D&D General What races/species populate your DnD world?

[Voadam]

My homebrew mashup uses a lot of D&D and pathfinder elements so I mostly have stuff from the standards with a big human focus including a number of human ethnicities (mostly pathfinder Golarion ones such as the fantasy versions of viking Ulfen, Celtic Kellid, African Garundi, etc.).

Individual areas vary widely and I have room for a lot.

When my group was going through a 5e version of the pathfinder Iron Gods AP and went to the city of Scrapwall the population was mostly orcs, hobgoblins, ratfolk, and humans as the major populations but plenty of one offs or minor groups like the hedgehog people from one of the 5e Kobold Press monster books.

My PCs in that game over time were a Werewolf the Apocalypse style (noncontagious) werewolf and werebear, a kobold, a full on robot, an aasimar, a tortle, and then an orc from Scrapwall.

 

[GrimCo]

In our setting (real world, just different names, but heavy influence from different historical cultures), most races are present, just not everywhere. For instance, dragonborn and lizardfolk have their own continent ( ruled by actual dragons, think central/south america before colonisation), shifters and arakockra are in the north part. "Europe" is humans (including half elves and aasimars) and dwarfs, elves are island nations (Sicily, Sardinia, Malta, GB/Ireland, with every clan having their own island), tieflings have their own kindgdom with some dragonborn and worforged also there (think Ottoman empire). And then there are hobgoblins as Scandinavians. No gnomes/halflings, no goliaths.

 

[Hriston]

For me, it's whatever the players choose to play and whatever monsters I roll up as random encounters. For example, in my current game, the PCs are a group of humans with an elf and a tiefling. So far, they've encountered halflings, large spiders, other humans, and orcs, so we know those species exist.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

Our current campaign is in Wildemount so we are adhering to the guidance in the EGtW for available races/species.

Specifically, players could choose a hometown and then choose from among the 3 or 4 common races/species there -or- leave it up to the dice weighted by the population of said hometown with a small chance of getting “Other” which allows the player to pick more obscure ones available in the setting (like Tortles or Goliaths).

 

[Micah Sweet]

Hey guys, got another question for EnWorld regarding Dungeons and Dragons. What races/species populate your world when you create them?

Do you mix things up like having Dwarves in Fey Forests, do you keep things by the book, or a mixture of both?

As for me I tend to populate my worlds with majority of Bugbears and Dwarves. Bugbears tend to appear in normal everyday human society as body guards and adventurers.

What about you?

My homebrew setting has a place for all the 5.0 species (except drow, replaced by less spider-oriented Shadow Elves), because it was originally designed for that system. I sprinkled in a fair number of other heritages as I've gone along, and made sure anything I used had a place that made sense in the history, including any heritage a player wanted to use. Every group has a story in the world.

 

[Zardnaar]

Whatever needed. Usually it's phb plus 4 give or take.

6-12 races generally at least sootlighted ones. Not much is banned though it's mostly PHB and Mordenkainens.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Technically everything is there, because if someone wants to play and really wants to play a specific character that otherwise fits the game, I can make room in my imaginary world for a small enclave of tabaxi or whatever.

But when I create starting areas, I do tend to focus things down more, to help create a specific tone. My long-running campaign started off in an area with only humans, dwarves and gnomes, for instance, which definitely helped shape the campaign that followed, even though more characters have joined the campaign over time that don't fit into the tighter restrictions we had at the beginning.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

For me, it's whatever the players choose to play and whatever monsters I roll up as random encounters. For example, in my current game, the PCs are a group of humans with an elf and a tiefling. So far, they've encountered halflings, large spiders, other humans, and orcs, so we know those species exist.

If I was starting a campaign from scratch today, I'd sit with the players, find out what species and classes they were interested in, and maybe some favorite monsters, and make all of those things the standard assumptions for the setting and go from there.

 

[James Gasik]

So in my campaign, the characters were brought from their own worlds through mysterious means. Despite being members of unusual species, so far that they've noticed, no one seems to bat an eye at them- I have a Changeling, a Trollkin*, a Shadar-Kai, and we had, but have since lost, an Orc and a Dau* (a fairy-like species).

*From Kobold Press.

Since then, they've encountered mostly Humans, but also a Gnome, a Shield Dwarf (Forgotten Realms), a Half-Elf, two Halflings, a Goblin, a Warforged, a Centaur, and a Drow, plus fought Duergar. Oh and a "Half-Oger" (or so he claims) named Arn. They've heard tales of a savage Elf sub-species that lives far to the north, and another, brown-skinned sub-species that live in a jungle far to the south (there are also "Redeemed" Drow who have brown skin tones instead of black- explained as a throwback to their surface dwelling ancestors).

Basically, I didn't restrict the players, and haven't painted myself into a corner with my world-building, but Humans, Halflings, Dwarves, and Elves are well-represented.

 

[Minigiant]

My Seven Kingdoms setting is a buffet of everything.

My Klassico Setting

• 3 Kobolds in a Trenchcoat
• Aasimar
• Beholdenkin
• Chicken Boo
• Dragonborn
  • Chromatic
  • Metallic
• Dwarf
  • Deep
  • Dune
  • Hill
  • Mountain
  • Plateau
  • Underdark
  • Valley
  • Volcano
• Elf
  • Dark
  • Drow
  • Half
  • High
  • Sea
  • Shadow
  • Wood
• Fishmen
• Gnome
  • Forest
  • Garden
  • Rock
  • Deep
• Goblin
  • Common
  • Hob
  • Bear
• Goliath
• Halfling
  • Lightfoot
  • Stoutheart
  • Ghostmind
• Human
• Orc
  • Big
  • Half
• Ratfolk
• Spiderman
  • Radioactive
  • Magica
• Tiefling
• Zuperman
  • Hoteye
  • Frostbreath