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

[Thomas Shey]

It is fair to not want to do in-depth culture for all of those. However, there's an easy fix for that, which has been said multiple times before in this thread. Just have them be completely unique to the setting. The Tabaxi character was a wizard's experiment on combining a cat and a person. The Tortle was a turtle/tortoise that walked into toxic waste (Demon Ichor). The Tiefling was produced by their personal meddling with devils, infusing themselves with demonic essence.

Unique people can exist in the world.

Yeah, but there's a dynamic where that ends up making everyone prone to doing that, and bluntly, it can be hard to put things together for a party that stands out as a freakshow and not acknowledge that's what it is; and doing so can distort the game in non-trivial ways.

I know not everyone cares about that sort of thing, but not everyone runs a game to have every PC be a special case; 13th Age's dynamic here is not what everyone is looking for.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Of course it is fair to use a limited amount of races due to time and effort.

What is not fair is to disguise time and effort concerns under a sense of superiority of your own preferences or denying that D&D historically had lots of races and used flimsy reasons to make some of the exotic ones weak or not playable..

Absolutely no disagreement; note my comment about the "three races" someone has time to give attention to.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Absolutely agree.

okay so if chewie is what is the desired end state what would make it more practical to generate such character?

 

[Thomas Shey]

is everyone here condemed to argue endlessly about proper world building or dm-player interaction? it seems to be the only thing you seem to want to talk about.

Unfortunately, a rather large number of other issues tend to turn on questions related to those two points. So its going to circle around to disagreements in those spheres in a lot of topics.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Unfortunately, a rather large number of other issues tend to turn on questions related to those two points. So its going to circle around to disagreements in those spheres in a lot of topics.

do we make a thread to banish those topics in too?

 

[Thomas Shey]

do we make a thread to banish those topics in too?

I don't see any way to disentangle them; they're going to constantly come up in reference if nothing else on other things. Its like trying to have a thread about mechanics and banish references to game balance; since views on how important that is color all mechanical discussions to one degree or another, you can't just push it outside that sort of discussion.

 

[Scribe]

okay so if chewie is what is the desired end state what would make it more practical to generate such character?

I'm not saying its the desired end state, I am saying that if we are looking at 'alien' or 'monstrous' or 'weird', then my preference, would be that if one is so wildly divergent from the norm (Human/Elf/Dwarf/Assimar/Tiefling as it should be, etc) then...it should be wildly divergent from the norm.

As the post outlines, despite Chewie being able to function within the party/group, he's not that far off in manerisms from a more beast like creature.

It speaks to what I have mentioned a few times. There is nothing in the current implementation outside the (imo) comical 'I'm in a Devil Costume' appearance since 4e that could not be handled in another race, through RP, at least nothing to convince me.

Not picking on FrozenNorth at all, but since they are one who provided a list...

I want to be an outcast for my heritage. - Not race specific.
I want to be a hunter of my own kind. - Not race specific.
I want to be an atoner for the sins of my forefathers. - Not race specific.
I want to be a charming sophisticate pining for Bael Turath. - Culture call out, but has zero to do with view on the race until the 4e changes.
I want to play a character that leverage devilish heritage and high Charisma to intimidate people. - Not race specific.
I want to have a cool rivalry and banter with the party dragonborn. - Not race specific.
I like horns - Bingo.

To me, and again this is just ME, Tieflings are no more a distinct race, than any of the normal races. They are not remotely close to our example of Chewie, and so yes they are just part of the 'human-esque' races, to me.

Even Dragonborn, are going to fall in that camp.

Why?

Because I highly highly doubt people are going to pull off RP as Chewie, and not have the table devolve into 'what are you trying to say lol'.

So I get it, but again to me it continues in D&D to boil down to 'I want to look different'. Not judging anyone for that, at all. Not saying you cannot love Dragons, and want to be a Dragonborn because of your love for Dragons, but if Dragonborn were humans with some scales around their temples, lizard like eyes, or some claws, would it be as much as an issue as this 234 page thread has made it out to be?

I doubt it.

"What is the appeal" - They look different. Thats just it for me, as far as how they are currently implemented. If Dragonborn were more like Chewie, and a person had to try and bring that animalistic behavior, lack of ability to communicate in Common (or English) and really go all in? It would be a different matter, to me.

Not throwing hate at anyone, just saying that after all this discussion, thats all I'm seeing.

 

[Oofta]

As much as people are saying "Chewie is different" ... I'm not so sure.

• Big guy? Just a description.
• Outsider? Background.
• Doesn't speak common? Well ... technically he doesn't but since he understands everyone and everyone understands him, I don't see why it matters.
• Anger issues? Okay, he's a barbarian
• Intimidating? Proficiency.
• Roars? Role playing.

But he is (relatively) polite, seems to have human emotions, motivations and goals. Chewie is just a person on a big dog suit that has a unique language.

Which goes back to either visuals or cultural tropes. There are some exceptions to the general rule such as warforged because they aren't biological beings. Even when I've run one or played with one though, it didn't make a huge difference.

None of which makes wanting to play some other race "wrong" in some way. Coming up with a truly alien thought process is difficult and something I have a problem implementing with fae creatures such as the Sidhe and they're NPCs that I can limit screen time.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

All of which could be used to describe a tavern full of humans (except of course for the "species" one but for some reason some people find that term insulting).

In the context of D&D absolutely no one will take it that way, while most people will understand “cantina world” to be derogatory in that same context.

 

[Oofta]

In the context of D&D absolutely no one will take it that way, while most people will understand “cantina world” to be derogatory in that same context.

Meh. I disagree that anyone other than people on forums like this will think of "cantina world" as being derogatory. They'll take it in context as just a description. Feel free to disagree.