D&D General Do genes exist in D&D?

[Aldarc]

I don't think D&D even attempts to think of this question. It just isn't important to the genre

Yeah, I think that "genes" are not necessarily how peoples of the world would conceptualize heredity. I would probably look to the ancient Greek thinkers for ways D&D peoples would likely conceptualize it, and then add supernatural elements (e.g., soul, magic, etc.) as additional variables that would possibly be included as part of explanations.

All of this is exactly the sort of thing I was really hoping the 3e-era Book of Erotic Fantasy would deep-dive into. Major disappointment there.

Well maybe it's because you were treating the Book of Erotic Fantasy as if it would be the Book of Genetic Fantasy. I don't generally think of Erotica as a genre that is particularly concerned with the molecular mechanics of genetics though it may certainly be concerned with selective breeding.

 

[Weiley31]

3e-era Book of Erotic Fantasy would deep-dive into.

At least we got the Dwarves and their massive sex library.

 

[TwoSix]

Well maybe it's because you were treating the Book of Erotic Fantasy as if it would be the Book of Genetic Fantasy. I don't generally think of Erotica as a genre that is particularly concerned with the molecular mechanics of genetics though it may certainly be concerned with selective breeding.

Which is kind of funny, because when you think about how popular races like tiefling, aasimar, and genasi are (thinking back to their 2e origin as part-fiends, part-celestial, and part-elemental), I think a book of fantasy hybrid rules would probably be somewhat popular.

 

[Bacon Bits]

Given the nature of the physics of the D&D multiverse -- namely, that there are four basic elements, and that matter can also be constituted from ideas, that faster than light travel is not particularly difficult, that travel between realities, dimensions, and times is possible, that energy can be arbitrarily created and destroyed, etc. -- I don't see any reason for genetics as we understand them to be equivalent in a D&D setting.

Simply put, the setting only exists to serve the narrative. If the narrative demands equivalent genetics, then they exist. If it doesn't, then they don't need to. It is fundamentally an irrelevant aspect of the game world.

So, my question is: "To what end? What purpose would genetics serve?"

 

[tetrasodium]

Before humans knew or understood genes, it was understood children looked like their parents and shared traits of their parents. I think Dungeons and Dragons worlds generally operate under a cosmology informed by pre-science paradigms. When you start applying actual scientific thinking to a dungeons and dragons world, things tend to break down at certain points (a good example of this is the Mordenheim novel for Ravenloft where Victor Mordernheim tries to reconcile science and magic (which he calls 'new science'). Also races in D&D are not like races in the real world. Real world races are all contained within humans. Demihumans in D&D are closer to subspecies like Neanderthals or mythic peoples that ancient world geographers used to describe. In D&D the difference between a human and elf is greater than the difference between even the difference between a real world human and a neanderthal (and connected to cosmological forces in many D&D worlds, not to a concept like genetics).

Depends on the setting too. Some are further along than others. If you've ever wondered why solar panels are technically "solar panel voltaics" it's because they were discovered/invented almost 200 years ago in 1849. Just knowing something doesn't mean that all of the links in the chain between applying it exist or exist in an affordable state either. The electric dynamo/generator started coming together like 20-30 years prior to that & it was largely advances in precision manufacturing that allowed it to happen. Things like the light bulb & electric motors later invented made the generator useful years later. Hippolyte Pixii probably wasn't the first to put some wire & magnets together with a wheel or spinning thing, it just wasn't useful enough for anyone to care or it was too much effort to accomplish the result if they did have a use.

Eberron is in a similar state where they are technologically on par with our late 1800s early 1900s era tech but due to parallel development along a very different fork they are going to be dramatically behind us in other areas like metallurgy. Someone may have invented a cannon or even an early model of portable firearm, but it's dangerous poorly understood & prone to blowing itself apart in the user's hand even before you get into the fact that it's not any better than existing well understood easy to teach bits of technology like wands that don't need you to carry a dangerous substance prone to blowing you up. Knowing how to design a revolver doesn't change the fact that they are decades if not centuries behind on metallurgy needed for it to not blow apart despite advances in additive/subtractive manufacturing making the actual machining easier. Rather than developing metallurgy they may instead have developed simple enchantments that give the needed properties for a sword/armor/etc to what might be little more than worked iron or even bronze. For whatever reason those enchantments don't cut it for firearms & even if they did cantrips & leveled spells are still going to have a massive pile of pro's over the one con of "but in an antimagic field".

 

[Swarmkeeper]

Interesting cross over topic.

I just hope no one tries to tie this discussion back to midichlorians. Those things are not real. Not IRL and not in fantasy - nowhere nohow.

 

[Lanefan]

Before humans knew or understood genes, it was understood children looked like their parents and shared traits of their parents. I think Dungeons and Dragons worlds generally operate under a cosmology informed by pre-science paradigms.

From the point of view of the PCs (and, perhaps, their players), yes.

As the DM trying to design it all, however, I need to figure out what's really going on under the hood and how it actually works in the setting.

When you start applying actual scientific thinking to a dungeons and dragons world, things tend to break down at certain points (a good example of this is the Mordenheim novel for Ravenloft where Victor Mordernheim tries to reconcile science and magic (which he calls 'new science'). Also races in D&D are not like races in the real world. Real world races are all contained within humans. Demihumans in D&D are closer to subspecies like Neanderthals or mythic peoples that ancient world geographers used to describe. In D&D the difference between a human and elf is greater than the difference between even the difference between a real world human and a neanderthal (and connected to cosmological forces in many D&D worlds, not to a concept like genetics).

My line of thinking simply denies the bolded bit, and instead posits they're genetically similar enough to interbreed. (or, conversely, that interbreeding capability doesn't require quite as much genetic similarity as in the real world; it works either way)

The advantage of most typical D&D settings is that there's a massive amount of somewhat-similar creatures - way more than in reality - which allows for this sort of thing to become possible and-or plausible.

 

[Lanefan]

Well maybe it's because you were treating the Book of Erotic Fantasy as if it would be the Book of Genetic Fantasy. I don't generally think of Erotica as a genre that is particularly concerned with the molecular mechanics of genetics though it may certainly be concerned with selective breeding.

At the very least, pregnancy odds for different species and-or combinations of species would have been useful; along with some discussion of what could breed with what and how (or if) the offspring would mechanically relate to the parents. Even better would have been something about recessive genes and their odds or arising in a descendant e.g. your PC's great-grandmother was impregnated by Zeus, resulting in the birth of your grandfather, meaning that your ancestry is technically 1/16 deity - what are the odds of this somehow affecting your character?

But alas, none of this found its way into the BoEF.

 

[MGibster]

As the DM trying to design it all, however, I need to figure out what's really going on under the hood and how it actually works in the setting.

But do you? It just might be my laziness talking, but I tend not to think about the nuts and bolts of my settings unless I expect it to come up in game play.

 

[Lanefan]

But do you? It just might be my laziness talking, but I tend not to think about the nuts and bolts of my settings unless I expect it to come up in game play.

Oh, I do - mostly because if I think about it and nail it down ahead of time then a) I'm not left floundering if-when it does come up in play, and b) if it's something big I can proactively bring it up either in play or before play starts.

And in this particular case, regarding genetics and character ancestry, it comes up right at char-gen: as an option after choosing/rolling race you can roll (against fairly steep odds) to see if there's anything unusual about your ancestry. Does your Human have a tinge of Elf somewhere in its background - or Orc, or Hobbit, or deity, or ... ?