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

[Remathilis]

Its possible to build a world without any room, too. Just because it is possible doesn’t mean I can imagine why on earth one would ever want to.

Which is akin to saying "I've traveled one side of America to the other and there is NO room for kangaroos or elephants on this planet". Or "we've studied the ocean for centuries, if giant squid exist, we'd have found proof by now."

 

[Oofta]

Nope.

Breathing life into the game is the responsibility of everyone at the table. I'm sick to death of players who figure that their responsibility to the game begins and ends with their character. Bugger that. Get off your lazy butt and help shape the world. Your character has a family, a history, an area of the world to come from - tell me about it. Your way, @Oofta, leads to cipher, Man with No Name characters with zero background and zero connection to the world because the DM is expected to do all the work of connecting the PC's to the world.

No thanks.

This is probably one of the most insulting accusations anyone has ever thrown my way. Have you ever been part of one of my games? Talked to anyone who has? Read any of my freaking posts about how important player involvement, freedom of choice, impact on the world is?

Because you have no clue. Background, family, connections, personal history are part of the PCs story. The players shape and have major impact on my world through the actions of their PCs.

But I get it. I have an established worlds and players have to figure out where they fit in so therefore the PCs are just marionettes. While I chuckle in glee at their petty attempts to make a difference. Because having a predefined world means I'm a terrible DM.

 

[Minigiant]

Then that is your failure to understand other people.

I have run several different campaigns, in several different sub-genres (e.g. epic fantasy, pulp-noir science fantasy, horror) and they have all had different parameters with regards to player characters.

You are missing and proving my point.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Its possible to build a world without any room, too. Just because it is possible doesn’t mean I can imagine why on earth one would ever want to.

I can - but I can't think of many good reasons to use D&D as the base game for e.g. something set on a space station or colony ship.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

You are missing and proving my point.

Maybe. Is your point not "players have a right to play any race they like, irrespective of how appropriate it is to the campaign's setting, genre and theme, and anyone who plays differently is having bad-wrong-fun"?

If it's not that, then yes, I'm missing it.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I can - but I can't think of many good reasons to use D&D as the base game for e.g. something set on a space station or colony ship.

Metamorphosis Alpha says hi.

 

[Oofta]

Metamorphosis Alpha says hi.

I've heard Esper Genesis is a good alternative as well.

 

[jasper]

Yeah, someplace else.
The player is only going to come up with so many character ideas before they quit.

Ultimately, the question is whether the DM is okay with the player dropping them.

I am no longer addicted to D&D and gaming. So I am not longer hurt when a player dumps me. I rather have a player dump me in session 0 because they hate my restriction; than play along while griping, trying to hurt my campaign etc. No Gaming is Better, than Bad Gaming.

 

[Maxperson]

Well, GM severely limiting player's knowledge is already a kinda big red flag, but besides that: GM can and should point out weird things, in order to avoid confusion and frustration.

A big red flag with, "This is a fantastic game!" written on it. A lot of us actually enjoy mystery and discovery.

When rogue rolls 25 and fails, saying "You start working your magic on the lock and turns out it's unexpectedly master-crafted. Whoever put it on this unassuming shack spent some big money on it. Why, I wonder?" piques interest and creates in-game mystery. Saying just "You failed" frustrates the player in real life.

The bolded part is wrong. It frustrates YOU, but it would not frustrate me. Failing on 25 at a shack would intrigue me for all the reasons that you just stated. I don't need the DM to spell out what is obvious. Your way and beliefs are still not the one true way.

 

[Maxperson]

If the DM has created a historical campaign set during the Hundred Years War then you don't get to play a wizard. Or for that matter a cleric. Or any other spellcasting class. At which point the huge question is "Why use D&D for this when it is so clearly unsuited to the task?"

Just because you aren't using everything, does not mean that the game is unsuited for that task. D&D would work just fine for that.