D&D 5E Do you restrict racial choices in your games?

[jgsugden]

D&D is a collaborative exercise. As a DM, I create a basic world, a basic storyline, and basic NPCs. Then I talk to my players, present the basics, and ask what they're interested in doing. If they want to play a humanoid type that is not described by the basics, I add it in based upon their suggestions. My world has just been rebooted (as I moved across the country), but the original version grew over 30+ years and had the fingerprints of over a hundred players that left a lasting impact on it. The revised version maintains much of that influence (although I overhauled the Gods entirely as the first version ended up being a little too abstract for the fancy of most players - that changed or negated some of those contributions unfortunately - although some of it may 'come back' someday).

I had no Loxodon before, obviously. They were unknown to D&D before a year ago. However, when a player said they wanted their next PC to be a Loxodon, I worked them into the revised world. I changed a prominent NPC from the first version (that the PCs in the second version had not met) into a Loxodon, and it worked perfectly. I've given them an organic place in my campaign so that when we go to those next PCs, his PC has a place to fit in the world.

 

[Ringtail]

It depends on the world, when I run something like the Forgotten Realms, I allow anything published for 5th Edition. If I were to run Exandria (Critical Role) I think I would do the same, as Exandria is the same generic-D&D fantasy world with plenty of blank spaces for new cultures.

For Midgard (Kobold Press) and Eberron, I have, and will limit selection to only what exists in that world and possibly even region. (Minotaurs are uncommon outside of the Seven Cities for example.) I'm open to negotiating on a case-by-case basis but those are exceptions to the rules and I'll say no if it will violate the tone of the game.

 

[Helldritch]

I fully limit players to campaign setting races. I also restrict to PHB races with no optional races save half-elves. All other races are on case by case basis. We discuss with the other players if your concept is "acceptable" to the goals and dynamics of the party the majority wants to play.

 

[manduck]

I've only ever restricted races once. I was running a zombie apocalypse game and I didn't allow construct or undead PCs. I wanted everyone to be at risk of infection. Other than that, I never restrict races. I want the player to enjoy their character and play what they want. If I didn't think of a particular race in my game, I ask the player to tell me about their choice. Then I take what they tell me and work it into the game. That way they're excited about their character and my world is a little bit richer. Plus they do the work of figuring out how it fits into the game for me. So it's no hassle.

 

[clearstream]

D&D is a collaborative exercise.

On the world-building and adventure design-side, it may be, but it also may not be.

 

[TheSword]

It's easy to justify.

"Why can't I play a half-orc?"

"Orcs don't have children, they are spawned from vegetal growths in the birthing pits of the Great Maw."

"Why can't I play a gnome."

"No such thing."

It seems very limiting to be to think that you're only allowed to conceive of campaign settings that allow for all the options in the PHB.

Yes, having to create a new origin story for Orcs is definitely more work than just accepting that half Orcs may exist.

What I’m saying is that it’s an effort to come up with reasons why a person can’t play one of the core classes. I’m not saying it can’t be done.

I do have to question if it’s worth the effort of excluding Dragonborn, tieflings etc. Unless it’s essential to the campaign...

 

[turnip_farmer]

Yes, having to create a new origin story for Orcs is definitely more work than just accepting that half Orcs may exist.

What I’m saying is that it’s an effort to come up with reasons why a person can’t play one of the core classes. I’m not saying it can’t be done.

I do have to question if it’s worth the effort of excluding Dragonborn, tieflings etc. Unless it’s essential to the campaign...

You're thinking about it completely backwards. I'm not talking about retroactively inventing something to justify why half-Orcs don't exist. I just already have an idea in my head of how I want orcs to work; and sothat's part of the pre-defined setting. I don't think about adhoc explanations for why something doesn't exist. I think about fictional settings that draw from concepts that appeal to me. The effort would entail coming up ways to shoehorn in gnomes and half-orcs if they don't fit with the idea I had.

Obviously, a setting needs player buy in. If the only people I have to play with really want to play gnomes or half orcs than I need to rethink my setting or not play. But 'neither gnomes nor half-orcs fit the idea of the fictional world I have in my head' is more than sufficient justification for saying 'no gnomes or half-orcs'.

 

[Stormonu]

As a side question, I tend to run a lot of Greyhawk - how do others handle Dragonborn, Tieflings, Warforged (Eberron), Shifters (Eberron), Changlings (Eberron), Drow and any of the others from different books/campaign resources?

I've allowed all of the above in my game - the two Warforged were relics from the Great Devastation, the majority of Tieflings are from the lands of Iuz, Shifters from the various Nomads, Changlings were a renegade race spawned from a failed Scarlett Brotherhood attempt to create infiltrators, the Drow had survived the destruction of their house in Erelhei-Cinlu. I haven't come up with where the heck Dragonborn come from - possibly former dragon servants from lands beyond the west or perhaps the original inhabitants of Blackmoor (or should I have those be Kalashtar from Eberron)?

 

[Bacon Bits]

I’d find it very hard to justify not allowing a PHB race in a game. Like I’d have to question if I was even being reasonable.

I don't find it difficult. I'm running a Greyhawk campaign (on hold due to pandemic) and I've limited the game to Humans, Half-Elves, Elves (High [grey/valley] and Wood [wild]), Gnomes (forest or rock, though they're different subcultures of the same race), Dwarves (mountain or hill, though, again, subcultures of the same race), Halflings (ditto), and Half-Orcs. Those are the races that exist in Greyhawk.

Greyhawk -- as I have always viewed it -- has lots of cultures that are xenophobic and insular after the apocalypse of the Twin Cataclysms, and the rise of Iuz had made them even more so. It's not a melting pot. It doesn't benefit from modern sensibilities. It's post-apocalyptic, modestly grimdark, largely feudalistic, and nearly the twilight of human civilization. It's law vs chaos in the colonial sense of human civilization vs the wilderness... and chaos has spent the past several millennia winning. The people are much more likely to shoot first and ask questions later, and they casually label each other monsters.

I had a player ask to be a Drow. I said no because Drow are kill-on-sight to the surface races after the recent activity of Lolth. I had another player ask to play as a Goliath, I said sure, but you must be a snow, frost, or ice barbarian because that's what that race was basically created to represent. Similarly dragonborn do not exist; lizardfolk do, but they are are substantially different and are even more xenophobic than most races in the setting. Tieflings technically exist, but they're exclusively the result of demonic experiments conducted by Iuz and such a creature would in Iuz's forces or dead. Again, you'd be kill-on-sight to the "good-aligned" (a very loose term) races.

I do have to question if it’s worth the effort of excluding Dragonborn, tieflings etc. Unless it’s essential to the campaign...

No more so than deciding that Wookies, Vulcans, Narns, samurai, gunslingers, superhumans, etc. are worth the effort of excluding. Stories, and therefore settings, are defined by what they are not as much as by what they are. That helps set the tone of the game and the style of play.

I think Matt Colville's video on saying, "No," really covers the issue pretty completely, especially with how the player's choice of race can undermine the setting.

 

[CydKnight]

I can't think of an instance that I disallowed a race in a game I was running. I suppose anything is doable as long as the background story makes sense.