D&D General Does Your Fantasy Race Really Matter In Game? (The Gnome Problem)

billd91 · Jul 23, 2019

Hussar said:
There is far too much truthiness in this post.

But, the point about the Star Wars Cantina is well made. And it's funny because if you actually play Star Wars, no one plays aliens that are just humans with funny ears. No one plays a Wookie and doesn't play up that fact. Or a whatever race. Star Trek as well. You don't see Vulcan characters that are just identical to the humans. People play Vulcans because they want to play VULCANS, not just a really smart human.

As soon as the D&D books come out though, all that goes out the window and far, far too many players are playing whatever race happens to fit their power gaming needs. Like others above, I'd far rather just use Variant Humans than the constant nails on the chalkboard of having yet another human that can see in the dark with pointy ears.

I think that's true... for some like Vulcans, Klingons, Wookies, Aslan, Vargr, K'Kree... but I also think that's because they're relatively distinctive in development. They have strong stereotypes to play on. Ill-defined races like Duros, Orions, Nautolans, Vilani - not so much. The same's true in D&D - dwarves, elves, orcs, halflings (as long as you hobbit them up) - all are pretty distinctive. Gnomes have been through so many different iterations they've become a kind of gray wash... until a player picks one up, chooses their behavior hook, and strongly plays it.

I also think there's an element of community size. D&D can be figured to have, by far, the largest community of players. It takes someone with the next level of interest to branch from there into other RPGs. It wouldn't surprise me if there's a certain amount of selection bias going on with players with just a skosh more willingness to play out a character's behavior.

billd91 · Jul 23, 2019

Tonguez said:
I think you are correct that the gnome as presented in core DnD is a ill conceived mish mash that lacks a viable niche, but thats because no race in DnD is given a real culture. You could play most DnD characters as straight humans with the right stats and feats.

So my two points of advice are YOU DO NOT NEED TO SHOE IN EVERY RACE. I've run campaigns with only Humans, Half-giants and Gnomes - No Dwarfs and Elfs as vampiric sidhe, certainly no Tieflings

Nonetheless gnomes are my favourite race. GIVE YOUR RACES REAL CULTURES, they arent just bundles of stat bonuses they need to have a purpose in the world.

Yeah, the more distinctive the culture you attribute to them, the more picking a different race will matter and be playable in a campaign. Gnomes, at the 1e timeframe, are just a little too like both dwarves and halflings to be distinctive. So they ended up getting Dragonlanced up a bit. And so the taffy-pulling began until it was hard for any one person to say what a gnome was without referring to a specific edition source. Me - I like the Pathfinderized gnomes with their bright colors - assuming they don't suffer the Bleaching.

Blue · Jul 23, 2019

Tonguez said:
In our own World there was once a time when the planet featured more than one Homonid species - besides our own Homo Sapiens. It is know that Neanderthals, Cro-Magnons*, Denisovans and Homo Florensis, possibly Homo Erectus all lived on Earth at the same time, overlapped, killed and interbred until only one species remains.

If we imagine a fantasy world that is bigger and more fertile- allowing races to develop further in isolation - and touched by magic (giving each race its own special advantage/niche) then why not a situation where Many advanced races share the world.

Maybe something like Homo Florensis - Gnome (fey-touched niche), Neanderthal = Dwarf (endurance advantage and subterranean niche), Cro-Magnon = Orc (Toughness advantage), Denisovans = Elf (arcane advantage). Then of course you have Fey and Extraplanar races rounding out the group

You are hypothesizing specific attributes of a setting - larger world, more fertile, develop in more isolation (geography? magic?) but close by now (standard situation), common ancestors, and using extradimensional travel to bring in more races.

You just detailed out another valid route to adjust the setting in order to make multiple sentient races in proximity to each other make sense. There are plenty of them.

Krachek · Jul 23, 2019

There is also the possibility to make all races look like human, and explain there abilities by some magical effect or taint.
So a gnome may be an human, not very tall nor very strong, with some some special abilities to be explained.
these unusual human may be seen as mutant, blessed or demon according to different culture.

Urriak · Jul 23, 2019

billd91 said:
I think that's true... for some like Vulcans, Klingons, Wookies, Aslan, Vargr, K'Kree... but I also think that's because they're relatively distinctive in development. They have strong stereotypes to play on. Ill-defined races like Duros, Orions, Nautolans, Vilani - not so much. The same's true in D&D - dwarves, elves, orcs, halflings (as long as you hobbit them up) - all are pretty distinctive. Gnomes have been through so many different iterations they've become a kind of gray wash... until a player picks one up, chooses their behavior hook, and strongly plays it.

I also think there's an element of community size. D&D can be figured to have, by far, the largest community of players. It takes someone with the next level of interest to branch from there into other RPGs. It wouldn't surprise me if there's a certain amount of selection bias going on with players with just a skosh more willingness to play out a character's behavior.

This is very true. Running a group right now, and it is clear that although the players like the concept of playing another race, they're not actually very good at playing up the behavior of the race.

For example, got three players, an elf, dwarf, and succubus. It is very rare for them to actually behave like either of them, but they still like the idea of being themselves, but something else.

They are new players though, and didn't take much time to create a unique character beyond "this race, this class." The one I made for a really new player, a 16-year old half-orc pirate fighter, is the most into roleplaying because the whole concept speaks for itself.