D&D 5E What is the appeal of the weird fantasy races?

[MGibster]

Are you arguing that the sole purpose of setting is to provide context for the characters? That it has no value on it's own? I can't believe that. I've always treated setting as a place where things can happen. That's why detailed, real-feeling settings can have multiple, unconnected stories happen in them. If you don't do that, if the setting instead serves solely to support the character's story, it seriously rings false to me.

I would say that the primary purpose of a game setting is to provide context for the characters in the game. Aside from the entertainment derived from creating or reading the setting, what other purpose does it serve?

 

[zarionofarabel]

Meaningless? Lol I guess that makes a difference, too. Race is far from meaningless in our games.
And either way, we just aren’t looking at the game in the same way on a basic level.

The reason fantasy race is meaningless for me is 30 years of fantasy Elf. I have seen Elf mean so many different things at this point it has rendered the word Elf meaningless. Elf does not mean Tolkien Elf, or Santa's Elf, or even Elf On A Shelf. I've seen Plant Elf, and Fey Elf, and Human With Pointy Ears Elf, and many many more. Thus I cannot possibly conceive of a character concept that cannot be separated from the make-believe race that it is tied to. IMHO, a player that says they can't play concept X unless it's race X is an unimaginative player.

I believe we do see it on a different level. I see fluff as fluff that can be changed to suit a campaign and that means fluff is meaningless. You assign intrinsic value to fluff as though it is mechanics and thus not malleable. Maybe I've just worked with too many different systems that are not D&D so it's far easier for me to separate mechanics from fluff. I don't know.

 

[zarionofarabel]

Yay! We've just proved that D&D should abolish all the core races and stick with humans.

No truer words have been spoken!!!

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I would say that the primary purpose of a game setting is to provide context for the characters in the game. Aside from the entertainment derived from creating or reading the setting, what other purpose does it serve?

I mean, you could say that the "purpose" of Forgotten Realms was to provide the backdrop for a series of novels, the quality of which varied all the way from terrible to forgettable.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

The reason fantasy race is meaningless for me is 30 years of fantasy Elf. I have seen Elf mean so many different things at this point it has rendered the word Elf meaningless. Elf does not mean Tolkien Elf, or Santa's Elf, or even Elf On A Shelf. I've seen Plant Elf, and Fey Elf, and Human With Pointy Ears Elf, and many many more.

A human with pointy ears, you say?

 

[nevin]

No truer words have been spoken!!!

then we can just do away with D&D and play traveller or gurps. Oh wait......

 

[Crimson Longinus]

The reason fantasy race is meaningless for me is 30 years of fantasy Elf. I have seen Elf mean so many different things at this point it has rendered the word Elf meaningless. Elf does not mean Tolkien Elf, or Santa's Elf, or even Elf On A Shelf. I've seen Plant Elf, and Fey Elf, and Human With Pointy Ears Elf, and many many more. Thus I cannot possibly conceive of a character concept that cannot be separated from the make-believe race that it is tied to. IMHO, a player that says they can't play concept X unless it's race X is an unimaginative player.

I agree with you on this bit. Generic fantasy elf or dwarf or whatever doesn't really mean anything. The concept is so vague and varies from world to world that it is weird to get attached to it. Now unlike you, I like having different intelligent species and I feel they can serve a purpose, but for that they need to be more defined. So when I'm about to play in a new setting, I want to know what the intelligent species are like in that world, and perhaps that might give me some specific ideas. But getting attached to some vague concept of a worldless unspecified elf or some such just seems bizarre to me.

 

[reelo]

Yay! We've just proved that D&D should abolish all the core races and stick with humans.

That's the premise of "Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea" whichnis based on AD&D 1E
Granted, it has Atlanteans and Hyperboreans which are "near human", but other than that, you have only humans.
Amazonians, Vikings, Kelts, Kimmerians, Kimmeri-Kelts, Picts, Esquimaux, Ixians...all human. And the game is wonderful.

 

[MGibster]

I mean, you could say that the "purpose" of Forgotten Realms was to provide the backdrop for a series of novels, the quality of which varied all the way from terrible to forgettable.

Sure, you could. What I'm really interested in is why it's odd to think of a setting as having some purpose to it.

 

[FrozenNorth]

There is no one true way.

C’mon, man. Accusing people who disagree with you of one-true-wayism is both unproductive and baseless.

The people still on this thread, on both sides, are prolific commenters who have earned the benefit of the doubt.

Crit isn’t going to come to your game and tell you to include satyrs any more than Zardnaar is going to Ezekial Raiden’s game to tell him not to include dragonborn.

Chaosmancer and Ezekial Raiden have said on multiple occasions that they see nothing wrong with themed campaigns that exclude certain races or classes.

Both sides have a legitimately interesting argument to make about the merits of a highly-curated (in terms of races and classes) persistent world vs. a world that empowers players to create both the characters they want to play and to take a hand in designing the world.

Or, we could go back to arguing why halflings suck. That was awesome.