D&D 5E Witchlight publishes the new official format for player character races.

[jayoungr]

I said they published the new format in the Witchlight book.

You said they "both" announced the new format and implied it by publishing it. So are you now saying they only implied it?

The point is, the monster statblocks continue these FR worlds unchanged.

You and @Scribe were talking about ASIs for PCs, not monster stat blocks.

Heh, of course, official designers do worldbuilding, such as the worlds of Forgotten Realms.

Look, I don't want to get pulled into this because I don't have strong feelings on the subject, so this is all I'll say about it. Some people feel (and I understand their point of view, even though I can also see the other side) that it's more flavorful to do things the way the PHB does, and that it's not the same as racism. Someone else who feels more strongly than I do can continue this discussion if they desire.

 

[Yaarel]

You and @Scribe were talking about ASIs for PCs, not monster stat blocks.

You guessed at what problem @Scribe might have with the new race format, suggesting that it might have something to do with worldbuilding. However, the new race format has no impact on worldbuilding. Thus the attempt to explain how this might be the problem is incorrect.

 

[Yaarel]

You said they "both" announced the new format and implied it by publishing it. So are you now saying they only implied it?

Your posts misquote me, incorrectly adding the word "announced".

I said, Witchlight "published" a new format for player races.

 

[Scribe]

However, it has no impact on worldbuilding.

PCs are part of the game world. It fundamentally is a question of world building and setting development and therefore your premise and conclusions are incorrect.

Correct your thread title, as you said THE not A, and kindly do not @ me again.

 

[Yaarel]

PCs are part of the game world. It fundamentally is a question of world building and setting development and therefore your premise and conclusions are incorrect.

Individuals can be unique, and the worlds and the cultures remain what they are.

There is no impact on worldbuilding.

Correct your thread title, as you said THE not A.

"The" new race format differs from the Players Handbook format.

I listed the differences earlier.

The Witchlight adventure itself publishes two new races, the fairy and the harengon. These two races use a new format that differs from the format in the Players Handbook.

The new format retains:
• Size (but no longer exact feet and inches and weight)
• Speed
• Age (mentioned separately as typically about a century)

The new format adds:
• Creature Type (since Humanoid is no longer assumed)

The new format removes:
• Ability Score Increase (moving to Ability Score Generation)
• Alignment (strictly individual)
• Languages (each character gets Common plus one depending on culture)
• Subrace description of skin color, hair and eyes.

 

[Scribe]

Individuals can be unique, and the worlds and the cultures remain what they are.

There is no impact on worldbuilding.

PCs can be unique. True.

PC options fundamentally impact and are impacted by, world building and setting development.

Feel free to disagree, but my position on this won't change.

 

[Yaarel]

PC options fundamentally impact and are impacted by, world building and setting development.

This is true to some degree: PCs interrelate with worldbuilding. Yet in this sense, it gives the DM more control over the world.

For example. I as a DM plan on adding to my own worldbuilding, dwarf cultures that are more Norse, and less Anglo-Saxon Tolkien.

Where the Players Handbook dwarf is nonmagical, tough, and short, the Norse dvergar is magical, strong, and tall.

For the culture, I will create statblocks for various concepts and individuals, utilizing the Mountain Dwarf for a regional "dvergar" culture.

These dvergar will use the human height-weight chart, with appearances having subtle stone-like features. They are primarily mages, with Wizard and Artificer favoring high Intelligence, and Druid favoring high Wisdom. These dvergar tend to have lower Dexterity and Charisma. The Dex is low because they are moreso Str and Con, and the Cha is low, because in the stories they seem antisocial and nonactive − like rock − and to be neither celebrated nor feared, despite reaching very high levels. This is what the monster statblocks will look like, albeit individuals can differ.

So here, the new race format empowers me as a DM to, officially, innovate worldbuilding. If players want to come from this dvergar culture, great, and if they want to be unique in whatever culture they hail from, that is great too. I am the DM who decides which races and which cultures are in each regional setting.

As a DM, the new race format makes it easier for me to worldbuild.

 

[Scribe]

So here, the new race format empowers me as a DM to, officially, innovate worldbuilding.

As with the MM entry on Alignment, I was always empowered to make any change I desired within my setting. We already had ultimate power to change quite literally anything and everything.

Only you decide what applies in your setting.

I am the DM who decides which races and which cultures are in each regional setting.

Exactly. This book, specific to a Feywild adventure, doesn't change that.

 

[Yaarel]

As with the MM entry on Alignment, I was always empowered to make any change I desired within my setting. We already had ultimate power to change quite literally anything and everything. Only you decide what applies in your setting.

Rule Zero is Rule Zero. This differs from official guidance.

The new race format gives me as a DM a clear understanding of what a "race" is, how much design space it has (about 1½ feats), and by implication, what the wider "lineage" looks like, and the cultures that it might develop. I keep this lineage in mind when creating "monster" statblocks for the sectors within a particular culture.

For me, as DM, this format is flexible and highly useful guidance to my worldbuilding.

Exactly. This book, specific to a Feywild adventure, doesn't change that.

True. I would not put the harengon race in a Norse-esque regional setting. I might put it in an English-esque setting, where the earlier folkbelief became more childlike to make sense of the amoral behavior of nature beings that are neither wholly good nor wholly evil, and eventually part of the reallife culture of raising children, via nursery rhymes and children storybooks, albeit some of these nursery rhymes are dark and twisted when one pays attention to what the lyrics are actually saying. I am happy with the harengon in a Feywild domain. If a player wants to play a harengon whose family immigrated into the Material Plane, that is fine too. Immigrants exist.

 

[jayoungr]

Your posts misquote me, incorrectly adding the word "announced".

I said, Witchlight "published" a new format for player races.

No misquote. I asked you this question:

Have they announced that this is the new official format, or is that an assumption because it's what appears in the latest published book?

... Giving you two choices, one of which was that there was an announcement. You answered:

Both.

You were the one who said an announcement had happened by saying that both of the options in my question were true.