A multitude of disliked races

[sjmiller]

So far, the following races are allowed in my campaign:

• Human
• Elves (both high & grey)
• Dwarves (though nobody wants to play them, so they are villains)
• Gnomes
• Halflings
• Litorians (from Arcana Evolved)
• Faen (from Arcana Evolved)
• Sibiccai (from Arcana Evolved)
• Pyks (from Throwing Dice Games, a Tiny race)
• Half-Elves
• Half-Orcs

The races currently being played are Human, Elves (both types), Litorian, and Faen. Only a few races are disallowed for personal or storyline based reasons. Those are:

• Drow (don't like them)
• Most Half-something races (what, are humans that hard up for a date?)
• Lizardfolk (won't work in the campaign setting)

Any other race would have to have approval and a really good reason for being included.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

I *prefer* no non-human races, or at most a small suite of non-human races created specifically for a given campaign world.

However, in Spelljammer, players can be *anything,* provided its Int is 3 or greater (or Int 2 or less with an Awakened form ) and its ECL is within the acceptable range.

 

[Masquerade]

The primary races in my world are all LA+0 and include
* Almar (slightly altered from here)
* Azurin (MoI)
* Changeling
* Elan
* Enkimer (similar to sea kin from RoD)
* Goron (yes, Zelda's rock-eaters)
* Human
* Illumian (RoD)
* Maenad
* Malken (cat people)
* Mongrel (RoD)
* Rilkan (MoI)
* Skarn (MoI)
* Shifter
* Xeph

I do away with Tolkien-esque fantasy races almost entirely, largely because there is simply too much weight attached to them, but also because I wanted to do something different with my setting.

For the record, I have nothing against elves.

 

[Seule]

[*]Warforged (as a bonus option for a race for the reincarnation spell)

The Reincarnate spell brings you back as a creature of the same type, so you'd have to be a Construct to be Reincarnated as a Warforged. Can that even happen?

My last campaign:
PHB races, plus Eberron (Shifters, Warforged, Changelings and Kalashtar). There are no subraces in Eberron, which suits me just fine, subraces are pretty silly in advanced cultures, I think.

My previous campaign:
PHB races.

My next campaign (when I run one):
PHB races, quite possibly Eberron races depending on setting, and others allowed by appeal, LA +0 only.

--Seule

 

[theemrys]

I run a game in Kalamar and the base races are:

Dwarf: Hill/Mountain/Grey
Elf: High/Grey/Wood/Wild/Twilight/Drow
Half Elf
Gnome Rock/Forest/Deep
Halfling LIghtfeet/Golden
Human (5 types, but no game difference)
Hobgoblin (have own nations in setting)
Half-Hobgoblin
Half-Orc

There are also a few exceptional half-races but they are on a case by case basis...

 

[Shade]

I'm fine with nearly all the races, but I don't use half-elves (and will probably drop half-orcs in my next campaign). The half-races seem better suited as a "only available at 1st level" feat or a trait, not as a full-blown race.

 

[Nightfall]

*five* I like the Scarred Land races of Sutak, Ratmen, and the occasional Assatthi.

 

[jolt]

We don't use the half races at all. Since almost everything in D&D can (apparently) breed with almost everything else, why just the half-elf, why not a half-gnome? Why just a half-orc, why not a half-kobold/goblin/bugbear/gnoll etc.? And why do "half's" always have to be part human? What about a dwarf/gnome or an elf/halfling? If they wanted to go the "half" route I wish they had done so more completely than they did. The only reason we seem to have half-elf/orc's is because we had them before.

The other core races I allow but tweaked special abilities and favored classes to better reflect that races culture in my world. For example, if you're a dwarf, you're either a Crown, Anvil or Hammer Dwarf. They're all considered dwarves but each has slightly different advantages and penalties to reflect what makes them unique.

I also allow (again, slightly tweaked) the Mojh, Litorian, Giant and Verrik from Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved. Giants and Verriks are still human in the way that a Drow (which I don't allow) is still an elf. I also use the Changeling (also a type of human) from Eberron.

No race greater than EL+0 is allowed or it's modified so that it's only EL+0. But no half-dragons, ogre mages, centaurs or the like. I like high fantasy but not stoned-out-of-my-mind fantasy.

I like Shade's idea of using a Feat to represent a "half" race. I also think this would be a good mechanic for the plane-touched races as well (which show up far too often for my tastes). This would fit well into my world as I use Talents (basically Feats that can only be taken at 1st level) as presented, more or less, in Arcana Evolved.

As an aside, I always found it humorous that if you drop an elf in the desert, a sub-race of sun elves will spawn. If you drop an elf in the arctic, a sub-race of ice elves will spawn. If you drop a human (supposedly the most adaptive and changeable of all the races) in the arctic, you get a cold human.

jolt

 

[Nellisir]

I don't allow evil races as a general rule, so no duergar or drow. I haven't used (generic) halflings, for no particular reason.

That said, the last campaign I ran allowed:
Dwarves - hill (dwerg), mountain (dweorh), and moulder (mordwerg)
Elves - Fair (faerilven) and Dark (darilven)
Fae - domovii, leshii, and troldfolk (bridge trolls or bjergfolk)
Human-bloods - half-elves (ha'ilven), half-goblinoids (fuah), sealfolk (roane)
Jotunar - hill (firjotun), and frost (talvijotun)
Gnomes (neblin)

And humans.

I intend to add a few more human variants, and hopefully modified versions of the intelligent animal characters from Blue Rose (the race name escapes me).

 

[Aeric]

This is a very cool concept and reminds me a lot of one of my favorite rpgs, Wares Blade.

My best friend had a copy of Wares Blade about fifteen years ago. There were mecha in it, right?