D&D General How many Races it too much?

[Greenstone.Walker]

In my experience, it doesn't matter how many races you have; players want what's not there.

Or they will take something gonzo and then complain about it. For example, I ran a human-centric game (the dwarves were almost extinct, the elves were lotus-eaters, other races were extremely rare). The players picked goliath, genasi, ghostwise halfling and tiefling. They then complained when guards chased them out of towns and merchants overcharged them... The player of the ghostwise halfling was particularly upset that someone tried to kill them for speaking into their mind.

 

[CleverNickName]

Eh, I've never needed more than a half-dozen.

 

[Don Durito]

It depends.

 

[Don Durito]

How about two? Humans and the kender.

Why do you need humans? What do they bring to the table that you can't do with just Kender?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

A basic premise of most of my campaign worlds is that sentient races are no more limited than predators or flying species IRL. Travel to a new land, and you'll likely meet some new people that you've never seen the like of before.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I mean, look at how small cultures can be IRL.

Look at how species can thrive in a single forest or island or canyon or river.

The idea that you couldn't "realistically" fit every fantasy race ever printed for dnd on a continent the size of Europe is just...nonsense.

You don't want to figure out a tonne of races and what the demos are for every culture, and all that, fine. But it's not about realism.

 

[Tonguez]

Why do you need humans? What do they bring to the table that you can't do with just Kender?

I did a game once where every character had to be under 3ft tall - Adventure Under the Floorboards - it was great

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Why do you need humans? What do they bring to the table that you can't do with just Kender?

My Islands World setting has no humans, and I considered no elves or dwarves. I'm still considering no dwarves, or at least having them be a very very small population from far away, because I just don't have a super interesting story for them.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Now, in an upcoming game we are calling Church Mice, there will only be a few races, reflavored to represent different small rodents. Might include bats if someone is really into the idea. Premise is that the PCs are all Church Mice or their allies, tasked with protecting the Faithful from that which the big folk are too big and busy and loud to see and understand, from The Dark.

But that's a tightly themed, limited campaign. Probably 1 story arc, a handful of levels, and then done, and if we return to the world it will be with new characters.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Why do you need humans? What do they bring to the table that you can't do with just Kender?

Kender alone just doesn't work properly. The kender are not annoyed by other kender.