D&D General Wildly Diverse "Circus Troupe" Adventuring Parties

[Kurotowa]

I point out that ECMO3's groups are typically very focused on optimization and not, I think, that representative of typical groups.

I'm increasingly suspicious of the idea that a single "typical group" even exists.

With online multiplayer video games, there's a feedback loop because everyone is in a single shared community. People share information, people copy what's successful, trends emerge, social pressures exert themselves, and "the meta" develops where certain choices or play patterns become dominant. But that only happens because everyone is in the same play pool.

With a TTRPG, only a minority of players go out and get involved in online discussions. And even then they're usually just bringing home tricks and tips. When it comes to playing, it's still with their one or maybe two groups in real life. So every group is developing in isolation, and like remote islands full of weird mutations all sorts of highly specific local play patterns. The "meta" is limited to a particular group; how they interpret certain rules, what sort of campaigns they run, what social behaviors they encourage or discourage.

So I don't think a "typical group" exists except in the broadest of data driven trend analysis. And that's something no one outside of WotC really has the data to do.

 

[GobHag]

I'm increasingly suspicious of the idea that a single "typical group" even exists.

With online multiplayer video games, there's a feedback loop because everyone is in a single shared community. People share information, people copy what's successful, trends emerge, social pressures exert themselves, and "the meta" develops where certain choices or play patterns become dominant. But that only happens because everyone is in the same play pool.

With a TTRPG, only a minority of players go out and get involved in online discussions. And even then they're usually just bringing home tricks and tips. When it comes to playing, it's still with their one or maybe two groups in real life. So every group is developing in isolation, and like remote islands full of weird mutations all sorts of highly specific local play patterns. The "meta" is limited to a particular group; how they interpret certain rules, what sort of campaigns they run, what social behaviors they encourage or discourage.

So I don't think a "typical group" exists except in the broadest of data driven trend analysis. And that's something no one outside of WotC really has the data to do.

I honestly think you're underselling how much the effects of internet has accelerated the spread of practices and culture, even the early zines/letters days have that kind of thing happen frequently. Those isolated islands are undoubtedly the majority but the minority that do get involved will have disproportionate impact on the 'culture'--The 80/20 rule in effect.

 

[ECMO3]

There's a halfling in my current school campaign. They're not a super common character class, but not rare, either. There's also a lizardfolk, dragonborn, tiefling, human, gnome, and elf.

I point out that ECMO3's groups are typically very focused on optimization and not, I think, that representative of typical groups.

Well I personally play a lot of Halflings .... and I am part of all of "ECMO3's groups". It is probably my favorite race or maybe Human is, but it is top 2 for me personally.

I don't see a lot of other people I play with who play Halflings though and it is one of the rarest PHB races overall in games I have played, which include a lot of different groups. Aasimar and Tieflings are rare too.

When it comes to non-PHB races, most of those are rare but there are a few I see other people play more often than Halflings - Shaddar Kai, Eladrin, Bugbears, and Shifters. That is probably for optimization as these are all strong races. I also think optimization is the reason we are seeing more Dwarves recently.

I don't think optimization is the reason I see few Halflings though (other than myself). For one thing Halfling is not underpowered. In terms of PHB races it is behind Humans and Dwarves, but Halfling is on the upper end of the PHB races. Mechanically Halfling is generally stronger than Elves, Orcs(Half-Orcs) and Half-Elves and I see a lot more of them at the table. Of course this depends on specific build, but I will go out on a limb and say Halfling is probably mechanically the best PHB species for a 2024 Monk and arguably the best PHB species for a Barbarian or a non-caster melee Rogue (although there is competition on the last 2).

Also I noted I do see the other non-PHB power races but I don't see many Kobolds or Goblins and both of those are very powerful races which should be a natural attraction for optimizers, especially before the 2024 PHB. Yet they aren't - again I am the only one who has played Goblins in any of my games and I played 2 of 3 Kobolds I've seen in the last 10 years.

My hypothesis is I think people don't like playing small PCs as much as medium PCs.

 

[bloodtide]

Again, you are making very strong statements here that are not supported by any actual information. Halflngs, by every single piece of evidence we have, are the bottom choice in the PHB. And they always have been. It's not a mistake that every race in 2e got a full Complete Guide, except gnomes and halflings. Why would you claim that halflings are popular?

There is a Complete Guide to Gnomes and Halflings......

I run an afterschool D&D club for middle-schoolers . . . it's all dragonborn and tieflings.

This is also true of most high school kids and collage kids. As always for the last dozen years, a lot of young people really focus on Tieflings as they have the wacky "Anime" esthetic and they are "bad". After that, many young girls love elves...guess that comes from fairy tales.