Unpopular opinions go here

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Gnomes are the worst race, utterly pointless except for their stupid hats.

Truly an unpopular opinion!

 

[Jd Smith1]

Non-Human races are pointless. They just a couple modifiers and an excuse to indulge in lame accents. A few sessions into the campaign they are indistinguishable from other PCs.

The only exception I have experienced is when I allowed a race of 12" winged creatures (who were completely combat ineffective) as PCs.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Truly an unpopular opinion!

Not so much.

 

[Moonmover]

There should only be three alignments.

Good, Neutral, and Evil. Law/Chaos has precedent in Anderson and Moorecock, which isn't nothing. But, Good/Evil has had precedent in the literary and philisophical traditions of most human cultures throughout the world for thousands of years.

 

[CreamCloud0]

If you’re going to have non-human options for players, you should go whole hog and include all sentient species as options. Limiting things to the classics is just lazy. Only doing a handful of “non-standard” fantasy races is equally lazy.

It’s only the weird need to have each race be mechanically distinct from the start that makes the idea of letting players pick any sentient race a problem. Setting like Planescape really shine a spotlight on how silly this false limit really is.

i disagree that you need and/or ought to be putting every available species in your game just because they exist as an option, however just because you have only a handful of species in your world that doesn't mean the ones you include need to be the 'core four' and other 'default' species.

 

[Scribe]

There should only be three alignments.

Good, Neutral, and Evil. Law/Chaos has precedent in Anderson and Moorecock, which isn't nothing. But, Good/Evil has had precedent in the literary and philisophical traditions of most human cultures throughout the world for thousands of years.

This is why I cannot get behind just 3, especially within the western fantasy tradition that is D&D. Moorecock is absolutely part of that tradition.

Good vs Evil
Law vs Chaos

I dont think Neutral needs to be a thing if I think about it.

 

[overgeeked]

i disagree that you need and/or ought to be putting every available species in your game just because they exist as an option, however just because you have only a handful of species in your world that doesn't mean the ones you include need to be the 'core four' and other 'default' species.

Oh. No. I’m talking about making them all options for the game system as a whole. Not including them all in every game played at every table. Some settings don’t work well with that and some referees aren’t interested. I’m 100% on board with restricting available options at the table. I’m also 100% for making any and all sentient species options for the game as a whole. The referee can still tell the players which options are available for their game at their table.

 

[CreamCloud0]

Oh. No. I’m talking about making them all options for the game system as a whole. Not including them all in every game played at every table. Some settings don’t work well with that and some referees aren’t interested. I’m 100% on board with restricting available options at the table. I’m also 100% for making any and all sentient species options for the game as a whole. The referee can still tell the players which options are available for their game at their table.

oh you mean none of the 'this species is typically exclusive to the [XYZ] setting' sorta thing, and stuff like common/uncommon/rare species designations?

 

[overgeeked]

oh you mean none of the 'this species is typically exclusive to the [XYZ] setting' sorta thing, and stuff like common/uncommon/rare species designations?

I think we’re talking past each other.

The game system should have mechanics covering any and all sentient species. For D&D, bugbears, illithid, dragons, etc.

The setting should determine what subset of those are available to play in the standard expression of that setting. For D&D, Dark Sun does not have gnomes.

But the referee should make the final call on what is and is not available to play at their table, following along with or ignoring any setting restriction as they choose. For D&D, the referee decides if it’s an all human or no human game, or if gnomes exist in their version of Dark Sun.

 

[Aldarc]

There should only be three alignments.

Good, Neutral, and Evil. Law/Chaos has precedent in Anderson and Moorecock, which isn't nothing. But, Good/Evil has had precedent in the literary and philisophical traditions of most human cultures throughout the world for thousands of years.

Law/Chaos has literary, ideological, philosophical, and ethical precedent in the Chaoskampf motif found in the human mythic tradition of ancient Greece, Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Bible, and many other world cultures.