D&D 5E Access to Races in a Campaign

[abirdcall]

I'm about to run Out of The Abyss sometime in the future. How do you think can I suggest new races to the players? Deep gnomes fits well I think in OoTA. But what about others - aarakocra, genasi and goliaths? Or this races only for Elemental Evil campaign?

I actually banned deep gnomes from my upcoming OoTA game. I like them but I think the adventure will work better if the Underdark is an alien place to all of the characters.

I told the players the overarching themes of the adventure (Alice in Wonderland themed, madness, demons, and such) and told them how the adventure will start.

I then expressly gave permission to be a weird race (with listed exceptions) because they were all going to be strangers pulled together and everything is going to be weird anyway.

I will probably still end up with a bunch of humans which is fine. I do have one aforementioned Air Genasi though.

 

[Ahrimon]

That sounds like exactly the conversation I am addressing. I just happen to disagree with you. Players are free to play other games. It is a collaborative effort where we all want to have fun, but my fun is more important than yours so you can't use the things that I don't like because if you use them then I won't have as much fun. I am sorry that you can't see how it could impact my fun. Something you should note is that people can and will experience things in the world differently than you.

Bolded text mine.

This is the crux of it for me. DMs that say you can't use something simply because they don't like are just being selfish and entitled. DMs that craft a custom world that doesn't include something is ok, even if that thing is not included because they don't like it.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

I think the implication that any DM can run an enjoyable game with no more time invested than what occurs at the table with the players is a disservice to any DM that doesn't actually have the skill to do this. I've tried to run games with no prep time and I can safely say the game WAS NOT as enjoyable as it was when I did take time to prepare for the game. I might be able to learn the skill but that's not what this quote implies.

Prep or no prep, it takes practice or extreme luck to run an enjoyable game. I'm not doing any disservice to say that I believe anyone that can learn to play an RPG can learn to DM (with or without a lot of prep, their choice) - and I didn't even make the implication that you claim I have, that is your own addition since I didn't say a DM can inherently run an enjoyable game with no more time invested into it than the players.

The assumption this is based is on is not universally true. I like playing Warforged. My fun is not reduced when I play games where Warforged are not available (in fact, my fun would be reduced by trying to shoehorn a Warforged into a game where they do not belong).

It doesn't have to be universally true to the degree you are trying to claim it does. All that needs to be true is that banning an option reduces the number of options that a player enjoys - because that is a reduction in the fun that player can have with the game.

 

[KahlessNestor]

Wow, what's with all the gnome hate! LOL I love me some gnomes!

I roll pretty easily. I enjoy making characters and often just randomize what race and class I play. If I were to DM, I would tend to try and make room for whatever someone wanted to play, though I do have a semi-formed brew in my head that would exclude some things (like half-orcs and tieflings) that could be unlocked later after the plot gets to a certain point. Dwarves will be in all my campaigns, though! Love me dwarves! I am kind of also considering an idea where elves and dwarves are the majority and humans are this upstart race.

 

[Sunseeker]

As a DM, I absolutely hate seeing this elevation of the DM as some kind of special type of person that isn't just another player at the table to be considered equal to all others.

It is one of many things that lead to the bulk of players believing that they can't just decide to be a DM and then have it be so, and that is bad for the hobby.

In the words of DM Gusteau: Anyone can DM. Not everyone should. Not everyone will. Not everyone has the ability to do so. Given infinite time, money and creativity though, anyone can DM.

The DM puts in far more work outside the game to create an enjoyable experience for everyone at the table (the DM included) than anyone else. The DM often hosts in their own home. The DM is a player, not necessarily a superior one, but certainly one who does more work on a regular basis to ensure good gaming sessions than anyone else at the table.

 

[iserith]

Wow, what's with all the gnome hate! LOL I love me some gnomes!

Hear, hear!

 

[KahlessNestor]

You get this gnome hate in the WoW forums too.

Though, to be honest, I might just put gnome punting in as a national pastime for goliaths in my campaign settings lol

 

[DM_Jeff]

I voted no, but it really varies. In my homebrew campaign, there simply are some races that don't exist there, and the players understand that. In my more conservative Sunday night Forgotten Realms game the players rarely take anything outside the PHB, when they do I work with it. And for my all girls campaign where the ages range from 17-24 I open the floodgates, and they're usually all something offbeat. So far I've done conversion work on over 30 older races or looked into PDF race books to help with that.

 

[Morrus]

And moreover, your presentation simply continues the exact same ghetto-izing concept that I complained about earlier, albeit with different words. Liking dragonborn does not, even in the least, entail liking "kitchen sink" settings. Neither more nor less than liking dwarves, tieflings, elves, cat-people, halflings, space goats, or any other concept you can name

I think you misunderstand me, as that's not at all what I said. No, liking a specific race does not entail liking kitchen sink settings. That's obvious, and I'd consider myself pretty dumb to say such a silly thing.

However, if *all* settings have the same *full* set of races, then yes, you start to get the kitchen sink effect. Every setting, with the exact same race choice, which happens to be "all of them".

 

[Azurewraith]

I dont restrict races but i will warn players beforehand of the consequence of their decision such as want to play a tifeling sure but this area is so religious they are required to burn you on site go ahead. its not normally that extreme its usually more of a playing a dragonborn cool but expect people to gawk or a half orc good luck getting a conversation out of the fleeing village.

I find it gives players a chance to avoid racial stereotypes as you may just trust the half-orc that just wasted those bandits at your gates