D&D General Do genes exist in D&D?

I think it was Andy Warhol who said that if he could have been someone else, he would've wanted to have been the person that invented bluejeans.

Oofta said:

That's hard to say. After all cotton came from the new world but while a lot of fantasy fiction is set in pseudo-medieval Europe they also have poh-tae-toes which were also from the new world. Add in the fact that the color blue was actually quite rare in dies, I'm not sure.

I mean, obviously they had pants. But pants died blue made of heavy canvas material that we would call jeans? I dunno.

Oh, wait. Genes not Jeans. Never mind.

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On the question of genes being present in D&D, I feel like it's one of those "how do you prove an absence?" situations. Maybe they're there, maybe not? Most people within the worlds of D&D, even the most learned wizards, don't have the mental framework to even ask the question. The wizards are probably are too busy figuring out how to combine cats and snails to make the next Owlbear.

Now, the question as to whether we know whether there are genes in D&D is another thing. If a DM wants to have people made by deities mixing potions in different measurements, or by genetic design, that's up to them.

I don't think D&D has ever taken a firm stance on it, but it's pretty clear that our laws of physics aren't necessarily the same ones binding the world of D&D.

I don't even understand why we are having this argument. OF COURSE they exist!

It is a classic fantasy trope that you rub the lamp (hoping for three wishes!) and ...

What?

GenEs?

Oh.

D&D is a fantasy game. It is made up. If it doesn't make sense, then magic did it

Are genes and DNA a thing in my game worlds? Yes.

Do they necessarily work exactly the same as real life? No, but there's enough similarities that the end result comes out close enough for rock'n'roll.

In reality, there's vastly more similarities than differences between DNA of different creatures. For game purposes, I just say those similarities make the genetics close enough that some related creatures can interbreed; and this explains Part-Elves, Part-Orcs, and a whole lot of other neat stuff. For even more fun, toss in that deities and some shapeshifters can make their DNA match whatever they like (and thus can interbreed with anything) and a typical PC's genetics might have all sorts of wonderful taints and influences in there somewhere.

Lanefan said:

For even more fun, toss in that deities and some shapeshifters can make their DNA match whatever they like (and thus can interbreed with anything) and a typical PC's genetics might have all sorts of wonderful taints and influences in there somewhere.

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it could be that those shapeshifters don't interbreed so much as consciously trigger a pregnancy with a self fertilized egg either in their own body or the body of a host. The act in bed might just be a matter of fun

It really is a GM preference. In my games, genes exist while gods may or may not. Magic can always overrule the rules of science, so you can get oddities and exceptions.

tetrasodium said:

it could be that those shapeshifters don't interbreed so much as consciously trigger a pregnancy with a self fertilized egg either in their own body or the body of a host. The act in bed might just be a matter of fun

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Or a way to copy the host's material and catalog it into their own.

Vaalingrade said:

Or a way to copy the host's material and catalog it into their own.

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The urban legends alone for changelings & doppelganger reproduction in d&d worlds are probably incredible to the point that I might make up & drop some whenever people talk about one of them

You can do whatever you want with your own campaign world, but I think most people assume that traits of parent biological organisms are inheritable by children in most campaign worlds, and since the average D&D player has a modern conception of how that would happen some level of genetics is imputed into the system. If the average D&D player or designer was steeped in pre-modern theories of heredity we would probably assume something a bit different.

But, genes would seem to work a bit differently in a world filled with magic. If you fall into a well of pure magic in the Feywild you probably now carry the Wild Magic gene.

I like a lot of what @6ENow! and @Oofta said about having genes in the world and they work about the same to play the game. Mythology is a way to explain things from having a view lacking science. Did Moradin make dwarves from a rock and breathed life into them, or is this the mythology. Did he selectively breed what we call dwarves from genetic stock from several worlds and sent them to the world. Did he say that he created you to the first dwarf and the game of telephone over 1000 generations say that he breathed life into them. It has never come up in my games, but most players assume something close to real life to explain things.

The problem with all of this is that in D&D you can ask the gods directly. Then you need to know if Moradin is actually THE Moradin that created the dwarves, or someone else posing as him from 1000 generations ago just to keep the status quo.