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

Status
Not open for further replies.
On the planet Earth in 2020 there are still pockets of tribes that haven't had "modern" contacts. This is a planet that doesn't have underwater societies , underground societies, interdimensional travel teleportation, or other strangeness.
I think on a logic level, this is pretty solid.
But I also think, if there is interdimensional travel, underwater kingdoms, the astral sea, etc. then they are actually more advanced than we are.
So I do not know which way to turn. 👈👉
 

log in or register to remove this ad

That is a good way to phrase your argument. Thanks. It is clear. I mean, I understood it before, but this crystalizes it.
I would defer on the touch, change or question. I do not know any DM that wants a still-framed world. They want their players' characters to interact and be able to change the world. They can touch it. They can change it. But, they do that during the adventure with their PC's, not by choosing a race during character creation.
Here is what they can change during character creation: where certain backgrounds exist, where a race can grow up, what occupations might exist in specific places, and even smaller enclaves of cultural shifts.
Here is the one thing these DM are arguing they can't change: You can't be these other races, you can only be these 4 or 8 or 12 or 16. That is it. I do not see them arguing any other thing in the world that the player can't change.

Again, they do fix things. That is how any story starts. Ten Towns has a curse on it, it is forever winter here. Xonthal's tower has kept the villagers around it safe from marauding creatures for many years. Saltmarsh is on the sea and houses many fisher-folk. The savage frontier is a place where hill giants are storming villages and gathering all the sheep, cows and grain that they can.
I do not feel like it would be hyperbolic to ask can a player understand that these settings are in place, so please work with them. If not, maybe it is a lack of imagination on the player's part, not the DM's. If that is the case, then the DM can sit down with the player and help them draft something that they would be happy with. If at the end, if they are only happy with being a mermaid from under the sea, then perhaps discuss a different game run on a different night.

Agreed. A one off should be open as open can be. Because, in the end, it doesn't matter. You are not investing hundreds of hours into prep time, spending hundreds of dollars on materials, and/or building close, and maybe lifelong bonds with people.

This. Midgard cost me a lot the postage was almost $100.

Part of the fun is seeing those new mechanics in play not seeing a Tortle or whatever.
 

I think on a logic level, this is pretty solid.
But I also think, if there is interdimensional travel, underwater kingdoms, the astral sea, etc. then they are actually more advanced than we are.
So I do not know which way to turn. 👈👉
Encountering incomprehensible leftover high level magics while exploring is the tropiest fantasy trope to trope. No need to have the user have any idea how it works, or even ever be able to replicate it again.
 

But that is effectively saying that only bad DMs make the final call. Still no correlation there. Some DMs are bad because they let players push them around, some DMs are bad because they run strict railroad and the players have no real freedom.

There's no "there" there except the implication that only bad DMs say "no".

I'm was not saying that. A Bad DM could be bad for saying Yes, No, or Maybe.

Some Dms are bad. Some Players are bad. And Sometimes a DM and some Players don't match.

My Main point is: Worldbuilding for RPing for other people is not easy.

That's why DMs use established settings. Because they lack the skill or the time.
Worldbuiding for DMing is setting oneself for criticism. It is because a DM isn't writing a book to detail their world. And DMs have to get that. The less you explain, the more trust players must have in you to buy it. This goes for class, races, monsters, gods, item, cultures, etc.
 
Last edited:


Well, technically...

LOTR:
  • Humans;
  • Elves;
  • Dwarves;
  • Hobbits;
  • Vaiar; (Aasimar?)
  • Half-Elves;
  • Orcs;
  • Goblins;
  • Uruk-Hai (Hobgoblins?);
  • Beorn (Shifter)?;
  • Trolls;

That’s 11.

Perhaps but you don't get to play them.

Just because something exists doesn't mean you get to play it and a lot of that stuff isn't even in a phb until 4E.

And a few DMs don't allow monstrous races.
 

If you think that "a character" is the player's choice of race, class, and other mechanical affectations, we are talking about something quite different.

Of course a character is more than that. But you've narrowed that as well. Monoculture, Not!England remember? I have a single culture, a single race, and only a few possible classes.

You've narrowed things extensively.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I believe with counting all the subraces it is hundredish. And not really the point, thirty is still an absurd amount.

All of them? Like, you want to count Fire Genasi, Earth Genasi, Water Genasi, and Air Genasi as four different races?

That is absurd, but let us see. Each type of Genasi, each Dragonmarked house, each variant parent for Tieflings, ect ect

90 subraces total across the entire game.

