing the players' view on the world: your rôle is to make sure they know what their characters would know when it matters.
These are in fact the two most common things I'm going to say on this blog, I expect, so we better get used to them.
- It's your world.
- You have the responsibility of being the players' window onto it.
[1] I'm not prejudiced against gnomes, honest. They just didn't feel like they fit in my setting.
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