D&D General Do you like LOTS of races/ancestries/whatever? If so, why?

[Hussar]

I must be weird. My players tell me what races there are in the setting and then I add more as needed.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

How many of them speak common? Have the possibilities of rubbing some manure together with their fingers and grenading my Thanksgiving Dinner?

Point?

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Right, but they still compete, and in the face of the real apex organism on the planet (that would be us), they either move along, or are removed with prejudice aka: Extinction.

No other intelligent organism, has the capacity to increase its range, force out the rest of the natural competition, and when the natural world is subjugated, turn its attention on the last remaining competition, itself.

So...you do know that, like I said in the part you cut out, there were multiple species of humans that clearly had intelligence and the ability to create and use tools, right?

And that those species were actually present in the same places, at the same times, for centuries or millennia?

And that modern-day human beings have some of the DNA from these two species (Denisovans and Neanderthals), which conclusively proves that not only did we live alongside them, we successfully produced offspring with them, offspring who subsequently must have integrated into our ancestors' societies?

You and others keep harping on this "intelligence ABSOLUTELY COULD NOT POSSIBLY permit multiple intelligent species at the same time." But the fact his, in actual Earth history, that happened. Indeed, it might have been a thing for longer than all of recorded human history. (Recorded human history began ca. 4th millennium BC; Neanderthal and Anatomically Modern Humans apparently lived together for at least twice as long, possibly pushing ten times as long, with no known paleontological evidence that the two populations specially targeted one another for conflict.)

What different niches do humans and orcs fill?

Answering this question is one of the interesting parts of crafting a setting! There is not, and should not be, one singular answer.

People have been stating their opinions on what matters to them and why. We all have different priorities and visions.

Disagreeing with someone is not the same as being derogatory.

I agree that they aren't the same.

That doesn't mean they don't happen together--nor that the ways one expresses one's opinion cannot be derogatory, whether or not one intends for them to be.

 

[Reynard]

You and others keep harping on this "intelligence ABSOLUTELY COULD NOT POSSIBLY permit multiple intelligent species at the same time."

Wait, who said that? Some folks suggested that 68 (or whatever the number was) was stretching plausibility but no one said it was impossible for there to be multiple intelligent species.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

The point was that there are numerous apex predator species on Earth, many of which actually share territory by focusing on different kinds of hunting. E.g. cheetahs and lions live in the same general area, wolves and cougars and bears are all found all over North America, sharks and orcas may share the same waters, etc. The existence of multiple sapient species doesn't seem any more far-fetched...especially since that was actually true even of human beings for quite a bit longer than recorded human history.

Right, not to mention we don’t know what effect thousands of years of being one of dozens of sentient tool users would have on human behavior.

Wait, who said that? Some folks suggested that 68 (or whatever the number was) was stretching plausibility but no one said it was impossible for there to be multiple intelligent species.

Why would it make any difference?

Agin, y’all know every race doesn’t need to have a significant population, history, and be important to how the world works, all in one region, right?

 

[Reynard]

Why would it make any difference?

I don't know. I wasn't making that argument, just reporting it. I made my reasoning clear in the OP: it has nothing to do with realis. Or verisimilitude, I think too many races waters down the wonder and makes them all humans in funny hats.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Wait, who said that? Some folks suggested that 68 (or whatever the number was) was stretching plausibility but no one said it was impossible for there to be multiple intelligent species.

Fully agreed with @doctorbadwolf here. Populations can be spread out across the world; they can be migratory, engaged in long-distance trade, or simply forming small enclaves inside other groups (consider the Jewish diaspora, and how their culture endured separate from the cultures they enclaved inside, despite frequent oppression, for nearly two millennia to reach the modern day.)

There were "Moors" in medieval England and there was knowledge of things at least as far as India, if not farther.

I don't know. I wasn't making that argument, just reporting it. I made my reasoning clear in the OP: it has nothing to do with realis. Or verisimilitude, I think too many races waters down the wonder and makes them all humans in funny hats.

Alright. I still don't really understand how a larger number of mysterious and unexplained things causes them to become less mysterious and unexplained.

 

[Reynard]

Fully agreed with @doctorbadwolf here. Populations can be spread out across the world; they can be migratory, engaged in long-distance trade, or simply forming small enclaves inside other groups (consider the Jewish diaspora, and how their culture endured separate from the cultures they enclaved inside, despite frequent oppression, for nearly two millennia to reach the modern day.)

There were "Moors" in medieval England and there was knowledge of things at least as far as India, if not farther.

That doesn't have anything to do with anything I wrote.

Alright. I still don't really understand how a larger number of mysterious and unexplained things causes them to become less mysterious and unexplained.

Because every time you turn left at Albuquerque you find a village of rabbit people, or wolf people, or imp people, or whatever, and it all amounts to the same thing: humans in funny hats.

Try eliminating other races entirely. In fact, eliminate other cultures as well. You know what you need then, to create compelling characters (PC or NPC)? Actual characters.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

That doesn't have anything to do with anything I wrote.

Sure it does. It is presenting conditions under which a diversity of species is plausible.

Because every time you turn left at Albuquerque you find a village of rabbit people, or wolf people, or imp people, or whatever, and it all amounts to the same thing: humans in funny hats.

You've just made this circular. It feels like humans in funny hats because the large number of mysteries makes the mysteries less mysterious; the mysteries are made less mysterious because it feels like humans in funny hats.

Like, I get that this is a feeling. But you're presenting it as a logical correlation: "if more mysteries, then more boring." I'm asking where this if-then connection comes from. Why does having more fantastical things devalue them? Meaning is not a currency, it does not suffer inflation.

Try eliminating other races entirely. In fact, eliminate other cultures as well. You know what you need then, to create compelling characters (PC or NPC)? Actual characters.

The absolute crapton of incredibly trite, boring, dime-a-dozen Brooding Silent Warrior humans and Elderly Cackling Wizard humans and Lesbian Stripper Ninja humans and Smite-Happy Moral Policeman humans and "Would Sell Out My Grandmother For A Single Corn Chip" humans etc., etc., ad nauseam would seem to prove you wrong here.

Nothing stops people from resorting to cliches, and the existence of a diverse palette to pick from does not make people use cliches.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Because every time you turn left at Albuquerque you find a village of rabbit people, or wolf people, or imp people, or whatever, and it all amounts to the same thing: humans in funny hats.

And, IMO, the diversity of fantasy species that D&D's cosmology and magic system allow for makes D&D even more magical, not less.