D&D 5E (2024) 2024 UA species and Body Horror

[Misanthrope Prime]

Queer people are always on the vanguard of culture. Right now body horror fiction is huge in the queer community and it's just starting to percolate down to normies. My guess is the D&D team has an unusually large number of queer people or hip normies who are reading queer body horror fiction, and so we're probably seeing the beginnings of a "second wave" of body horror, if the first is associated with stuff like David Cronenberg and Brian Yuzna. If you feel the body horror is "coming out of nowhere" you're probably just a bit downwind of this particular cultural development

 

[dave2008]

I don't really see these new species as leaning more into "body horror" than playing orcs, gnolls, lizard folk, yuan-ti, shard minds, tielfings, tabaxi, dragonborn, etc. etc.

Heck, when we played 1e back in the '80s I had a player who's character was a giant and another was a unicorn!

 

[abazaba]

Although I have not read them, the 'Drakkenheim' books by the 'Dungeon Dudes' seem to include a lot of body horror (including player options), and I believe they are doing quite well. So there seems to be an audience for that kind of content.

 

[Remathilis]

This leads to two further thoughts.

• The design flow appears to be (first) what is the setting we are going to populate and only then what species might fit in this. We can see that in the latest Eberron book, where we get Warforged and Shifter (both of which have an appeal I understand, even if I don’t particularly want to play one), but when they re-introduce half-elves they don’t use the name, and they avoid presenting goblinoids altogether, which are deeply entrenched in the setting.

Gonna stop you right there. Eberrron's unqiue species since its introduction have been warforged, kalashtar, shifter, and changeling. They are the marquee species of Eberron since ECS in 3.5. And while two of those made the jump to more generalized options in 4e and again in 5e, there other two with deep Eberron integration needed an update (they were still using racial ability mods). It made absolute sense to include all four major new species in the book.
Half-elves being renamed to their Eberron-specific name (khoravar) was done because three dragonmark houses were half-elven and thus integral to the setting. They just opted to avoid the half-X naming scheme.
And while goblinoids are important to two nations (Darguun and Droaam) they aren't any more "Deeply entrenched" then any other monstrous humanoid is. Further, there stats are in Monsters of the Multvierse and still perfectly usable, and for such a thin book I'd rather it NOT waste space reprinting three more species that already were in MotM.

What are the low-hanging fruit? First, species from mythology: centaur, satyr, fairy, triton. We have seen digital versions of dhampir and shifter (vampire- and werewolf adjacent), which I’d put in this category too. Second, long-established dnd species: goblinoids, kobold, lizardfolk. I think we could add the half-animal species too (tabaxi, harengon, and of course a dog species). Granted, these are all in earlier 2014-era books, and updating them is relatively straightforward. That’s precisely why I think they should do so: these are the appropriate targets for a system with minimal impact. Give the resources for kids play their cat-people if that’s what they want, and not need to look for a book that predates their PHB.

Monsters of the Multiverse was essentially a 5.5 book stealth-written in 5.0. The Forgotten Realms player's books refers people interested in those species back to MotM in several places. The current species rules are based on the MotM template. Aside from a few nips/tucks, I don't see much value in reprinting them again.

At this point, the only species that are not compatible with the current MotM/5.5 design system are the older MTG species from Ravnica and Theros and a few outliers from partnered content (IA and EGW). So I feel at this point almost all the major based are covered. Even all the major setting-exclusive species (like Warforged and kender) are in that style. The only thing I could see is them doing is updating MotM to 5.5 trade dress.

 

[Tonguez]

At thus point that really should just update Savage species`, just how you'd do that though ...

 

[bergec]

And while goblinoids are important to two nations (Darguun and Droaam) they aren't any more "Deeply entrenched" then any other monstrous humanoid is.

That's not true. They are one of the most populous species throughout the Five Nations. For example, in Sharn, the signature city of the world, goblinoids make up 9% of the population, more than any other species apart from humans and dwarves. The kalashtar, on the other hand, aren't even from the continent covered by the book are barely show up in demographics, they are so rare. Goblinoids, on the other hand, are the native people of the continent and deeply rooted in its history and the setting.

Further, there stats are in Monsters of the Multvierse and still perfectly usable, and for such a thin book I'd rather it NOT waste space reprinting three more species that already were in MotM.

That's the only explanation I can think of for their exclusion.

 

[dave2008]

That's the only explanation I can think of for their exclusion.

Or they are already planned for a future product.

 

[Remathilis]

That's not true. They are one of the most populous species throughout the Five Nations. For example, in Sharn, the signature city of the world, goblinoids make up 9% of the population, more than any other species apart from humans and dwarves. The kalashtar, on the other hand, aren't even from the continent covered by the book are barely show up in demographics, they are so rare. Goblinoids, on the other hand, are the native people of the continent and deeply rooted in its history and the setting.

Yet are not the focus of it. Their influence is limited to two "monster" nations and a few metropolitan urban areas. I'm not saying they don't factor into Eberron's history, but they fill a far smaller niche in the settings, closer to other former monster humanoids like gnolls or kobolds. When I think Eberron, my first thought isn't to PC goblins.

That's the only explanation I can think of for their exclusion.

Forge was a small book, the classic Eberron species got top billing (along with their half-elf redux) and MotM is basically a 5.5 book using 5.0 trade dress. Makes perfect sense.

 

[Remathilis]

Or they are already planned for a future product.

Unless they are in Warcraft, I don't see an upcoming chance until 2028 or longer. Which is ok, the MotM versions work fine.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Unless they are in Warcraft, I don't see an upcoming chance until 2028 or longer. Which is ok, the MotM versions work fine.

Goblins are a major PC race in WoW.