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

[dave2008]

There is also the Clone spell which uses a scientific term derived from the study of genetics.

Just wanted to point out "clone" did not come from the study of genetics, but horticulture. Science Dictionary: Clone

It literally means "twig" and was used to: "...describe the process where you take a graft or a cutting or a slip from one plant and then propagate it vegetatively or asexually to grow another plant."

Evidently scifi writers were the ones to start using the term with regard to making duplicates of people.

 

[BookTenTiger]

Just wanted to point out "clone" did not come from the study of genetics, but horticulture. Science Dictionary: Clone

It literally means "twig" and was used to: "...describe the process where you take a graft or a cutting or a slip from one plant and then propagate it vegetatively or asexually to grow another plant."

Evidently scifi writers were the ones to start using the term with regard to making duplicates of people.

There should be a lower-level "Graft" spell where in order to grow a new body you have to stick your detached arm onto a different person, and it slowly grows from there.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

Just wanted to point out "clone" did not come from the study of genetics, but horticulture. Science Dictionary: Clone

It literally means "twig" and was used to: "...describe the process where you take a graft or a cutting or a slip from one plant and then propagate it vegetatively or asexually to grow another plant."

Evidently scifi writers were the ones to start using the term with regard to making duplicates of people.

Thanks for the catch....I actually looked up the origin of clone on Mirriam Webster before posting and its game a much shorter answer of having first been used in 1903, but not further detail. I had assumed it came from the study of heredity, but before DNA was discovered.

But the original thought still stands...the Clone spell comes from the DNA/genetics definition of the word....although grafting your head onto a different body would be a cool sort of alternate Polymorph for a deranged bad guy.

 

[Lanefan]

There should be a lower-level "Graft" spell where in order to grow a new body you have to stick your detached arm onto a different person, and it slowly grows from there.

Yeah, that worked so well for Vecna...

 

[Bawylie]

No.

All matter wells upward from the elemental chaos and is arranged into the material world by divine order imposed from above. Material Creation (stuff) is the interaction of elemental chaos shaped by divine ordination

Bloodlines are ordained by deities originally and heritability comes through deeds while alive. So you literally change your family tree by your deeds.

The world mostly behaves as expected but the mechanism/explanations are not laws of physics and all that - more like classical elements and creationism.

That’s how I do it in my home brew.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Bloodlines are ordained by deities originally and heritability comes through deeds while alive. So you literally change your family tree by your deeds.

This. This right here? This is how you D&D.

 

[DammitVictor]

I wish we would stop asking ourselves whether or not something exists "in D&D" and start asking whether or not it exists in a specific D&D world.

It is reasonable to assume things work in D&D the way they work in the real world unless otherwise specified-- though a lot of things are otherwise specified-- but there are just a whole lot of parts of D&D that are "otherwise specified" without even vague implications of "magic", and this includes practically the entirety of the concept of "race" and "subraces" and "half-races". Having these things in every setting, using the same magic to explain them in every setting completely undermines the purpose of having different settings.

 

[BookTenTiger]

I wish we would stop asking ourselves whether or not something exists "in D&D" and start asking whether or not it exists in a specific D&D world.

It is reasonable to assume things work in D&D the way they work in the real world unless otherwise specified-- though a lot of things are otherwise specified-- but there are just a whole lot of parts of D&D that are "otherwise specified" without even vague implications of "magic", and this includes practically the entirety of the concept of "race" and "subraces" and "half-races". Having these things in every setting, using the same magic to explain them in every setting completely undermines the purpose of having different settings.

So tell us about your setting!

 

[MGibster]

I wish we would stop asking ourselves whether or not something exists "in D&D" and start asking whether or not it exists in a specific D&D world.

That's a fair point. Each setting can be very, very different from one another.

 

[Erik Alt]

Something I see brought up in a lot of recent discussions is the "genetic" differences between, say, halflings and minotaurs.

This makes me wonder - are there genes in D&D? Is there DNA?

In classic Greek Mythology, the Minotaur is obviously not a line of people but a single individual. He is not the result of generations of mutations, but instead a curse by an angry god.

In the Forgotten Realms, the dwarves did not become short, stout, and gain darkvision after hundreds of thousands of years of selective breeding. They were forged by Moradin on a giant anvil.

So do you think genetics exist in Dungeons & Dragons? Do germs? What about other modern discoveries that were mythologized in a medieval world?

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In my opinion, genes do not exist in D&D. Children are born with brown hair or darkvision or horns because that is the will of the gods, not because of dominant and recessive genes. A rooster can give birth to a cockatrice. Humans can give birth to tieflings not because their great grandfather had hooves, but because they made a bad deal with a devil.

That's my two cents, anyways!

(Please not this is a very different opinion than I have about real-life genetics!!!)

Doubt it. There in no reason to posit real world gubbins in a fantasy world. Even the "Humans" are not like us. Fantasy worlds are made of magic.