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

[Maxperson]

People remembered Hailey's Comet, and it comes by only every 75 years. Hard to imagine Tabaxi every 20 is harder than that.

Let's go to rural Kentucky and ask around.

Rakshasa's would be even more rare than Tabaxi, so they would have no reason to suspect that, because they have no idea what those even are. Plus, Rakshasa are shapeshifters. Stories about them would emphasize that aspect. Meaning confusing them with a Tabaxi would be kind of silly.

They don't have to know about Rakshasas specifically to know that there are lots of humanoid cat monsters.

Unless you are the DM, then it doesn't matter if your ideas reduce people's fun, as long as you are having fun that's all that matters.

Incorrect.

And, as I said to Oofta. Just because I have three ideas doesn't mean that it isn't frustrating to have my favorite idea nixed.

Then if there's a conflict that you and the DM cannot resolve without one of you having your enjoyment reduced, you will need to leave to find a game where you can have fun. That way you both have fun.

And if they can't, who cares, they aren't at your table making you feel bad anymore.

Why would I feel bad that someone went to a game where they would have more fun? Enjoyment is what I want for my players, but not at the expense of my own. Nobody should be shortchanged on that front.

Glad you don't allow selfish people at your table Max, no one is allowed to impact another persons fun, that is completely unacceptable.. unless you are the DM, then you kick out the people who aren't having fun until everyone tells you they are having fun.

Blah blah blah. Are you going to respond factually or just keep making false accusations?

See that bolded part? That is acknowledgement of a mechanical change. See that underlined part, that is you saying that if it functions just the same, it doesn't matter.

There is no change to how the game plays mechanically. None.

Interesting, so I'm supposed to take a novel written in 2003, which would have been during 3rd edition, as proof.

But, providing you proof from wiki's and older sources doesn't count, because things can change for 5e.

What novel? I haven't gone outside of 5e for any of my arguments, except to county your outside of 5e arguments.

 

[Zardnaar]

Oh and my not Egypt game was my first pseudo historical game.

Spent 27 years avoiding cliches and never ran Egypt/Vikings/Greece etc.

 

[Umbran]

This really sounds like passive aggressive dickish behaviour on the part of the players here.

Step 1 in having a good game: Don't assume the worst.

The GM had an idea. The players maybe aren't deep into playing within it, so they hope the GM will be okay with their bringing their own kind of fun to the table, and they ask.

What, do tell, is so darned awful about using your words and asking for a thing?

Or maybe you haven't seen real passive-aggressiveness before? Because a passive-aggressive person does not ask. That's the "passive" part, you know.

The idea that the GM should accede to this is quite bizarre.

The idea that the GM should at least be open to listening to requests, however, is not bizarre, is it?

If I'd actually put work into this on the understanding that players had agreed to the premise I would not be pleased.

Dude. This is before character generation, the players are asking what kind of characters they can play. We are maybe in session zero, if that far, so nobody's really solidly agreed to anything yet.

 

[zarionofarabel]

So, here is an interesting thing.

"Green Eggs and Ham" was meant to represent "something new" I just provided four things you have never encountered. But, you just told me that you already know you won't like them, because you've tried them before.

Except, you know nothing about them.

Now, I'm sure you will hate them. They aren't for everyone and you don't even get into fiction very much, but, maybe you wouldn't hate them. I don't know. You'd have to try them and see.

Apologies, I got the context of that discussion wrong. I do try new things, just more on along the lines of foods, and way less along the lines of what I do as a DM and sexy fun time stuff, with those I already know what I like and don't like. New TV shows or books are a big maybe as most IPs are poor rehashings of crap I've already encountered.

Considering I am an English Major, have studied literature extensively, and have read a large variety of books... yes, says me. Having an all-human cast does not make your story inherently better quality.

Wow, you have a very inflated sense of self-importance! Apologies that I am still inclined to disagree, but everything I have personally encountered says otherwise. Also, from what some other people on this thread were telling me earlier is that anyone's opinion on the subject of the merits of a literary work are just as valid as any others. So there!

 

[Minigiant]

Viking got yes Samurai no.

Midgard has not Vikings and not Egypt.

Midgard's map is more or less just Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. The Southlands technically go farther south but...

 

[Zardnaar]

English major wow. That almost qualifies someone to ask "do you want fries with that".

Almost.

Dont make it personal, please!

 

[Zardnaar]

Midgard's map is more or less just Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. The Southlands technically go farther south but...

Yeah I spents a lot of money on it (shipping) so wanted to play it as is and focus on that.

Here's my new options I'm allowing. 50 odd new archetypes and you can play those races. And I allowed the PDFs as well adding another 12-18 races.

With PHB included and 30 odd races if that's not enough......

 

[Mecheon]

Then we get to the trickier ones. Decepticons - we've got the Evil PC issue. You're also going to have to be one of the little ones to be on the right scale.

I mean, 'Decepticons = evil' is one of those up in the air things nowerdays as folks delve more into what makes them them

But, scale isn't too much as you not only have the cassettes, but there's also the Micromasters/Minicons and Predacons!

i'm just saying if someone came to me and said "I would like to be a Predacon who turns into a purple Tyrannosaur" then I'd be answering with Yessss

 

[Crit]

Jokes aside, I actually don't think that point is all that unhelpful. I really would prefer that human characters be the presumed default and that all other species of player character, explicitly including the Tolkien races, were opt-in. D&D will never go that route, but I'd be the first to jump for joy if it did. Because, like I said above: toolkit.

Wait a second: I just had a small epiphany here. Do you see the D&D rules as less of a "toolkit for making a game" and more of "a game that you just play out of the box"?

I see it as a toolkit, which can be played out of the box if that's so desired. Often, I find myself entertained by the standard game. I guess you could say it's a tool kit where I engage with most of it fluidly.
As is, I don't see how having a default race would really change things for the better- I think it's best to leave it as is.

 

[Crit]

I'm glad people find non-humans narratively useful, I don't.

For my table, absolutely! For your table, not at all! If you want 799 playable races, go hard! I don't! So unless you want to tell me about how I'm not following TheOneTrueWay by allowing non-humans in my games, you can sod off!

I'm not looking to gain anything other than to preserve my own fun as a DM. I don't gain any fun from having Centaur PCs. The player of a Centaur PC in a game I'm running might lose out on a lot of fun when they find out that human settlements have human sized doors, and that means the entire session that's dedicated to the King's Grand Ball sees them standing out in the street by themselves! As for the whole fluff thing, it's just fluff, to me, it is meaningless, as it can be changed on a whim and has no mechanical weight.

Have all the fun with non-humans as you want! I will have my fun without them!

I still think not having non-humans as playable races is a good thing.

Why is it a good thing? The only thing you'd gain is actively taking away other people's fun to no gain of your own, which runs very contrary to "you have your fun".

I shall repeat, the fluff is only meaningless if you don't engage with it. If you take the other races seriously, the value becomes clear. The narrative usefulness unquestionably exists, you just don't have a preference for it.

I explained how the OneTrueWay-ism came through based on how you present/respond to points.

In general, if most characteristics of other races can be attributed to humans and the story moves forward, then why is their presence at all problematic? At that rate, doesn't just changing their technical origin to being human sub races save more effort than this needless exclusion-assimilation-fusion thing? The only difference between a separate species and a sub race would just be fluff, which you consider to be particularly flexible. What would the point even be>