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

[Don Durito]

They are a core race, you are into houserule territory there.

You could do it but I would expect less player interest for that one.

If you had a tier list of popular races I guess elves would be up there.

Right now I am running D&D in a silk road setting. The game began in parallel world Tang Dynasty China. I have a human, two Ogre Magi*, a Kenku and a Warforged made from Terracotta. No one complained about there being no elves or dwarves.

And it does include homebrew content. I would personally think that homebrewing content is more an essential feature of D&D then elves are.

*These are the Ogre Magi from Yoon Suin rather than Japanese Oni.

 

[Zardnaar]

Right now I am running D&D in a silk road setting. The game began in parallel world Tang Dynasty China. I have a human, two Ogre Magi, a Kenku and a Warforged made from Terracotta. No one complained about there being no elves or dwarves.

And it does include homebrew content. I would personally think that homebrewing content is more an essential feature of D&D then elves are.

Makes sense though for that type of game though. No elves or tolkeinesque stuff.

I probably wouldn't play not because those races are banned OA doesn't do anything for me.

 

[Jack Daniel]

Yeah, sorry, not everyone sees D&D as a genre, they see it just a rule system among many others. It has rules for a lot of stuff, and not everything needs to be used any more than everything GURPS has rules for needs to be used in in one campaign.

Words cannot express how sick and tired I am of the contention that "D&D is its own genre"—to say nothing of the pity I feel for those who seriously believe it.

They are a core race, you are into houserule territory there.

As if that could ever be a reason not to do something with or to any version of the D&D rules…

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Right now I am running D&D in a silk road setting. The game began in parallel world Tang Dynasty China. I have a human, two Ogre Magi, a Kenku and a Warforged made from Terracotta. No one complained about there being no elves or dwarves.

And it does include homebrew content. I would personally think that homebrewing content is more an essential feature of D&D then elves are.

Sounds like a very cool game.

But are there any monkey spirits? Pig spirits? Water Demons? What about a strangely attractive, androgynous holy fool?

 

[Zardnaar]

Words cannot express how sick and tired I am of the contention that "D&D is its own genre"—to say nothing of the pity I feel for those who seriously believe it.


As if that could ever be a reason not to do something with/to any version of the D&D rules…

Exactly I'm fine with it.

D&D is it's own thing by now. At least in core rules.

I don't care to much what they do with settings and splat books. As long as they're optional. Didn't like magitech to much but Eberron changed my mind a bit.

Don't want Artificers and Warforged in everything though.

 

[Don Durito]

Sounds like a very cool game.

But are there any monkey spirits? Pig spirits? Water Demons? What about a strangely attractive, androgynous holy fool?

There are, but none of the players went for them.

 

[Dire Bare]

D&D is a game that includes fantasy races, it’s not really about that. Excising some of them doesn’t make it any less D&D.

This is pedantic . . . and nonsensical.

 

[Maxperson]

Dungeons and Dragons

That's not a good reason as Dungeons and Dragons explicitly tells players that they are not all available.

 

[Minigiant]

I'm still not getting it.

The argument seems to be "people expect D&D to have elves". Fine. So if I say, "my campaign of D&D doesn't have evles", then you know not to expect elves. Just like you know not to expect elves in Call of Cthulhu.

I think it's less "people expect D&D to have elves" and more "people expect more and more reasons or expectations why a particular campaign will be good the more the DM takes out, adds, or changes the base assumption.".

The base assumption assumes some fantasy races, classes, and items. If the DM changes this, they should not be shocked that they recieve questions, requests, and pushbacks from players.

 

[Maxperson]

I think most people don't feel entitled and it's more that people have different preferences of archetypes and like having their preferences available.

If you like mental challenges and being clever with your options, you'd like the DM's curated world to offer classes and races and items that allow you to be clever. If you like playing archers, you'd hope the DM doesn't ban all ranged weapons but blowdarts. If you like fire, you'd want class and race options with fire powers. If you like flexing diplomacy, you'd hope the DM's ability scores generation allows for a Decent CHA without being forced to be a Sorcerer or Warlock.

I think there's a difference between wishing there was a race that you'd like to play and expecting that the DM should replace any option you remove with a similar option. The latter is feeling entitled.