D&D General Old School DND talks if DND is racist.

[Lanefan]

... do you not try to parlay, interrogate, negotiate, investigate?

In order: no, yes*, no, and yes**.

* - Speak With Dead makes an excellent interrogation tool; and if it's either that or torture 'em for answers while they're still alive I'll usually take SWD.

** - any required investigating is, or should have been, done long before we even went into the field.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Can you not imagine a fiction where a good lich exists?

If "lich" means "someone who sacrificed a meaningfully innocent person, purely to avoid death and gain greater power," then no, I really can't imagine that. I cannot see someone walking back from that kind of choice, given the level of commitment and foreknowledge it requires, particularly since "murder an innocent person" is literally only the last in the string of horrible deeds required to make it happen.

If "lich" simply means "any undead spellcaster," well, you've kind of diluted the term until it means something so weak and palatable that, sure, I can imagine a good lich. But I can also imagine a good prince of hell, a good serial killer, and a good colonizing empire at that point.

 

[CleverNickName]

I really like the way that Skyrim handles the race and culture of the orcs. I prefer it to any of the other variants and ideas that I've seen so far, anyway.

I could do without the skill adjustments, though.

 

[Lanefan]

I don't want to read a setting, I don't want to look at a picture. I want to look at the stat block or character sheet of a thing. What mechanically sets it apart from other things?

Its... stats?

Yet isn't there also a strong push at the moment towards flattening or even wiping out inherent stat differences between vaguely-similar creatures, as reflected by the downplaying and-or dropping of race-based stat alterations?

Given that, @Deset Gled 's question holds water: if Goblins, Elves, Hobbits and Orcs all use the same 3-18 base without bonus or penalty, where does any mechanical distinction come from?

 

[Scribe]

Yet isn't there also a strong push at the moment towards flattening or even wiping out inherent stat differences between vaguely-similar creatures, as reflected by the downplaying and-or dropping of race-based stat alterations?

Given that, @Deset Gled 's question holds water: if Goblins, Elves, Hobbits and Orcs all use the same 3-18 base without bonus or penalty, where does any mechanical distinction come from?

Special Rules, is the basic argument.

 

[CleverNickName]

Yet isn't there also a strong push at the moment towards flattening or even wiping out inherent stat differences between vaguely-similar creatures, as reflected by the downplaying and-or dropping of race-based stat alterations?

Given that, @Deset Gled 's question holds water: if Goblins, Elves, Hobbits and Orcs all use the same 3-18 base without bonus or penalty, where does any mechanical distinction come from?

I would prefer that mechanical distinction come from a creature's Background. In my mind, a career soldier of any lineage is going to have a higher Constitution than a career academic (who, in turn, would have a higher Intelligence than a career fisherman.) And so on.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Because humans could also fill those roles? Because if they act and behave just like human I see no point?

You keep saying this, but it's not what's being asked for. "Having diversity" does not mean "act and behave just like humans." It means having a range of behaviors, which is a descriptor that does apply to humans too, but so does "bipedal, bilaterally symmetric, consuming a mixture of meat and vegetable matter, endothermic, possessing five basic senses, tool-using, animal-domesticating," and a variety of other physiological and behavioral descriptors that apply to both.

So. Why are you leaping from "has diversity" to "is literally identical to a human wearing a funny costume in every possible way"?

 

[Justice and Rule]

Special Rules, is the basic argument.

I thought about doing this once but never put anything to paper. Basically you could give them a choice of what amounts to a feat or two which are based around their ancestry.

I would prefer that mechanical distinction come from a creature's Background. In my mind, a career soldier of any lineage is going to have a higher Constitution than a career academic (who, in turn, would have a higher Intelligence than a career fisherman.) And so on.

Pathfinder 2E still gives Ancestry bonuses, but you also get bonuses based on your background. Honestly it's a really solid character-building system.

 

[Lanefan]

bandits solve that nicely.

At very low level, sure; but sooner or later (probably sooner) unless there's a whole kingdom of bandits out there you're going to have to move on to something a bit more persuasive because your levelled-up PCs are chopping the bandits down like wheat. And that's where the Orcs and Bugbears and Hobgoblins and Ogres come in; they take over the generic-enemy role for a while until they too become chicken feed, at which point you're moving up to Giants; and ultimately to Demons and Mind Flayers and other extra-planar joys.

 

[Zardnaar]

You keep saying this, but it's not what's being asked for. "Having diversity" does not mean "act and behave just like humans." It means having a range of behaviors, which is a descriptor that does apply to humans too, but so does "bipedal, bilaterally symmetric, consuming a mixture of meat and vegetable matter, endothermic, possessing five basic senses, tool-using, animal-domesticating," and a variety of other physiological and behavioral descriptors that apply to both.

So. Why are you leaping from "has diversity" to "is literally identical to a human wearing a funny costume in every possible way"?

Because you're essentially turning them into humans with modern day viewpoints.

Monocultures have pros and cons one pro is how they are different to humans. I don't expect PCs to follow that monoculture.

More races you add the harder making them relevant is going to be.

TV can do it Worf for example was different in a few ways from his mono culture.

It's bland and boring to me, I prefer if something just rewrites stuff like Athasian Halflings or Eberron Orcs/Drow etc.

If I say Drow for example anyone vaguely familiar with D&D will have a rough idea of the basics.