D&D 5E Access to Races in a Campaign

[iserith]

I prefer the players decide through consensus which races are not in the campaign world and which aren't. For an ongoing campaign, I don't like a top-down approach of the DM saying what's allowable and what's not. Oftentimes we don't say whether a race is nonexistent. Players instead choose what they wish to play and we're silent on whether any other races exist until they come up in play. If nobody creates a dragonborn, for example, and no dragonborn are mentioned during play, then they effectively don't exist.

 

[Minigiant]

I restrict races but only for story reasons.

You can't be dwarves because they are all crazy. Every single one is crazy or managing crazy dwarves.

You can't be a drow because all of them are evil anarchists as being a drow is a choice. Drowing an elf is a simple ritual. Reversing it is just as easy.

 

[Blue]

Need poll option: Depends on the setting I'm running.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Generally, nope. Not much of a cause to. My favorite approach is to let PC's race choices determine a bit about what the campaign is going to focus on - if someone plays an aarakocra, you better bet we'll have air elementals and mountain jungles and the like; if someone plays a dwarf, orcs are probably going to pop up, etc.

But just like classes, I might do it for a specific vibe (most likely to go human-only in a world that scores high on the "mundane-o-meter").

 

[ZickZak]

Never using the flying races. That s it.

 

[Queer Venger]

I do. Im running an FR campaign at the moment, (Tyranny of Dragons) and I restrict Dragonborn.

 

[Sunseeker]

Yes, I do. But it always has a real-world explanation. Sometimes races simply don't exist in the world, or those races are the primary antagonist, so if you played one and walked into a town you'd likely be hung. Sometimes those races are highly isolated or extremely xenophobic, so the only way to play them would be to have an entire party made from them. Sometimes races exist but aren't the adventuring type, such as halflings. I will allow halflings if two or more people want to play halflings, they're skittish folks and often travel with friends.

But I don't think up a list of races that don't exist, I think up a list of races that do and then subsequently ban everything else. It's easier than attempting to analyze if every race will fit into the world. Typically my "kitchen sink" campaigns don't ban any race. Players are always welcome to be the exception to the rules but that doesn't mean the rest of the world will treat them like they're an exception. If the Orc Kingdom is at war with the Elf Tribes then an elf strolling into the Orc Kingdom is going to under constant watch.

 

[Jester David]

My current campaign is very much a kitchen sink, so there's a bit of everything. All the races from the PHB and a few from the Kobold Press books (Southlands Heroes and Midgard Heroes). I might do a few of my own to include as well.

 

[S'mon]

I was going to say "No - I don't normally restrict PHB races" - but I guess you meant *any* races? By that standard, yes I certainly do.

 

[Morrus]

Of course. Would you include Wookies in Star Trek?