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

[EzekielRaiden]

And where are they now? Yes, there are a few % of their DNA within the species still in some populations, but...gone. And consider the tech level, the population level, of those earlier hominid's. Their ability to project power, to grow their populations, to wage war.

Now, instead, imagine its pseudo-medieval, and we have magic, and opposing gods. Look at the sad history of our world, and the various cultures within, when there is a power disparity.

In actual human history, yes, when the triumph our our species ancestors was to be slightly beyond the reach of the beasts of the world, separate groups may or may not have lived near eachother, and may or may not, have wiped eachother out.

Not exactly comparable to the various races of our Fantasy worlds, to me.

sigh

Yes, they went extinct. But they did so after, again, tens of thousands of years of living alongside us. Tens of thousands of years WITHOUT horrible awful genocide and destruction are possible--alongside apparent genetic intermixing. So these populations interacted, likely interbred, and didn't actively destroy each other. (It's generally thought that Neanderthal more went extinct due to being overly dependent on environmental conditions that became less common over time, which, again, not something that occurs in D&D-type settings, where elves can rule over a single forest for thousands of years and nothing really changes.)

Now let's think about a world where races really are, explicitly, spontaneously created out of nothing, and directly given appropriate environments in which to thrive, by physically-manifesting deities who directly look out for their created children. Suddenly, the possibility of numerous different races becomes a lot more plausible because, y'know, they get support from supernatural entities. Too many wars or genocides? Welp, time to spontaneously make a few more people. Environment becoming a problem? Give 'em a quest to find a new home (hey, the Aztecs did it IRL, why not a fantasy race or three.)

You and others are all but explicitly going for "there's no way this could POSSIBLY happen for more than a tiny short while." Except that, no, we literally have evidence of it happening for ten thousand years, twenty thousand, perhaps far more, without ANY supernatural or divine interference. Again, now, imagine what this would be like with supernatural assistance.

It is not anywhere close to a foregone conclusion that multiple sapient races coexisting together would eventually result in one destroying the other or one going extinct. Further, we are talking about a world where magic, spontaneous generation, and divine intervention are regular occurrences, and where "evolution" as we usually understand it is either slow, rare, or non-existent. Many analogies based off of Earth's biosphere are going to straight-up fail because that's just not how fantasy universes work.

(Also, for reference, if we ignore reprints and stick to just the baseline, not the 17 variants of elves and 9 variants of halflings etc., there are 54 total races available in 5e. And this is counting all the obscure stuff, the giff, the kuo-toa, the bullywug, the hexblood, the plasmoid, everything. Genuinely not sure where the 68 number is coming from, because there's a lot more than 14 total variants between human, elf, dwarf, and halfling, and that's not counting stuff like the variant origin half-elves and the Dragonmarked options.)

 

[Incenjucar]

Something to keep in mind, too, is that players are not describing everything their character does. For human characters, everyone at the table just fills in/ignores all the simple human things that we all do because those details are not interesting decisions. The tabaxi cleric and human cleric both have any number of grooming, eating, fidgeting, emoting, and other behaviors that nobody brings up, but they're still doing them as is appropriate to their character.

 

[Fifinjir]

I admit that most of the time I pick race completely on a whim.

The exception was my Reborn character, who I played like a robot man slowly learning how to have feelings and stuff.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Let's remembers lots of creatures could be living in the feywild for centuries.

Some lineages were created intentionally by the deities, and these didn't want their creatures/worshippers to disappear forever. This "deus ex machina" could be enough, or necessary, to explain how could survive potential demographic crisis.

Not only the humanoid ancestries, but lots of creatures with the potential to alter the complete ecosystem, for example the giant vernims.

 

[Shadowdweller00]

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.

They do...except.....

Lions will readily steal kills from cheetahs. And occasionally kill and eat cheetahs (or their cubs), although they favor other prey.

Orca consider shark livers to be yummy treats. And sharks run the bleep away from orcas. Sharks are not apex predators, at least where orcas also live.

(Not to undercut your point or anything)

 

[EzekielRaiden]

They do...except.....

Lions will readily steal kills from cheetahs. And occasionally kill and eat cheetahs (or their cubs), although they favor other prey.

Orca consider shark livers to be yummy treats. And sharks run the bleep away from orcas. Sharks are not apex predators, at least where orcas also live.

(Not to undercut your point or anything)

Sure. Orcs, for example, are usually depicted as being aggressive raiders.

Hic Svnt Leones.

 

[Micah Sweet]

That's what I was asking @Vaalingrade.

@Vaalingrade blocked me a while ago, and has apparently never looked back, so I didn't know.

 

[Hussar]

For those who talk about how their players only choose races for the benefits and don’t actually portray their races - what do you do to reward portrayal?

I mean if I sit down and talk about how my elf remembers walking through this same forest centuries ago in a former life, what happens? IME there are a lot of dms who will just cut that sort of thing short or pretty much entirely ignore it.

At which point there isn’t much reason to do it.

 

[AnotherGuy]

For those who talk about how their players only choose races for the benefits and don’t actually portray their races - what do you do to reward portrayal?

I mean if I sit down and talk about how my elf remembers walking through this same forest centuries ago in a former life, what happens? IME there are a lot of dms who will just cut that sort of thing short or pretty much entirely ignore it.

At which point there isn’t much reason to do it.

So I've tied a certain number of inspiration uses as part of the requirement for level advancement.
But earning inspiration is tied to leaning in on one of your Traits, Ideals, Goals and Flaws.
Adding racial portrayal to the mix for earning inspiration seems like a great idea. Thanks!

 

[Shadowdweller00]

I mean if I sit down and talk about how my elf remembers walking through this same forest centuries ago in a former life, what happens? IME there are a lot of dms who will just cut that sort of thing short or pretty much entirely ignore it.

At which point there isn’t much reason to do it.

Because it's fun? Because there are typically spaces of time while the DM is looking things up or setting stuff up, and roleplaying banter between party members is more entertaining than toying with dice or messing around on one's phone? I mean if the DM isn't into it and the rest of the players aren't into it either....maybe it's better to find a different group that DOES like roleplaying rather than finding a way to bribe them into it? If you can't show them why it's entertaining at least.