Making Race Matter

[Horwath]

Funny, in the games I played, the race was the first reason to role play and the class secondary(unless you're a paladin, then you get on everybodies nerves )

But, players should roleplay little into racial stereotypes, it causes small friction but it is great for developing interpersonal conversations and actions.

I.E. when I play an Elf, he is always little (or a lot) xenophobic, light racist and with superiority complex towards other races, even if he is "good" alignied characters of other races should prove themselves to him before he looks at them as equals.


As for mechanical terms; I blame it a little on ASI/feat shared pool.

ASI's are far better than any racial feats(maybe except Elven accuracy) for combat. Then you have the big 5 in feats(Great Weapon master, Crossbow expert, sharpshooter, polearm master, heavy armor master) which also are far ahead of any racial feats.

For that I have a solution that I give bonus racial/skill feat at lvls 1,5,9,13,17,20.

Also I would reduce the ability impact from races. +1 to abilities max from race, but I would add more features.

I.E. elves have better perception so they start with perception. But ANYONE can start with that.
So I would give elves expertise in perception from start as that is harder to get for everyone.

Dwarves/orcs could start with better darkvision than elves/gnomes.

Giving more short rest recharge racial spells/powers would also be a good idea.

 

[Coroc]

If it is literally like (OP) you described on your table and important to you that they should play out race just Limit them to human (variant or Standard) for a change. So they still get their attribute boons but that's it. They do not have to play differently, because now they all are playing humans with no special sticks or quirks.

If they complain wanting to play another race for more boons, discuss it with them why you do not want them to because roleplaying matters to you.

 

[Jester David]

Mechanically, short of adding a whole bunch of new feats, there's no way.
It pretty much has to be done in the flavour and roleplaying field.

There's a few ways to really make a D&D race matter.

The first is how the people are perceived by others. What stereotypes people have of elves and dwarves. How humans are viewed.
This affects how NPCs might interact with the various non-human groups.
If elves are typically vegetarian, a server at an inn might only bring the elf bread rather than the meaty stew.
The same server might ask the dwarf what type of beer they want, not even thinking spirits or wine, while only offering the elf wine and the half-orc whiskey.

There's also what the various races are used to culturally.
Is dwarven beer the best? Whenever they take a drink of human beer, they might wince internally, which is something you could describe.

Different cultural behaviour can also help.
In a game I played in, elves hated direct questions. So you had to change how you talked to them to avoid making a statement that ended with a "?".
Are dwarved honourable? Do they recite a lineage when they make introductions?
This can push people to roleplay a little. If elves are exceedingly polite, being rude or even too loud might count as an automatically failed Charisma check.

In my world, elves are very open and communal. They have big feast halls for dining and public baths. And have very few sexual taboos. Meanwhile, dragonborn are very proper and reserved, especially around biological functions; even eating is seen as a disgusting necessity that is done privately. So dragonborn run inns have private booths for meals separated by curtains or light paper walls.
So when the dragonborn paladin in my campaign is spending time at an inn, I can describe their discomfort at seeing people eat, which, to them, would be akin to watching someone poop.

 

[Imaculata]

In my world, elves are very open and communal. They have big feast halls for dining and public baths. And have very few sexual taboos. Meanwhile, dragonborn are very proper and reserved, especially around biological functions; even eating is seen as a disgusting necessity that is done privately. So dragonborn run inns have private booths for meals separated by curtains or light paper walls.
So when the dragonborn paladin in my campaign is spending time at an inn, I can describe their discomfort at seeing people eat, which, to them, would be akin to watching someone poop.

I love adding this sort of flavor to races.

It's great to highlight the differences in culture, religion, taboos, dress code and values of various races. Like in my campaign, I often describe how all dwarves are covered in tattoos, and are all clean shaven (no beards and bald heads). Elves on the other hand, are not native to my setting. So PC elves are perceived as quite an oddity, and as quite beautiful.

Of course since I run my game in a homebrew setting, most of the races in it are very different from the default D&D races. And they are all human-races.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[ccs]

Halfling: Human, but really short.

My own 1/2lings are all about the short rest. Afterall, you gotta eat Second Breakfast etc sometime.

 

[Draegn]

In my game each race has ten characteristics. Each characteristic has four levels. A player may have up to four levels of characteristics. Four at level one, one at level four or any combination that adds to four. Higher characteristic levels offer "more power". Examples: A faerie may choose to have wings, at level one she can only flitter about like a butterfly, at level four soar like a falcon. A troll rather than taking the highest level of regeneration might also choose to have fetid breath and caustic secretions.

In this way the races have differences and individuals of the race have variances between them.

 

[Yaarel]

For most settings, the default race is human. Characters are assumed to be human.

Certain feats associate with certain heritages. For example, if an Eladrin Elf feat grants +1 Charisma along with Misty Step per rest, then selecting this feat means you have elf heritage. You can decide if you are full elf, half elf, or if one of your distant ancestors is an elf, and these traits show up atavistically. Mechanically, you are still affected by effects that affect an elf or a creature that originates in the fey plane.

By selecting diverse feats, the character may well have several disparate ancestors.

This approach is basically how the superhero genre works. Your character is assumed to be human, unless explained otherwise. I am in the mood for this to be for D&D too.



Heritage ‘matters’ to the character concept, if the character keeps on selecting heritage feats while advancing thru the levels.

 

[Yaarel]

A race is worth approximately 3 feats (some races are slightly stronger, others slightly weaker).

The core races have approximately:

+2 ability score (worth a feat)
+1 ability score (worth a ½-feat)
2 major traits (each worth a ½-feat)
4 minor traits (each worth a proficiency, and four worth a ½-feat)



You can easily create a race by allowing the player to choose any three feats at level 1 during character creation. Probably, at least one of the feats will be spent for a +2 ability score. The other two feats might be spent on major traits, minor traits, or maybe +1 or +2 to an other ability score.

 

[Satyrn]

My own 1/2lings are all about the short rest. Afterall, you gotta eat Second Breakfast etc sometime.

"It comes in pints!?" is now as ubiquitous at my table as anything Monty Python.