Has anyone else run into the problem of trying to fit the entire ruleset into a vision of a campaign world and failing? I mean a case of a world with a less blatantly fantastical environment - not low-magic as such, but where the magic is not obvious in everyday society. Does it feel that the players are robbed of their character options in such a case?
For me, especially the many fantasy races really have made it difficult to play in most types of real-world derivatives or pseudo-historical settings - worlds where all or most protagonists are human. Maybe it's just me, but my suspension of disbelief starts to stretch when every tavern has clientele like in Mos Eiseley Cantina...
If (almost) all races would be banned, a significant portion of player choices are gone, and on the other hand by allowing everything, your world soon starts to look like the clone of Forgotten Realms. For character options sake, I think the function filled by races in the rules needs to still be there, but how have you tweaked the race concept to better fit into a less fantastical campaign world?
Our gaming group's solution was to completely change the fluff and make all characters human. The existing fantasy races were then stripped of all obviously magical abilities (teleport, breath weapon, etc) and a small set of "aptitudes" constructed from the pieces. These represent innate physical and spiritual qualities of individuals and offer almost the full set of racial powers, feats, and properties without imposing a cultural restriction on the character.
Examples here: admc.pbworks.com/CharacterCreation
Just ask your players what they want to play first, then scrap everything else.
Giving them every option want doesn't require a world where everything is allowed, just a world where everything they want is allowed. It's not the same
If you want to play a low-magic, human only world... I'd advise picking up another rule system. D&D isn't good at it.
Most aren't overtly magical in their construction (Genasi, for example, I've always liked as the idea of being able to go 'Human torch'-esque, looking human until the need requires)
I also agree that D&D isn't good at low power campaigns. However, human only and low magic do not mean that the campaign is at a low power level. You should be perfectly OK in limiting power sources to create a martial/primal environment, for example. The characters in that case have just as effective powers, but which have a more subtle and less fantastical appearance (not as much direct energy damage, teleporting, etc). I would not call such a setting "high fantasy", and would be wary to allow players to choose races that have powers or abilities similar to arcane or divine powers.
What is D&D good at then? Tactical combat? Definately! High-powered campaigns? Check. Offering enough options to create a character to fulfill most concepts? Yes. Offering best tools for DM? Oh yes! As long as the game you envision is like this, I see no reason to try to find another rule system... The only thing I find a bit lacking at the moment is the ability to customize to a world a bit too different from the points of light setting.
Reskinning (and mix/matching some powers) is exactly what I've done with the races. I guess the underlying question is then does anyone else have experiences in doing similar things in for their campaign worlds, and how has it worked.
It's putting the world before the players, which is done a lot and can work just fine assuming you don't mind telling players "race X does not exist, accept it and make something else or sit this game out"
Decide for yourself what you think is more important: playing with your current players and letting them play what they want, or having a restricted homebrew world with continuity where some things just aren't possible.
