Micah Sweet
Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
Except there's historically been so much intolerance. Certainly it can and does go the other way, but complete tolerance can seem unrealistic, and that issue matters to some.
D&D General Do you like LOTS of races/ancestries/whatever? If so, why?
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Oofta
Legend
Whether you intend it or not it feels very dismissive when you state things like you do, like you have no respect for the DM's choices. That your preference matters more than theirs, even if it's an established world. My logic and reasoning is mine, I've created a world that as a ton of options that makes sense to me. It's an imaginary world so of course anything is possible. But I've thought about how my world works and how the races fit. I have a list of races that are logical to me. Is it also preference? Of course! That doesn't mean there isn't also logic behind my preference.
If I have a high magic cross-roads world or a ring world or regularly feature multi-dimensional traffic then logically, to me, kitchen sink makes more sense. Without those factors, they don't make sense to me.
Micah Sweet
Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
Sure. Is every city in the setting like that? Does every campaign take place in a city like Sigil, or Waterdeep, or Neverwinter?
Sure. That's a worldbuilding choice
.
I mean why doesn't your setting have any multiracial cities if multiple races interact with each other?
Incenjucar
Legend
The use of the "logic" argument implies objectivity and correctness, rather than preference. Using it as justification in an argument implies that the alternative is illogical. The logic of your personal setting, which is defined by your preferences, might dictate a specific outcome, but that logic is not universal to D&D fantasy worlds outside of those preferences.
As long as nobody is trying to assert their preference as somehow correct or more valid or accurate, it's all good.
As long as nobody is trying to assert their preference as somehow correct or more valid or accurate, it's all good.
From a player perspective, don’t like it as they all start to wash and no distinct cultural different emerges. It’s too much pressure on a dm to come up with distinct culture for each society introduced and each of those societies in going to have a statistical majority race whose norms might influence how that society goes,
From a DM perspective, my ‘ideal’ would be your main race, one or two less common races. Then anything else must be discovered as game play emerges and introduced as plot requires. Though that’s hard to pull since players ‘just have to play x/y./z’
From a DM perspective, my ‘ideal’ would be your main race, one or two less common races. Then anything else must be discovered as game play emerges and introduced as plot requires. Though that’s hard to pull since players ‘just have to play x/y./z’
DND_Reborn
The High Aldwin
This can just as easily apply to people of different cultures. Oh, wait, in fact historically it HAS... very often.
This. Totally this.
But then people will say, "I don't want to play in a fantasy world where I have all the same issues there are in real life." To which I say, "Ok, but why do you have issue with the fact that I DO?"
When people talk about how diverse the world is now, I shutter. Do you really believe that? In some places, in modern times, maybe. But that wasn't the case so very long ago and it certainly IS NOT the case in many places in the world now. I've traveled enough to know. Yes, I can find tolerant people, but I also have meet a vast majority more who are NOT tolerant.
I run my games in a medieval setting like most D&D games IME, and I have no issue with having people being intolerant of others for whatever reason. It makes the world more "real" to me, which by contrast makes everything that is magical and fantastic seem more so. Yes, I have some places which are centers of cultures and trade where you will more likely find a hodge-podge of races, but those are few and far between. Most countries tend to be a single race, with often less than 10-15% being any other races, which as others have suggested are typically located in those large centers of trade, etc.
Faolyn
(she/her)
I was once in a game (used a weird mix of 3e and Exalted rules) that had... elves, I think, who ruled the world and divided each race into their own city, with no knowledge of any other race or city, and our party was the first mixed-group party ever.
Forced isolation (whether imposed from an outside group or due to xenophobia) like that is honestly the only way I can see having a one-race civilization in a multi-racial D&D setting.
Micah Sweet
Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
It absolutely does. But only a few, and the party doesn't always spend their time there (or at all).
Faolyn
(she/her)
The real world has been working towards true tolerance for less than a hundred years. Hopefully, it will take less than another hundred years for it to be achieved. (Unlikely, but a person can hope.)
There's no reason to say that a fantasy world worked towards true tolerance a thousand years ago. Especially since there could be gods actively sending visions or even manifesting and saying "no, we don't care one whit about your skin color/place of origin/gender/sexual orientation/ear pointiness/beardliness, so there's no need for you to care either."
That way, people could just kill each other over resources and percieved insults instead of stupid things.
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