Unpopular opinions go here

[WayneLigon]

The vast majority of Appendix N includes fantastical worlds and adventures in which the protagonists are all and only human.

The vast majority of Appendix N was written before 1970. Gygax's personal taste shouldn't be the baseline.

 

[aramis erak]

The vast majority of Appendix N includes fantastical worlds and adventures in which the protagonists are all and only human.

Which is utterly irrelevant to the appeal of the game.

 

[Aldarc]

It isn't 1900 and no one from Massachusetts or New York is saying you re pronouncing it wrong or making any kind of claim about your culture. Whatever the historical reasons, that is how people here pronounce it. You trying to impose a pronunciation on them is just as much of an issue as them trying to impose a pronunciation on you.

You are wrong, Brendan. People have told me that I was pronouncing "Appalachia" wrong. One person from California and one person from Massachusetts have told me that here in Vienna, Austria within the past year. Now that you know that you are wrong, you may be inclined to apologize on behalf of these people and tell me that they shouldn't do this, but what upsets me more is the fact that you are telling me what I have or have not experienced or been told. You do NOT get to tell what people have told me or rewrite my life experiences, Brendan. That is NOT acceptable!

 

[Bedrockgames]

You are wrong, Brendan. People have told me that I was pronouncing "Appalachia" wrong. One person from California and one person from Massachusetts have told me that here in Vienna, Austria within the past year.

And those people are wrong. I am talking about this thread. If people are telling you that you pronounce Appalachia wrong, then I think they shouldn’t do that. But someone pronouncing it differently isn’t the same as them telling you that you are pronouncing things wrong. I have had people tell me I pronounce Peabody wrong and I think that is pretty stupid of them. But I don’t carry any anger I have towards them towards people who simply pronounce it differently

Now that you know that you are wrong, you may be inclined to apologize on behalf of these people and tell me that they shouldn't do this, but what upsets me more is the fact that you are telling me what I have or have not experienced or been told. You do NOT get to tell what people have told me or rewrite my life experiences, Brendan. That is NOT acceptable!

I am not saying that, I am saying you don’t get to dictate how people pronounce place names. I am saying these are two different issues:

1) people telling you you pronounce Appalachia wrong: this is bad, they should not do this

2) people pronouncing Appalachia with an “ay” sound, this is just regional variation in pronunciation. There is nothing wrong with it

Also I don’t need to apologize for things other people from my state have done. Just like you don’t need to apologize for things something from where you are from had done. What I will apologize for is misspeaking so it sounded like I was saying you have never been told you pronounce Appalachia incorrectly. That wasn’t my intent

 

[Faolyn]

WotC should eliminate half species entirely, along with making "humans only" the base line assumption.

Meh. I can't remember the last time anyone played a human in a D&D game I was in, except in my "humans only, with a very tiny number of exceptions" Ravenloft--and even then, there was like only one (I allowed "fey touched"--half elves--and homebrew caliban, and then later, the races from VGR). I think D&D should stop trying to pretend that humans are the majority species in their settings, unless they actually make an effort to make that the case.

 

[Autumnal]

Meh. I can't remember the last time anyone played a human in a D&D game I was in, except in my "humans only, with a very tiny number of exceptions" Ravenloft--and even then, there was like only one (I allowed "fey touched"--half elves--and homebrew caliban, and then later, the races from VGR). I think D&D should stop trying to pretend that humans are the majority species in their settings, unless they actually make an effort to make that the case.

This. I don’t think D&D’s primary mission should be faithful compliance with a particular slice of fantasy fiction from 70-100 years. I think that, within the limits of its own legacy, it should support doing what Arneson and Gygax did, throwing things participants like into a bucket and enjoying the result of mixing them up. The spread of likely things to be liked and mixed changes over time, and it is right and proper for D&D to change with it. Its Is contemporary people, currently living in the 2020s.

Fidelity to Appendix N is a job suitable for third-party publishers, who can decide to ignore most potential customers. D&D shouldn’t do that.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Meh. I can't remember the last time anyone played a human in a D&D game I was in, except in my "humans only, with a very tiny number of exceptions" Ravenloft--and even then, there was like only one (I allowed "fey touched"--half elves--and homebrew caliban, and then later, the races from VGR). I think D&D should stop trying to pretend that humans are the majority species in their settings, unless they actually make an effort to make that the case.

I'm now tempted to make a human-less setting, but with huge differences between fantasy origins (no humans, but with X ancestries) and remove Common as language.

Let's watch the players scramble to get those language proficiencies and hoarding their spell slots to cast Tongue

 

[Reynard]

Fidelity to Appendix N is a job suitable for third-party publishers, who can decide to ignore most potential customers. D&D shouldn’t do ththat.

My point wasn't that we should stick to Appendix N. My point was to refute the claim that you can't have fantasy if there are only human protagonists.

 

[Faolyn]

I'm now tempted to make a human-less setting, but with huge differences between fantasy origins (no humans, but with X ancestries) and remove Common as language.

My table once made a world that we were going to use as a home base for Spelljammer (except the GM decided to not run Spelljammer) wherein we really fleshed out all the native races... only to suddenly realize we hadn't included any humans. We ended up saying there had been a meteor strike and all of a sudden, humans started appearing.

Let's watch the players scramble to get those language proficiencies and hoarding their spell slots to cast Tongue

When I ran Ravenloft using GURPS, there was no Common, only domain languages. GURPS allows for broken/fluent/native levels of language proficiency. We had a blast with the language barriers.

Player 1, in Lamordian to an NPC, regarding Players 2 & 3, playing brothers from Tepest: "Don't mind those two; they're idiots."

Player 2, in Tepestani to Player 1: "What does idiot mean?"

Player 1, in Tepestani: "It means you're good guys."

Player 2, in broken Lamordian to NPC: "Yes, we are idiots!"

 

[BigJackBrass]

Ducks are the best thing about Glorantha.