D&D 5E Are humanoid mono-cultures being replaced with the Rule of Three?

[Cadence]

I'd much rather play in a world where NPCs have motivations for what they do than a world where they are essential always randomly spawned to kill me like in an Elder Scrolls game..

Is a big part of the question what the difference is between an NPC and a monster? (All humanoids are NPCs? Aberrations and undead are [usually] not?)

 

[Mercurius]

I'd much rather play in a world where NPCs have motivations for what they do than a world where they are essentially always randomly spawned to kill me like in an Elder Scrolls game.


You can't as easily think of or take a nonviolent path in the latter case - and I think that should be an option, even if I'll never take it. In a way, that being an option means me not taking it has more meaning.

Yes, well said.

 

[ph0rk]

I personally think that the only thing that needed fixing about drow is the whole cursing = dark skin thing (not the dark skin itself, but that it was the result of a curse). Get rid of that and, well, you have a fantasy race dominated by an evil religion that happens to be obsidian skinned and matriarchal. Kind of cool and interesting, really. It doesn't mean that all dark-skinned (or matriarchal) races are evil. In fact, it doesn't even mean the race is evil, just the dominant culture.

But they were too busy printing Salvatore-bucks. It was an entirely foreseeable and avoidable moral outrage.

Is a big part of the question what the difference is between an NPC and a monster? (All humanoids are NPCs? Aberrations and undead are [usually] not?)

For me, for intelligent creatures, nothing. I recognize that makes some people uncomfortable (I don't wan't to kill intelligent creatures!), but they may not have the.. ah... moral flexibility I do.

 

[el-remmen]

If they were "real people" they would cut and run when it became apparent they were getting slaughtered by the PCs. "Real people" don't fight to the death, especially when all they want is food.

I am with Mercurius on this. And am hard pressed to see it as a "trick" (I tend to run my games with some variations of this kind of stuff). A tragedy, sure. But a trick?

Also, the orcs may or may not cut and run, depends on how desperate they are and how bloodthirsty the PCs seem.

In a recent adventure in one of my games, a community of xvarts reached out to the PCs to help them deal with oppressive bugbears who had come in killed their chief and all his heirs and taken over, taking the best of everything for themselves, demanding the xvarts serve them, and killing those who complained.

The PCs decided to help, but the new would-be xvart leader also held back a contingency for dealing with the PCs in case they decided to start killing indiscriminately as adventurers (and from their perspective, humans) tend to do. Finding out about this, made the PCs worry they were being set-up and the xvarts were untrustworthy. Eventually, they decided that the xvarts had reasons to be distrustful of others and they would embody the good behavior they hoped to see in others.

My point being is that everyone needs reasons for how they act. They might not be good reasons. They might be reasons based on a flawed premise or an ideology - but "we're starving" works for me.

Years ago, in a group I ran there was a random winter time encounter with gnolls, who I decided were in a similar position as the orcs described above. They just wanted to steal the PCs horses to eat. The PCs had to decide if killing the gnolls over the horses or letting them have them was the way to go.

 

[Steampunkette]

I'm so incredibly disappointed that this thread turned into another "Dehumanization is a good roleplay outlet!" vaguely RaHoWa game type argument...

Instead of -anyone- making the joke "Two Elves walk into a Bar. Now there's a Bar Elf Subrace."

 

[Weiley31]

Orcs don't have free will. They were created by the Dark lord to serve in his armies and destroy the Free People. Orcs are no more "people" than demons or ghouls are.

Wait: we talking bout DND or the 5E Adventures in Middle-Earth where they were created by the Dark Lord Sauron to destroy the Free People of Middle-Earth?

Because Adventures in Middle-Earth is a FANTASTIC 5E variant game as a whole and offers a ton of useful cherry picking crunch that can be added to your 5E games. Just.........good luck finding the books for a cheap price. It can be quite the headeache when going that route.

Rohan Region guide is easy to find though

I also like 4E's take on Gnolls as well. Much more developed and usable compared to 5E's take on Gnolls and their background. But hey, that's why you can have *BOTH 4E/5E Gnolls in your 5E games.*

 

[Weiley31]

I'm so incredibly disappointed that this thread turned into another "Dehumanization is a good roleplay outlet!" vaguely RaHoWa game type argument...

Instead of -anyone- making the joke "Two Elves walk into a Bar. Now there's a Bar Elf Subrace."

I LOVED that show growing up.

 

[el-remmen]

Wait: we talking bout DND or the 5E Adventures in Middle-Earth where they were created by the Dark Lord Sauron to destroy the Free People of Middle-Earth?

I am not familiar with the supplement, but from reading the LotR repeatedly (including within the last six months) orcs sure do seem to have freewill to me. Some are true loyalists, some are opportunists, some are just scared AF, and most (it seems) believe the Dark Lord's lies about humans and the freefolk, so see little choice in not trying to destroy them. The Dark Lord may have created them to destroy the Free People of Middle-Earth, but that doesn't necessarily make that their self-directed purpose.

 

[Dire Bare]

If you've read the descriptions of those cultures, it seems extremely likely that they will, in fact, change the Drow features. Certainly the surface-dwelling ones are likely to lack the long-range infravision and sunlight aversion, and they may well have different spells.

Perhaps. But, based on the description and artwork, the aevendrow (starlight elves) live in a city under a glacier. And the lorendrow (greenshadow elves) live under a shadowed canopy of trees, rather cavern-like.

 

[Weiley31]

I wonder if the Aevendrow will have any markings that reflect their "Starlight" name. Cuz I'm kinda for mystical Tron-lines on the drow or something like the Demi-Fiend markings from Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne.