D&D (2024) 2024 PHB Race discussion

It occurs to me, the elf is almost the only race that requires subraces because there are so many different kinds of elf.

The other races have little or no need for subraces.

But the elf is a challenge to represent well.

Yaarel said:

The "gods" flavor is overbearing. It even comes across triumphalist.

I require the topic of religion to be gentler and more inclusive.

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You may be reading far too much of your own biases into all of this.

I want the 2024 Players Handbook to only list the human race, with a note to consult with the DM for other races that exist in the setting.

The Players Handbook should be as setting neutral as possible, except for popular notions about "medieval-esque" plus the existence of magic.

All worldbuilding needs to be in the 2024 DMs Guide, relating to possible cosmologies, worlds, races, and cultures. Especially the Cleric class in the Players Handbook must not lock these assumptions in.

At the same time that the 2024 Players Handbook comes out, there needs to be a 2024 Forgotten Realms Adventurers Guide. It spells out the cosmology of the multiverse, world of Toril, races, and cultures that are familiar to 2014 5e players now. So, this 2024 FRAG (heh) is a core rulebook, and is where to find the beloved races and cultures, including elves and dwarves, among others.

But the beauty of this corebook FRAG, is it becomes easy to swap in, instead, the Eberron Adventurers Guide, Astral Adventurers Guide, Dragonlance Adventurers Guide, and so on.

Each adventurers guide rewrites any races shared with other settings, so the descriptions exactly match who the races are within a particular setting.

Most importantly, it becomes easier for the DM to swap in a homebrew world. Perhaps the homebrew "adventurers guide" starts off local, with a few sheets of paper with brief notes describing the races who inhabit a particular town. Eventually by the time the players reach level 20, there can be a substantial amount of information about the cosmology and other parts of it.

Meanwhile the 2024 Players Handbook, just has humans, as an example of how a race works mechanically, and a few medievalesque multicultural backgrounds relating to the humans.

Aldarc said:

You may be reading far too much of your own biases into all of this.

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Many of the race descriptions mention "gods". The gods are inappropriate for settings that lack them.

Yaarel said:

Many of the race descriptions mention "gods". The gods are inappropriate for settings that lack them.

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The D&D Multiverse is THE setting and it has gods.

Aldarc said:

The D&D Multiverse is THE setting and it has gods.

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D&D used to be about worldbuilding.

ShadoWWW said:

I don't like all but humans and halflings have darkvision.

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Ardlings don't have darkvision either.

Yaarel said:

D&D used to be about worldbuilding.

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Osgood said:

Ardlings don't have darkvision either.

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Yeah, only races whose flavor requires Darkvision should have it.

No: human, halfling, ardling, gnome (!)
Depends: dragonborn, elf, orc
Yes: tiefling, dwarf

The dwarf personifies rock and dwells underground, darkvision can make sense.

The orc should probably have darkvision, but only if its flavor is a creature of the night.

The drow should definitely have darkvision. The wood elf, not really. But arguably, the wood elf is nocturnal (according to British folkbelief). The high elf? If it is the traditional high elf, it is identical to the ODD (One D&D) wood elf. If the high elf is supposed to represent other kinds of elf, then it probably should lack darkvision entirely.

The dragonborn is a dragon, whose connotations include the unblinking eye of a snake. This may or may not relate to darkvision.

There is zero reason why a gnome should have darkvision.

Yaarel said:

D&D used to be about worldbuilding.

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And then they started selling you Forgotten Realms supplements in the 90s.