D&D 5E Yes to factionalism. No to racism.

[Bolares]

Where am I going with all this? I guess my point is that lineage should not go the way of the dodo and be replaced by culture.

Couldn't agree more. I'm more interested in a focus on the culture/faction BUT I don't think you gain anything by replacing race. They should always be additive, no matter wich facet you put your focus on.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

I think culture is definitely important, but I think we're vastly under-utilising the potential of alien mindset and experiences when it comes to playing non-humans.

This. Because it's tremendously difficult to do well. Think of Arrival. Well, the non-human races don't need to be that alien, but there is a lot of potential fun to be had there... The limits in my experience are the players. When everyone is in great shape, it works. When we're playing at the end of a naughty word week and everyone is exhausted... it's easier to just revert to pointy-eared humans (and it's as fun, but another kind of fun, to be able to solve your problems by fireballing them). I am thinking that if books made it a requirement to take that into account of roleplay, they'd make the game less fun or at least less easy to get into.

The Orc was evil, but evil alone does not mean kill it and take its stuff. It might mean kill it if that's the only way to survive the combat encounter, though, and certainly orcs were used as cannon fodder.

That.

 

[Umbran]

This. Because it's tremendously difficult to do well. Think of Arrival. Well, the non-human races don't need to be that alien, but there is a lot of potential fun to be had there... The limits in my experience are the players.

And, there's a real question as to how much publisher-provided content really assists playing alien mindset. It requires so much thought and dedication on the player side that external lore may be largely irrelevant.

 

[Scribe]

And your Canadian Culture is probably vastly different from my own... unless you too are an Air Force brat raised mostly in Upper Canada who then moved to the Maritimes and married into an Acadian family.

Canadian culture is a puzzle, with our vast territory, and comparably small population on top of our immigration based history.

But we have Hockey, and a general appreciation for nature as a starting point.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

But we have Hockey, and a general appreciation for nature as a starting point.

I would have gone with, "Tim Hortons and a surprising number of so-called 'American' places as seen on TV, and more particularly on the CW."

 

[Vaalingrade]

And as I keep saying, the thing people are asking for when wanting people to 'roleplay their race' is xenofiction, which is a writing style that is very hard to pull off and a skill very few people have.

It's like asking bard players to play physically play an instrument at symphony-level skill.

 

[Lyxen]

Couldn't agree more. I'm more interested in a focus on the culture/faction BUT I don't think you gain anything by replacing race. They should always be additive, no matter wich facet you put your focus on.

My perspective is that, for best effect, they should not only be both of them, they should not only be additive, they should also be logically assembled. D&D Worlds are as competitive as the real one, possibly even more so, so a species that has carved itself a niche because of its capacities will tend to keep it and develop a culture around it. And, possibly in fantasy worlds where there is a mythical origin, there is a tie in to that. Tolkien had it for its races and the cultures that derived from it. And if a species race has no natural habitat but is rejected from everywhere else because all the good spots are taken - meaning that it does not have inborn competitive advantage, then it would affect its culture as well (and it might be different cultures depending on where it ends up settling..

After that, the extent to which the players are actually using the material provided to them by the race/culture/etc. is entirely up to them and their preferences. But I would like to point out that the races inborn capabilities have at least a chance to remain in play even with a player that does not care much about the fluff, and at least it would provide some variety and make the character consistent with the race, and therefore at least partially with the culture if the two are reasonably derived from each other.

E.g., once more, in RQ, a player might be wanting to play a dark troll because of its powers, but the way it's built technically would at least draw him towards at least something a bit trollish, just because the dark troll is physically powerful, has dark sense and is connected to the Darkness rune.

 

[Maxperson]

not in generic base D&D. Just 3.

not in generic base D&D. Just 3.

If you're just going with base D&D then humans get only 2, not 10-100.

Human
Variant Human

No one uses them. It's not in the PHB. Most settings barely get past 6. And when WOTC adds more, people freak out.

People freak out when they aren't added, too. People like different things.

There could be a dozen elf kings and dwarf kings in generic Fntasy but there usually isn't.

There are usually many different elven settlements and city states, just like humans. Same with dwarves and halflings.

 

[Lyxen]

And as I keep saying, the thing people are asking for when wanting people to 'roleplay their race' is xenofiction, which is a writing style that is very hard to pull off and a skill very few people have.

It's like asking bard players to play physically play an instrument at symphony-level skill.

Like most things and in particular leisure activities, setting really high standards is not going to help much. I am far from being a good guitar player or even singer, but the band I played with still enjoyed the music that we were creating together. Had we had incredibly high standards, none of us would have dared play anything and we would have missed on the awesome camaderie and fun of playing together.

It's the same with roleplaying, don't expect an extremely high level of xenofiction, at our tables we have only one guy who does it really well, but he does not look down on people who at least inject a bit of it in their roleplay now and then, because it's still fun and immersive for everyone.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Like most things and in particular leisure activities, setting really high standards is not going to help much. I am far from being a good guitar player or even singer, but the band I played with still enjoyed the music that we were creating together. Had we had incredibly high standards, none of us would have dared play anything and we would have missed on the awesome camaderie and fun of playing together.

It's the same with roleplaying, don't expect an extremely high level of xenofiction, at our tables we have only one guy who does it really well, but he does not look down on people who at least inject a bit of it in their roleplay now and then, because it's still fun and immersive for everyone.

The point is you shouldn't try and force people to learn a whole new tangential skill just to play a casual game. Especially when it's sometimes just a veiled attempt to discourage a certain kind of enjoyment of the game in the form of making certain races less desirable to play.