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That would be how I think of them, yes. They're designed mechanics to avoid even the appearance of "contrivance". From many years of these discussions, I think avoiding any hint of "contrivance" (where the GM or player makes decisions based on what would be interesting or challenging) is the...

When I see that term, I think of survival games like ARK or exploration games like No Man's Sky.

I think the simulationist impulse is to NOT have the GM make a decision because they think it will be a more interesting challenge or because it's relevant to the characters' interests at that point in time. The rationale for a dragon to appear is that according to setting logic, a dragon could...

I don't think about simulationism in TTRPG as really about "modeling". To me, it's more about introducing procedures into play that reduce or eliminate occurrences of narrative contrivance. Nothing happens in the fiction for reasons of "making the story more impactful" or "ensure the...

I'm fine with that mix, it's just been done already. My personal thought is simply that de-emphasizing "ancestry as cultural marker" makes sense within modern 5e's philosophies towards what ancestry should represent.

I mean, it would be weird and notable if there was absolute parity across every town in the continent, so I don’t think anyone wants that. I just think it’s ok if most places in this hypothetical setting just have random assortments of every race, and the setting doesn’t have “elven kingdoms”...

I'm actually pretty OK with a broadly cosmopolitan setting where racial distinctions aren't noticed much. That's what Al-Qadim did back in 2e, and it worked just fine.

I was sure trying. :)

Yea, I wouldn't try and generalize. All I would say is that the presentation and options within the books carry moderate weight towards making people more willing to play nonhumans over time. TSR editions wanted the game to be human-dominated both textually and mechanically. 3e moved away...

So I'm looking at that data (released in early 2024, for end of 2023 stats). Summing up the values on the chart, I'm seeing just under 50% of characters as human/elf/half-elf. 750k human, 575k elf, 250k half-elf, and about 1.6M everything else. (Making rough estimates based on the bar graph.)...

Except for you people (and you know who you are). :)

And really, the only thing that prevents those newer races from being picked even more is simply that the race options are spread among several different books, and aren't bundled into a nice neat list (outside of D&D Beyond). In Daggerheart, where the dozens of races (ancestries) are presented...

My game on Friday features a human, a goblin, an earth genasi, a harengon, and a plasmoid. My game this weekend has an elf, a dragonborn, a changeling, an owlin, a tiefling, a human, an aasimar, and a warforged. Anecdotal data is ultimately anecdotal. In my experience, parties with a wide...

This. I think there's a distinct difference between being immersed "in the setting" and immersed "in the character". I find it impossible to feel like I, personally, am "in the game", but I can definitely immerse in the perspective and thought processes of the character I'm playing.

I do think that's at least one important utility for a broader scope campaign setting. If the game features wide-ranging teleport magic, or at least supports magic of a style where teleporting magic/portals would be an expected trope, it helps to have something to point the players to as...

100+ votes in and only one for someone who virtually never GMs. Certainly points to the idea that this forum is for dedicated TTRPGers, and dedicated TTRPGers are usually GMs.

I don't play orphans normally, but it's generally rare for a character's family to be part of play at my tables, outside of modern-era games. I have had a few cases where two players ran characters with a familial connection, which is a nice bit of texture for intra-PC conversation.

Agree with this. I prefer when players make choices that drive the story and conflict forward, rather than chasing "immersion".

I value immersion the way that I understand it, but what I mean by immersion is different than what appears to be to the normal way people use it online.

I definitely like all of them, so any vote I make is simply a nod towards settings I've enjoyed, not a vote against any settings I didn't vote for. I voted for Big Continent, mostly because of Eberron, one of my all time favorite settings. I also voted for Archipelago and Shattered World...