Campaign Choices You've Made On Races

[thewok]

I don't allow Warforged, Kalashtar or any race from the PHB3.

I don't really like monster races, which excludes minotaurs. I don't think the wilden or shardmind have a place in my world. I might at some point allow a githzerai PC, but it would have to be an exceptional concept.

The Kalashtar seem too tied to Eberron, and I don't really care for psionics anyway (though I might allow monks at some point just because).

I really dislike Eberron as a whole. I think it's a collection of a lot of really cool ideas that just turn me off as a player when put in one setting. The warforged are different, though, in that I just don't like them at all. I can buy sentient golems, but not as player characters.

edit: Oh yeah, I don't allow Genasi, either, at his point in time. I really like the race, though, and the campaign I currently have planned will "unlock" (so to speak) this race for player characters. The party will be able to rescue the genasi from enslavement in the Elemental Chaos. Once that happens, the timeline will advance a hundred years or so before the next campaign, and genasi will be available as a PC race.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I've never forbidden a player to play any character in 30+ years of DMing. I have convinced them to change their minds from time-to-time by explaining elements of the setting so they understand why a particular race won't really fit in thematically. I have plenty of imagination though, so when its come down to a player saying they really are determined to play something, then I've created a cool way to work it into the game. Its never turned into a problem.

Of course I'm fairly good at picking out the types of players that I like to play with too. I'll give anyone a try but plenty of people have played a few times and gone on to other games. Easy going but strong minded, it works. Mostly though I think the vast majority of DMs that say no to specific races have weak reasons. "I don't like X" seems wussy to me. If you don't like X, then get creative because I bet anything can be spun into something you'll think is cool.

For instance I'm not amazingly stunned by the Shardmind concept, but I can see how it could be interesting. It wouldn't fit especially well in my game, but I'm pretty darn sure I could spin it into something that would fit with the concepts of the setting. It might be a very oddball PC, but that's for the player to deal with.

 

[Dice4Hire]

To me it is a lot of the baggage that a race claims. The less baggage, the more it can fit into my world, if there is not a good place for it.

All of my worlds have the common elves, dwarved, humans and most humanoid monsterous races, so fitting one in is not a big problem.

Devas and Shardminds can be seen a very very rare creatures, with minimal baggage, so again, no problem.

But some races require more. Which races require too much to fit them into the world varies by campaign world, but there are usually a few.

 

[the Jester]

Whatever suits the setting.

In my current campaign, I allow all PH and PH2 races. I'll allow PH3 races as a one-off, but the pc will prolly be the only one of his kind in the campaign. For instance, the shardmind pc is an ancient construct from an empire that died tens of thousands of years ago, and any others of his kind are long gone.

I'll also allow warforged, but I'm not really down with monstrous races (bugbear, hobgoblin, etc), although I might let a kobold in.

NEVER DROW. NEVER, EVER DROW.

Because they are monsters, not pcs.

 

[Tsukiyomi]

I am generally not inclined to include a wide variety of races. Typically, I'll define the playable races in the beginning and short of some very unusual circumstances not allow anything else.

I don't like running "kitchen sink" worlds where anything that WotC produces gets tossed in. Adding dragonborn and tieflings for 4th edition was jarring enough for my homebrew setting; I don't want to have other weird races springing up constantly and have to answer the "where the heck have these things been" question all the time, so I don't.

 

[ourchair]

As a general rule I run pretty open games. I have lots of books, so I have some sense of even fairly exotic races. I would hesitate to allow something I don't have the rules for, but I can't remember the last time that happened.

That's cool.

I think what I'm interested in learning is what people have done with races when home-brewing a setting or starting a campaign with a clear cut story goal in mind, rather than trying to say something like "No, dragonborn suck and drow are evil and not allowed."

I don't outright forbid anything, but some things are extremely rare or unique as the setting dictates. In my current homebrew elves and humans are mortal enemies, so when my player wanted to be a half-elf I said that was fine but she was probably the only one in the world and neither race would truly accept her. Has made for some great RP experiences so far.

Likewise Tieflings are not a proper race per se, but rather just any individual who has bargained their soul away to a demon in exchange for something else. Our Tiefling Rogue's backstory says she wanted to be a wizard so she made a deal with a demon to be good at magic but he duped her. She's really good at card tricks now.

I like what you've done. Sometimes it's just too much to try to embrace too much cultural and racial diversity into the available mindspace a DM might have, and I think it's much more interesting to just say that the PCs race choice is special with all the plot hooks and RP opportunities that may imply.

p

Warforged in my campaign, however, are not a 'race' as such. They are humanoids who have been 'forged' with metal upon entering a renowned mercenary company called, funnily enough 'the Warforged'.

That's pretty neat and I am going to steal that premise and adapt it for use in an underwater campaign that my girlfriend is developing. ("Big Daddy?")

 

[MortalPlague]

My whole group decided to disallow shardminds on the principle of dislike. They're just too weird for us. Mind you, I'm the sort of DM who isn't fond of Dragonborn or Tieflings either.

For me, I have no problem with somebody playing a strange race. But D&D's treatment of strange races in the PHB suggest that players are entitled to play these weird races, whereas I'd prefer the PC approach me with a strange race concept beforehand. My preference would be for races like that to be monster races; an option, but not a common one.

 

[ourchair]

My whole group decided to disallow shardminds on the principle of dislike. They're just too weird for us. Mind you, I'm the sort of DM who isn't fond of Dragonborn or Tieflings either.

For me, I have no problem with somebody playing a strange race. But D&D's treatment of strange races in the PHB suggest that players are entitled to play these weird races, whereas I'd prefer the PC approach me with a strange race concept beforehand. My preference would be for races like that to be monster races; an option, but not a common one.

I totally agree.

I think it depends on how a group chooses to read the focused totality of the RAW.

For me, every single race -- cliche, common, strange or downright bizarre -- in the PHBs ARE available for play, but it doesn't entitle the players to their use. You have to justify your race/class combo to the campaign in mind, no matter how mechanically legal it is.

Otherwise we'd have Goliath Assassins and Revenant Genasi Artificers and Shardmind Swordmages trying to 'fit in' in a tavern and then where would we be. Madness I tell you.

 

[Jhaelen]

In my current (3e) campaign, elves and gnomes are banned as player races. They're part of the fey folk which are too alien and incomprehensible for mortals to play as pcs.

I allow many lycanthropes as races though. Unlike the normal MM version they don't spread any disease/curse, they're just tribes of primal shapechangers.

While the campaign world is based on Greyhawk's Blackmoor area, I've made plenty of changes to the setting and was strongly influenced by some of the 'World of Darkness' material.

 

[The Weregamer]

I like what you've done. Sometimes it's just too much to try to embrace too much cultural and racial diversity into the available mindspace a DM might have, and I think it's much more interesting to just say that the PCs race choice is special with all the plot hooks and RP opportunities that may imply.

Thanks! I think instead of saying "No, bad player, you can't have that toy" it's better to say "yes, you can have that, but it comes with these caveats." Special snowflakes are ok if they're interesting and well played.