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

[Micah Sweet]

Of course. And I wouldn't encourage them to do that. But I don't think that D&D needs lore in the core rulebooks, at least not to the extent you do.

I don't really care what they put in the 6e books, as I'm not buying them. I'm just curious what they come up with. The Level Up books have me covered personally.

 

[Faolyn]

I cannot stress how incredibly difficult a skill writing xenofiction is. It takes years of practice and study and MOST OF IT STILL SUCKS.

Your whole post, perfect!

But with this particular issue, I also want to point out that depending on the race, the player, and the group, going for truly non-human can be really, really creepy. Over on r/rpghorrorstories there's been a ton of posts over the years involving particularly obnoxious players with a furry fetish playing anthro races. I've even read a horror story or two about furry players who spent so much time talking about the position of the ears and how their tail was flicking that it caused tension, even without any creepy "I'm a cat, of course I'm going to lick my crotch in public" stuff.

Even in the actual D&D books, lizardfolk are written as emotionless cannibals and that's something that could break up a group if done by a player who takes things too far.

If you really go too far into xenofiction, even "normal" D&D races like elves and dwarfs can become people you probably don't want in your party. If your dwarf player decides that dwarfs value gold more than non-dwarfs, or your elf player decides that a thousand-year lifespan means never hurrying, no matter what (those short-lived humans were going to die anyway), then those are players who are likely not going to play well with the rest of the party.

 

[Vaalingrade]

It would be nice to have lore books back again. A nice setting book that's not an adventure? It'd be pretty great.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Your whole post, perfect!

But with this particular issue, I also want to point out that depending on the race, the player, and the group, going for truly non-human can be really, really creepy. Over on r/rpghorrorstories there's been a ton of posts over the years involving particularly obnoxious players with a furry fetish playing anthro races. I've even read a horror story or two about furry players who spent so much time talking about the position of the ears and how their tail was flicking that it caused tension, even without any creepy "I'm a cat, of course I'm going to lick my crotch in public" stuff.

Even in the actual D&D books, lizardfolk are written as emotionless cannibals and that's something that could break up a group if done by a player who takes things too far.

If you really go too far into xenofiction, even "normal" D&D races like elves and dwarfs can become people you probably don't want in your party. If your dwarf player decides that dwarfs value gold more than non-dwarfs, or your elf player decides that a thousand-year lifespan means never hurrying, no matter what (those short-lived humans were going to die anyway), then those are players who are likely not going to play well with the rest of the party.

Yeah, there's definitely a spectrum there.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

It would be nice to have lore books back again. A nice setting book that's not an adventure? It'd be pretty great.

Does Fizban's not count as a lore book?

 

[Scribe]

You and others keep harping on this "intelligence ABSOLUTELY COULD NOT POSSIBLY permit multiple intelligent species at the same time." But the fact his, in actual Earth history, that happened. Indeed, it might have been a thing for longer than all of recorded human history. (Recorded human history began ca. 4th millennium BC; Neanderthal and Anatomically Modern Humans apparently lived together for at least twice as long, possibly pushing ten times as long, with no known paleontological evidence that the two populations specially targeted one another for conflict.

And where are they now? Yes, there are a few % of their DNA within the species still in some populations, but...gone. And consider the tech level, the population level, of those earlier hominid's. Their ability to project power, to grow their populations, to wage war.

Now, instead, imagine its pseudo-medieval, and we have magic, and opposing gods. Look at the sad history of our world, and the various cultures within, when there is a power disparity.

In actual human history, yes, when the triumph our our species ancestors was to be slightly beyond the reach of the beasts of the world, separate groups may or may not have lived near eachother, and may or may not, have wiped eachother out.

Not exactly comparable to the various races of our Fantasy worlds, to me.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Does Fizban's not count as a lore book?

Not count for what? Lore? As I've said, not a fan of what we've seen of the First World so far. Mechanics were ok.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Not count for what? Lore? As I've said, not a fan of what we've seen of the First World so far. Mechanics were ok.

But it counts as lore. It's a lore book. It goes pretty in-depth about the behaviors of dragons, their factions/religions, their origins (or what they believe are their origins in 5e), where the various worlds of D&D come from, and the behavior of dragons across the Multiverse. Disliking it doesn't make it not count as a lore book.

 

[Micah Sweet]

But it counts as lore. It's a lore book. It goes pretty in-depth about the behaviors of dragons, their origins (or what they believe are their origins in 5e), and where the various worlds of D&D come from. Disliking it doesn't make it not count as a lore book.

Oh, sure. It counts as a lorebook.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Oh, sure. It counts as a lorebook.

That's what I was asking @Vaalingrade.