D&D General Do you like LOTS of races/ancestries/whatever? If so, why?

[Oofta]

If people didn't use such openly dismissive terms, I might be able to agree with you. But it is almost always extremely clear that these terms are intended to be derogatory.


Strange. I've seen people say exactly that, numerous times, on this very forum.


Then it would be nice if people actually said that instead of resorting to tired, mocking cliches.


The vast majority of the sapient races in most D&D worlds are direct creations of the gods, and that is explicit in their origins. Like...I genuinely don't understand why you would need to ask the question. This is almost always answered explicitly with either "god(s) did it," "wizards did it," or "mad science did it." Proper, ordinary evolution is almost never the actual root of fantasy world races.

The point was that there are numerous apex predator species on Earth, many of which actually share territory by focusing on different kinds of hunting. E.g. cheetahs and lions live in the same general area, wolves and cougars and bears are all found all over North America, sharks and orcas may share the same waters, etc. The existence of multiple sapient species doesn't seem any more far-fetched...especially since that was actually true even of human beings for quite a bit longer than recorded human history.

People have been stating their opinions on what matters to them and why. We all have different priorities and visions.

Disagreeing with someone is not the same as being derogatory.

 

[DND_Reborn]

So unless you're really carefully curating your monster list also exclude most or all sentient monsters, does it really matter if you also have a bunch of playable humanoids as well?

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It depends on how common such "sentient monsters" are... which in my game is not very common.

If you include humanoids as monsters but not as PC races (like orcs and kobolds), then the list becomes even larger.

Which I do. I very rarely allow PCs to play such "monster humanoid" races, and when I do they must understand their PC will face a lot of challenges while in many regions.

Between this and the constant drive to make magic rare and the constant chant of 'verisimilitude', it seems to me that a lot of fans of this Fantasy game don't really like Fantasy. It's more like they want Historical Fiction but with a handful of wizards.

Finally, someone GETS IT! (j/k)

A lot of players like to play Tolkien-like setting, which is close as most like to the Historical Fiction with a handful of wizards. Others prefer magic as common as water and a cantina full of races to play and interact with. And there are lots of variations in between.

All of these are fantasy, just FYI. So, we like Fantasy just fine, thank you.

 

[Mecheon]

What different niches do humans and orcs fill?

Humans are their ol' endurance walking selves, whereas orcs are adapted for nocturnal enviroments or caves. Or handling strong stuff given their strength

 

[Faolyn]

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It depends on how common such "sentient monsters" are... which in my game is not very common.

Sentient monsters aren't that common in mine, either but... why does it matter for you?

 

[DND_Reborn]

Sentient monsters aren't that common in mine, either but... why does it matter for you?

Who ever said it did? I really don't care what you do in your game...

 

[Faolyn]

Who ever said it did? I really don't care what you do in your game...

Uh, you did, when you wrote YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's why I asked why it mattered for you.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Uh, you did, when you wrote YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's why I asked why it mattered for you.

Sorry, I thought you meant why does it matter to me that "sentient monsters aren't that common in mine", etc., which of course it doesn't matter to me.

So, to address this:

does it really matter if you also have a bunch of playable humanoids as well?

It matters for all the reasons I wrote upthread, such as:

Nope. I don't like it at all. I agree it feels more like a Star Wars cantina.

For me, it makes the fantasy world feel more "grounded" and less a collection of "aliens" like Star Wars. IMO that is great for SW, but not for D&D. When I have only 8-10 races (maximum) typically in my games, it allows me to really develop them more in the history of the setting, etc.

D&D replaces many (human) cultures (as in "our" world) with many races.

No issues with that, but nothing that would generally appeal to me. To each their own.

Your preference is for more races, mine is for more cultures. Star Wars is a game of many "worlds", not just countries. It is more believable for me that in such a game (with space travel) you are likely to have dozens or even hundreds of species that can intermingle. Many D&D worlds IME are more constrained than that IMO and so have fewer races, because given "human-nature" anyway we tend not to tolerate many rivals.

(Note, apparently doctorbadwolf has blocked me LOL!, so those parts of my quotes aren't showing... maybe they are for you?)

 

[J.Quondam]

Whoah! There are at least 326 exclamation points in the previous six posts!

 

[Older Beholder]

There's also the really important factor: that being able to play lots of different races is fun.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Whoah! There are at least 326 exclamation points in the previous six posts!

Ah, but they aren't unique! Just repetitions of my original YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(And I don't think it is really that many... )