D&D 5E Do you restrict racial choices in your games?

[TheSword]

I’d find it very hard to justify not allowing a PHB race in a game. Like I’d have to question if I was even being reasonable.

On the other hand, every non-PHB race I’ve allowed in a campaign has ended up an unmitigated disaster... lizard men, minotaurs and much worse.

As Henry Ford said...”Any player can have any character, from any source... as long as it’s human”. Then again the variant feat takes care of that.

 

[The Green Hermit]

Our current campaign, I didn't allow dragonborn, because we were going against the dragon cult. I knew my players (aka kids) wouldn't be able to effectively roleplay the issues that came with that.

 

[The Glen]

When I build a campaign I severely limit the races to add flavor to the world. One setting had no humans, another no half races. Restrictions and omissions make the game world more interesting than a catchall sandbox.

 

[Voadam]

When I build a campaign I severely limit the races to add flavor to the world. One setting had no humans, another no half races. Restrictions and omissions make the game world more interesting than a catchall sandbox.

I did no half races for a while in 3e. I did it for flavor reasons of turning fantasy races into fully non-hybridizing species, but I allowed them mechanically in 3e by making them full subraces of the non-human half (gray orcs instead of half-orcs) or allowing them as one offs for blessings from gods or magical experiments or something weird the PCs could come up with. So one campaign had a magical experiment half-dragon and one had a gray orc PC. I also tweaked core races so elves and gnomes were humanoid subtype fey, and dwarves and giants were the same humanoid subtype and spoke dialects of the same language but denied any connection.

 

[clearstream]

I curate all rules, including race options, for each and every campaign according to the setting and theme.

I answered PHB-only, but actually I do likewise. So far for my 5e campaigns the options have turned out to equate to PHB. In my next campaign - that I am designing at present - there will be three options, all homebrew. I plan to post them soon for comment because they represent my take on what races might look like once one moves ASIs out of them.

 

[ART!]

When I build a campaign I severely limit the races to add flavor to the world. One setting had no humans, another no half races. Restrictions and omissions make the game world more interesting than a catchall sandbox.

"Art thrives on restrictions", or somesuch.

If one's group is used to anything-goes, even a simple restriction (explained well, and agreed upon by all parties) can make things interesting and new again.

 

[Waterbizkit]

I voted "anything published is fair game" because that's my default. I've never been the type of DM to build a deep world prior to starting a game up. I'll sometimes use published settings, but even then only loosely, and I tend to have the world unfold more and more as the players interact with it. In a way they co-write the campaign world with me as things move along, so I usually let them play whatever they want.

That said, I occasionally get an idea for something specific rattling around in my head that ends up being a much more curated experience. The latest example of this I can offer is when I wanted to run Tomb of Horrors for my group of friends because they had never played, or in some cases never even heard of, the module. To try and capture a more "old school" feel I restricted both race and class choices. Additionally I even enforced 3d6 in order stat rolling, which is different to our typical methods of generating ability scores.

So I'm certainly not opposed to a very curated experience, it's simply not my default mode of world building.

 

[turnip_farmer]

I’d find it very hard to justify not allowing a PHB race in a game. Like I’d have to question if I was even being reasonable.

It's easy to justify.

"Why can't I play a half-orc?"

"Orcs don't have children, they are spawned from vegetal growths in the birthing pits of the Great Maw."

"Why can't I play a gnome."

"No such thing."

It seems very limiting to be to think that you're only allowed to conceive of campaign settings that allow for all the options in the PHB.

 

[kenada]

I used to allow most options as long as they made sense, but that changed when I started using a homebrew setting. That setting got started in another system (Open Legend), and it has none of the core races. Whenever we play a new system (5e, PF2, OSE), I port it over, replacing the core races (none are allowed).

 

[Quartz]

"Orcs don't have children, they are spawned from vegetal growths in the birthing pits of the Great Maw."

"That's a campaign secret. You'll understand when you learn it."