[ericthered]

I find that game systems generally have three areas in which the "flavor" is meaningful: the combat system, the magic system (occasionally dipping into tech), and the "meta-game" or "narrative" system.



Of those three, the magic system is usually the thing that matters for a setting. The narrative systems often are about story telling style, not setting. Combat system is usually about playing the game as a game, not as a story, which doesn't do much with setting.



I often find that settings don't match their magic systems well, even when they are supposed to be made for each other. The exceptions are usually settings that match up to their systems one to one, or powered by extremely flexible systems.