D&D General Race Has No Mechanics. What do you play?

[TwoSix]

Sounds like the opposite position.

Similar in that we hold positions that the difference between PC-granted abilities and NPC-granted abilities should be negligible to nonexistent.

But yes, also opposing in that I favor relative laxity in both PC and NPC builds, while I think @Lanefan would favor relative strictness for both.

 

[Desdichado]

Would race being cosmetic only be a turn off for you?

No, not at all. Mechanics don't matter too much to me as long as they don't get in the way. Not saying that I do that with races, because I don't, but it wouldn't bother me very much if at all. Microlite2020 almost did that, but not quite no mechanics at all.

That said, I still play human nine times out of ten and that wouldn't change in this hypothetical.

In fact, when I'm running my normal setting I only allow players to pick humans at the start of a campaign; they have to unlock any other race through encountering them in game. And then, obviously, change characters for some reason.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I think you know my position all this, but not necessarily. They could just be fluff, lore with no crunch, just a 'oh elven culture has this because they can access their memories from their various lifetimes' or whatever.

No mechanical benefit, no extra rules, just a claim in the lore that does nothing.

To me, without mechanics that just makes them liars.

 

[Micah Sweet]

First off, I don't think long life qualifies as a mechanic, unless the game in question has real and impactful aging effects. They were real in some TSR era D&D, but never in my experience what one would call "impactful." I guess maybe elves and dwarves could handle a lot more haste spells cast on them?

Anyway, that aside, lets say that your use half orcs in your game in the Tolkien sense: orc and human hybrids designed to be able to pass among men undetected, travel in the day, and so on. That is a distinct bit of lore that requires no mechanics at all but really matters to the way the character will interact with the world. You can't just replace that with a human culture.

Or to use your elf example: elves experience a trance rather than real sleep, and their dreams are not dreams but the sifting of memories of many lifetimes. You are absolutely right that should inform both individual elf characters as well as elf culture broadly, but it does not require any special game mechanics.

See to me it's different than sleep, so it should have different mechanics. Or it isn't different and elves just use a different name for the same thing, which any human culture can do.

 

[Seramus]

Play a Plasmoid, and try to squeeze through small places anyway.

 

[Bacon Bits]

Would race being cosmetic only be a turn off for you?

No, not particularly.

It would mean that I would want to know more about the cultures of the world. I think a game without race mechanics and with deeply cosmopolitan cultures or monocultures would make me question the races existing.

Our table has been very happy with the disconnect of race and ability score modifiers. Having races pre-selected for class A, B, or C isn't really a good system. At this point the only thing I dislike is Darkvision being so common and generally too beneficial.

 

[Reynard]

See to me it's different than sleep, so it should have different mechanics. Or it isn't different and elves just use a different name for the same thing, which any human culture can do.

The only current difference in mechanics is how long it lasts, correct? And elves still have to rest for 8 hours, just not sleep. I don't see how that is measurably different from a mechanical perspective.

 

[Reynard]

I think that if your non-human races are indistinguishable from humans without mechanical elements, you are doing it wrong.

 

[mamba]

Would race being cosmetic only be a turn off for you?

no, it isn’t, I kinda welcome it.

I’d play a human.

 

[TiQuinn]

I’d be fine with only cosmetic impacts to characters. I’d probably play a human or near human like an elf. It’d largely depend on the background for my character at that point and how I envision them.