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

[Hussar]

Heh. My typical approach to a campaign has been to give a list of races that I had given thought about and how they fit into the campaign. So, choosing any of those races was fine and didn't require any discussion. But, it was never my intent that that list would be restrictive. If you came to me with something that wasn't one the list, I would, barring any major issues, allow it.

Funny story. I remember offering a slate of races for my 3e Savage Tides campaign drawn from all sorts of sources - Rakasta, diaboli, lupins and a handful of other "weird" races in addition to the standard PHB stuff.

Players all came back with standard PHB stuff.

Just goes to show.

 

[Zardnaar]

Heh. My typical approach to a campaign has been to give a list of races that I had given thought about and how they fit into the campaign. So, choosing any of those races was fine and didn't require any discussion. But, it was never my intent that that list would be restrictive. If you came to me with something that wasn't one the list, I would, barring any major issues, allow it.

Funny story. I remember offering a slate of races for my 3e Savage Tides campaign drawn from all sorts of sources - Rakasta, diaboli, lupins and a handful of other "weird" races in addition to the standard PHB stuff.

Players all came back with standard PHB stuff.

Just goes to show.

Kinda why I have truncated lists and don't put a huge amount of options on offer.

Players usually don't care and it's semi pointless placing lots of stuff hence why I have 15 races and 4 "major" ones.

Less book keeping.

 

[Jack Daniel]

Funny story. I remember offering a slate of races for my 3e Savage Tides campaign drawn from all sorts of sources - Rakasta, diaboli, lupins and a handful of other "weird" races in addition to the standard PHB stuff.

Players all came back with standard PHB stuff.

Just goes to show.

You could always disallow elves, dwarves, and halflings.

 

[Maxperson]

Sometimes, sure. Y'all have a habit of backing down and admitting you DO talk it out and try to work with players when it comes to the quick, rather than the explicit references to dictatorial/absolute power from early in the thread. But there have also been real-life examples of the converse. It's often fine...but not always.

A few posts ago you asked me why I argued early on if I agreed about discussing things with the players. The reason was not to be frustrating, but because trying to work it out does not preclude absolute authority. The early discussion was primarily about DM authority and game grants the DM absolute authority, so it's a fact per RAW. If we use that absolute authority to discuss things with the players in an effort to make them happy, that doesn't remove the authority, but rather it simply means that we are using our absolute authority to try to work out a compromise.

I can both have absolute authority over the game AND negotiate with the players in order to try and make them happy. And I do.

Okay. I don't see how a single bit of this precludes the player, again I must stress in the strongest terms possible politely and positively asking for something that wasn't greenlit. As for the rest? I can't help having character ideas. It literally happens while just starting the pitch. I literally cannot NOT start having character ideas. If I were only allowed to come up with ideas after completely reading the 20-page setting story or whatever, I'd (metaphorically) die. Honest to God. And since I love dragonborn, paladins, sorcerers, etc. so much...well, those are going to be first-run ideas, because I find them interesting and enjoyable.

I don't have an issue with a player asking for something that wasn't greenlit, but if the player agrees to avoid using things that are crossed out and then asks for that thing, that's wrong. If I tell you that the campaign has X, Y and Z, but A, B and C are not a part of the game, and then ask if you want to play, you shouldn't agree to play and then ask for A, B or C. Asking for G which wasn't included or precluded is fine, and may or may not be granted depending on circumstances.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

Then my point is made. Everything else is of no relevance to what I'm getting at.

I hope your typin' fingers aren't too tired.

So you agree you COULD find a way to include my tabaxi space marine, you just refuse to?

 

[reelo]

It's a basic variant of the Van Halen brown MM's test.

Nice!

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Oh, I wasn't disagreeing with you. I was saying, why is it that pro-restriction DMs dismiss the "core-four is blander than unflavored oatmeal," but have repeatedly used (so-called) "weird races are inherently stereotypes." The two have exactly the same logic, just in opposite directions.

And that's silly. But it can work in other way too, and that is the situation I am more worried about: the GM creating a new world that tries to break stereotypes and do something different and the players just wanting to port the standard PHB races into it.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

You could always disallow elves, dwarves, and halflings.

Seriously! If you want a campaign without elves dwarves and halflings, then don't allow them! Make it clear from the get go that this is a world of rakasta, diaboli and the lupins.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Okay. I don't see how a single bit of this precludes the player, again I must stress in the strongest terms possible politely and positively asking for something that wasn't greenlit. As for the rest? I can't help having character ideas. It literally happens while just starting the pitch. I literally cannot NOT start having character ideas. If I were only allowed to come up with ideas after completely reading the 20-page setting story or whatever, I'd (metaphorically) die. Honest to God. And since I love dragonborn, paladins, sorcerers, etc. so much...well, those are going to be first-run ideas, because I find them interesting and enjoyable.

Completely agree, well, not on the dragonborn part but the rest of it.

When you pitch "I want to run a pirate themed-"

I'm already coming up with ideas. My brain jumps and while I'm listening and refining those ideas while I listen, they already are coming up in my head. I don't have a switch where I flip it to start the creative process, I start thinking while being pitched the idea, because I'm already imagining the game and what might happen.

Current favorite Idea? A shanty singing bard, possibly a Tiefling, because I've fallen in love with Cami-cat's songs and she runs a shanty singing Tiefling Bard. Probably not what I'd end up with, but it is a fun idea.

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

Then my point is made. Everything else is of no relevance to what I'm getting at.

I hope your typin' fingers aren't too tired.

Congratulations, you've proven that a writer can come up with a character no matter how many restrictions you put upon me. Pat yourself on the back.

But you are still ignoring that in your example, you have explicitly written the majority of that character. Just because I get to color inside those lines doesn't mean that you didn't do that. After all, just because I can make a character doesn't mean that the guy sitting next to me didn't make the exact same character.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

As I've said elsewhere, what races you have depends entirely on the setting and tone. And it's up to the DM to define the parameters, and the player's job to work with them or find a different game.

It seems to me that these are the main campaign types, all of which are equally valid choices:

1) Low fantasy, gritty realism. Examples: Game of Thrones, historical. All PCs are human, Intelligent non-humans are the stuff of legend (at least until the players encounter them).

2) Mid fantasy. Examples: Lord of the Rings, early D&D. Humans are dominant, but there are a small number of other intelligent races. They might not be elves, dwarves and hobbits. For example something based on Greek rather than Northern European myth might have satyrs and centaurs instead.

3) High fantasy. Examples: Narnia, Discworld, Star Wars, typical modern D&D. Humans and aliens intermingle. No one bats an eye if someone with three heads walks into the tavern.

4) Furry. Example: Redwall. There are no humans. Everyone plays and anthropomorphic animal.

5) Alien. Example: The Dark Crystal. There are no humans, everyone plays a character from a small selection of races unique to the setting.

Other factors that might influence race availability:

a) They are the antagonists for that campaign. This is the most likely explanation when a DM bans a standard race refusing to give a reason.

b) Annoyance factor. There are a couple of races that can create problems when played badly - e.g. kender, kenku - or the DM may have had a bad experience with in the past.

c) Flavour. Difficult to explain, but when I started my RofM campaign I said "no lizardfolk, tortles or yuan-ti unless they have cold resistance because the climate is too cold for them."