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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Qik" data-source="post: 5952582" data-attributes="member: 6673727">Point taken.  I had suggested articulating a target number in part just to see if others had a number in mind.  Given that some have expressed a hesitancy for adding races, I thought it might also be helpful for those people to weigh in on an amount they might see as unacceptable, etc.  But I can see the logic with identifying a standard first, and then going from there.Very, very much agree.  Just by way of example, this was my main motivation for proposing the Wayang.  I think they offer a unique identity - a reclusive people tied to the shadow plane - backed up/expanded by unique mechanics - non-charasmatic, non-weak small race.  The options and fluff added by the ARG only supported these distictions, IMO.I agree.  There were a few in the ARG that stuck out to me in this way, although I may be hard pressed to make a properly-formulated argument against them.  For instance, I don't think the Vishkanya would fit into our setting.I think this is the sticking point for most people, and the most common argument against allowing so many playable races.  For instance, I've been unexpectedly drawn to a lot of the elemental races in the ARG, especially the Oreads and Slyphs.  In part, this ties into what I want to do with Illi Esse - integrate the planes into our setting in a way that allows access from all levels, not just high ones.  In a place like Illi Esse, where humans have been intermixing with planar beings for hundreds of years, having Oreads and Slyphs and the like makes a lot of sense.At the same time, I think we can agree that such beings are relatively rare in the wider world of E'n.  But at the same time, so are sorcerers and rage-empowered barbarians and magically musical bards and on and on.  My point being: we're all already playing outliers, so I'm not sure it stretches incredulity any further to play racial outliers as well.  And while I understand that having 50 Ifrits hanging about the Dunn Wright Inn would be odd, I don't think we'll end up with a situation like that.  Look at LPF as it stands: even though monstrous races like tengu and merpeople and tieflings are in play, most of the PCs I see come about are the core races.  And lots of humans.  I don't think adding a few exotic races as playable would skew the currently-acceptable ratio, if for no other reason than people will continue to view them as exotic.While I see where you're coming from, DC, I would be against this.  I think it would limit fluff - saying races with X characteristics only come from such-and-such a place would restrict those races to that culture and location.  And I wouldn't like to set something like that in stone.  I don't like the idea of us creating such a strict fluff-to-mechanics ratio that would limit options for someone new to LPF who joins us on down the road.  Basically, I want E'n's fluff to open possibilities, not limit options, and what you're recommending sounds to me like it would limit options.For instance, there are a lot of alternate racial traits that tie elves to water.  But there could be a lot of explanations for this - elves tied to the sea, elves tied to a river, elves tied to a specific lake in a specific mountain, etc.  So if we say, "Elves with the Spirit of the Waters trait come from a specific culture or specific people living along the Ohm river," we've linked those two in a way that could deter, say, someone wanting to make a sea elf.Whew.  Hopefully all that makes sense.  Friday is a hyper-early morning for me, so my thoughts aren't always congealing by this point in the day...</blockquote>

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