D&D 5E Greyhawk, and race options for Oerth PCs

[Zardnaar]

Seems my thinking is the same as others have posted. I'd let the players know that the setting is very human-centric and Dwarves, Elves and other demi-humans are seen as oddities outside of places like Ulek, Celene and other isolated pockets. Tieflings come from Iuz and are definitely viewed with suspicion and not welcome - hell, they look like Graz'zt! Same deal with Drow. As for Dragonborn, they'd be an explorer from a far distant land; perhaps south of the steaming jungles, from the other side of the sea of dust, or from across the great ocean. People would perhaps mistake them as the remored Yuan-ti, since they both look like reptile people.

I'd have to think hard if one of my players came to me wanting to play one of those races in Greyhawk. I've had a tiefling in a 4e campaign, but that was homebrew and, well, 4e.

I'll admit to a certain bias as well against the type of character players want to play when they say they want to be a tiefling. It winds up being a lot like someone wanting to play a 'neutral' rogue who really just wants to be a jerk to the rest of his party because the player finds it fun to have secrets and mess with them.

Edit: One other fun one could be the Dragonborn have emerged from the Valley of the Mage due to some foul experiments.

I have no problems with Tieflings in other world's

I don't think they'll be fully accepted due to their heritage.

 

[Azzy]

I actually didn't make those, that is directly from the PHB.

Yeah I'd say that if Greyhawk ever gets a setting book, it'd be great to have a section on races. It wouldn't need to have any mechanics or anything (those already exist in the PHB, and Greyhawk doesn't really have any races unique to it). But it would be great to have little sections explaining the history and culture of each races in Oerth.

Humans would obviously get the biggest section, to detail all six races. But every PHB race should get a little bit of lore.

The Eberron book has a section on races that goes over all the PHB race plus the new ones. A Greyhawk book should do the same, it helps to ground the races into the setting.

I'd definitely appreciate tieflings getting something tying them as direct creations to Iuz in his evil empire, and that dragonborn are recent immigrants from a far-off continent (dragonborn dressed as Tibetan monks would be a fun spin).

Considering that Iuz is a demon-spawn cambion and tieflings are, by default, of devilish origin, Iuz's land may not be the best fit. The lands of of the Great Kingdom and (as @David Howery points out) the Horned Society are a better fit. Not that you couldn't add demonic tieflings (that could be a mechanical option).

Dragonborn, yeah, you could do some "kingdom to the west of the Flanaess" if you want, but it's easy to take the Eberron route and just say that they are from remote location and don't have a kingdom or such, much in the same way as lizardmen, hobgoblins, orcs (the Pomarj not withstanding), etc.

As for the conflic that these races may encounter, sure, put that in their descriptions in the same way that, again using the Eberron book a a guidepost, that Cyran (almost universally) and some nationalities of humans, warforged (you were designed for war), goblins (former slaves) are going to be an issue of confict depending on where they go or who they interact with.

 

[Shiroiken]

I've found the easiest way to allow the various weird/stupid races requires just a bit of visual changes, which I pretty much did to most races anyway, bringing them back to 1E visuals. In addition, I let the players know that people are extraordinarily superstitious, and most of these weird races are going to suffer a LOT of social issues.

Most weird races I break down into half-breeds, plane-touched, and beastmen. Half-breeds do not necessarily mean exactly half, but blood of two races, so it includes things like dragonborn and goliath (giant), but the physical features are greatly subdued (and easily hidden). Plane-touched either have an extra-planar ancestor or have in some other way been altered by extra-planar energy. Like the half-breeds, the alterations are fairly minor, but visible to those who'd know what to look for. In both of these cases, the character can get by with minimal social issues... until their true nature is revealed, where they face fear and often violence.

Beastmen are those who simply cannot hide their strange nature, such as aarockra, kenku, and tabaxi. They are mostly considered animals, and are often made into pets (or slaves), even by good people. These races usually have to have another either vouch for them, or act as their owner.

I suppose it's more of a question, of if Greyhawk is ever published for 5E as it's own setting book, what path should it take?

I'd much rather they leave it alone. Greyhawk has already been turned into a s**t show, and I'd really rather not risk whatever crap they'd pile on. However, if they did make one, I'd do what I've done with every other Greyhawk book post 1985... loot it for good ideas and toss the rest.