So, very close. But 12 of those are Dragonmarked Houses, 9 of them are variants for the Tiefling, Every type of Genasi and Shifter (four each), every version of Aasimar (3) Repeats of Wood and High Elves for Eberron, all of it. If you take that stuff out, it is closer to 60.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No. You aren't supposed to assume anything at all. And don't ask if I agree with you. Ask me what it is that I do in that situation. Because I don't take my ball and go hom.

And yet you said that was an option the DM could take, while talking about your table, where you are the DM.

I try to do that as well. Sometimes, though, the answer will be no.

Maybe. But since literally my entire position has been that you should have the conversation, even if you end up saying no, you still agree with my position.

So... why am I wrong again?

Fun doesn't always have to be compromised, though. Sometimes you can arrange it so that the player and the DM can still both have fun. Maybe not with a Dragonborn, but I'm pretty good at coming up with fun ideas that can achieve the goals of the player or things that the player wasn't even thinking of, but are better. Just because the player may have to change from the Dragonborn to something else, doesn't mean that the player has to give up fun. The player may just gain more fun through the discussion with me.

You mean... talk together, and try and find a compromise? Which is the entire point I've been making? So... again... you are agreeing with my position?

I'm the one who twists everyone's words, but it seems that you've been arguing against me because you agree with me.

I wasn't talking about my table at all. I was talking about DM authority and DM options in general. I brought up the possibility, because DMs out there have that option.

So, you brought up an extreme example, without being clear that you were not speaking about your table, just because it was a possibility?

Well, thanks for confusing the entire issue.

I did say what I meant. I fully meant that in general DMs have absolute authority. They also have the option to leave if they want to. You assumed that I was talking about my table, even though I never said, "I would do..." or "This is how I..." Look for those key words that indicate that I'm talking about my game. Also look for key words like "DMs" to indicate when I'm talking about things in general.

Or, you know, you could say "in general" followed later with a "but I"

You know, instead of assuming that we are going to figure out that you don't believe in any of it.

I bolded the parts that I am supporting personally. I underlined the part that I wouldn't do. That "or" isn't a part of what I personally support. It is, however, an option for other DMs.

Wow, bolding your words that I quoted, and ignoring everything else.

"Why yes sir, I support what I said"

"But is this what you meant"

"Why yes sir, I support what I said"

So it is a win state for the player. The player can go do something he will enjoy, rather than having to play something he doesn't. Remember, this is a white room discussion. The reality is that even if I say no, players almost always have a plan B that's just as fun. And those few times that they didn't, I worked with them to come up with something that was.

They wanted to play DnD, having to go and find a second (or maybe third, or fourth, who knows) game is not a win state.

Compromise doesn't have to mean giving the player the race he asked for.

It also doesn't mean you immediately say no. It means to compromise

The thing I've been advocating for. The thing you've been arguing against.

It's a Kobayashi Maru scenario. The unwinnable situation.........that really doesn't happen in real life.

Sorry, Max, but it seems that you have no idea what has been being discussed, because with this entire post... you've just been agreeing with my position. So I have no idea why you have been presenting arguments against my position.
 

Perhaps but you don't get to play them.

Just because something exists doesn't mean you get to play it and a lot of that stuff isn't even in a phb until 4E.

And a few DMs don't allow monstrous races.
The argument was that most successful literary media had a very restricted number of races. That seems overblown when even LotR has 11 different races.

The fact that some of those races weren’t playable until 4e is irrelevant. And the distinction between monstrous races and non-monstrous races is one that exists in RPGs, not in books.
 

You may be surprised to find that (1) no, I haven't said it's not a legit view, and (2) I'm not the one claiming "absolute power" or "my house, my castle."

One
side is saying negotiation is completely verboten. The other side is saying some negotiation is reasonable, even if it doesn't actually end up changing anything. Yes, I do think that instant ultimatum IS bad. I have never, not once, said that restrictions are ABSOLUTELY bad. What I have said, repeatedly, and which you and others have repeatedly re-interpreted or misconstrued in the worst possible light, is that no-discussion dismissal and treating the desire for a conversation as offensive, both of which HAVE been explicitly said in this very thread, is bad.

Please, though. Feel free to show me where I said it was badwrongfun to have restrictions. Show me where I said that saying no is unacceptable, that the DM absolutely MUST always compromise on everything forever. I'll wait.
No side here has said that negotiation is verboten. Most on my side have said they try to compromise when possible.
 

And yet you said that was an option the DM could take, while talking about your table, where you are the DM.
Since I have explicitly told you otherwise more than once, this is now a deliberate misstatement on your part. You can't be getting it wrong accidentally.
So, you brought up an extreme example, without being clear that you were not speaking about your table, just because it was a possibility?
I was clear. Were I talking about my table, I would have said so. Talking in general makes it crystal clear that I'm not specifically talking about my table.
 
Last edited:

Status
Not open for further replies.
Remove ads

Top