Would/Should the 6 human races be mechanically different from each other, or would they all use the basic PHB Human?

They'd be the same as the different Ethnicity from Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide. They have no mechanical difference, but different cultures, appearance, and background. There are also human languages (humans gain an extra one for their ethnicity), but most speak common when dealing with outsiders.

 

[David Howery]

You can tell its a PC just from the artwork?

it's a guess, but it keeps showing up in pictures of encounter areas, so it's a good guess... I don't think there are any NPC dragonborn in the book...

 

[David Howery]

Doesn't mean you can play one, I don't think to many people are arguing they don't exist.
. Only 4 races are core it's still ask your DM.

sure, it's ultimately a DM call. But for GH, I would allow gnomes and half-orcs... both have a long history there, and gnomes seem to be fairly common.

 

[Catolias]

Love Greyhawk and am Dm-ing games in 3.5e and 5e in that setting.

BUUUUT, any setting book should be bigger than Greyhawk - which is a bit too focussed on a euro- setting (leaving aside the 3.x Living Greyhawk that was geo-located to countries, cities, etc from the ‘00s).

What is needed is to flesh out the rest of Oerth. This means details on the other societies with nods to Earth civilisations - Aztec / Incan south, the Mughal/Rajput Indian south west, the Persian / Sufayid / Babylonian east and northeast, the Chinese and Japanese far south west. Plus what is in Antaria? Is Oerth hollow? Are the dragonborn beyond the celestial sea?

Finally, it would not be Greyhawk without Anna Meyers maps!

 

[David Howery]

What is needed is to flesh out the rest of Oerth. This means details on the other societies with nods to Earth civilisations - Aztec / Incan south, the Mughal/Rajput Indian south west, the Persian / Sufayid / Babylonian east and northeast, the Chinese and Japanese far south west. Plus what is in Antaria? Is Oerth hollow? Are the dragonborn beyond the celestial sea?

I wanted this all through the 1E/2E days, and the closest we got was "The Scarlet Brotherhood" supplement right near the end of 2E, which showed us all of Hepmonaland. Lacking any official products, I detailed several other places on my own. When Oriental Adventures and the modules for it came out, I reversed the map and stuck it on the west side of Oerik (with some Mongol/horde lands in between, and sorta India down south. I detailed Hepmonaland up into sorta Africa, and had a sorta New World with sorta native Americans across the sea to the east. Roger Moore tried to give us a bigger look at Oerth in "The Adventure Begins", but that went nowhere....

 

[Zardnaar]

sure, it's ultimately a DM call. But for GH, I would allow gnomes and half-orcs... both have a long history there, and gnomes seem to be fairly common.

I would allow the AD&D races, maybe 3 or 4 extra ones. I would probably limit it to one per party for the special races is anything not one of the AD&D demihumans.

Maybe races. They fit the setting maybe not as PCs though. Depends on where and what type of game.

Hobgoblin
Drow
Tiefling
Yuant Ti Pureblood
Other humanoid (Kobolds, Orc, Goblin etc).

Sasserine might be a bit more open than the traditional areas. Sasserine is great anyway.

 

[Catolias]

I wanted this all through the 1E/2E days, and the closest we got was "The Scarlet Brotherhood" supplement right near the end of 2E, which showed us all of Hepmonaland. Lacking any official products, I detailed several other places on my own. When Oriental Adventures and the modules for it came out, I reversed the map and stuck it on the west side of Oerik (with some Mongol/horde lands in between, and sorta India down south. I detailed Hepmonaland up into sorta Africa, and had a sorta New World with sorta native Americans across the sea to the east. Roger Moore tried to give us a bigger look at Oerth in "The Adventure Begins", but that went nowhere....

That sounds cool.

I definitely think the rest of Oerth needs fleshing out with the same principles as Greyhawk - broad brush histories and stuff (eg, local history and civilisation / society structures). A module here and there or some hints about where some of the current 5e modules good be relocated would be handy. The detailed history of Oerth a la FR - down to who barfed when and at what time - is definitely NOT needed.

 

[billd91]

Would/Should the 6 human races be mechanically different from each other, or would they all use the basic PHB Human?

Basic PH human. But I would like to see various human ethnic group-friendly backgrounds...