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Does Your Fantasy Race Really Matter In Game? (The Gnome Problem)
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<blockquote data-quote="MGibster" data-source="post: 7634994" data-attributes="member: 4534"><p>I want you to step in the way back machine and think about all the Dungeons & Dragons games you've participate in. Did it really matter what fantasy race a player chose for his or her character? Obviously there were mechanical reasons to chose one race over another for attribute bonuses, special abilities, and access to kits or prestige classes but what difference did it make in the campaign? Would there be a noticeable difference in the campaign had your human Fighter been a goliath, an elf, or a dragonborn? At the risk of sounding presumptuous I'll bet the answer is probably no. </p><p></p><p>I recently came across what I call the Gnome Problem. I was creating my own campaign setting and since we have rules for all these races the only reasonable thing to do was to shoehorn them into my setting. <em>"Why would you do this, MGibster?</em> I can hear you ask. It's just kind of expected, isn't it? If I invited you over to play some D&D it would not be unreasonable of you to expect to play any one of the races from the Player's Handbook. </p><p></p><p>As I was figuring out the broad strokes behind my setting I had humans, various elfs, dwarfs, halfings, orcs, and even tieflings figured out but then I got to gnomes. I couldn't think of any reason to add them to the setting beyond that they should just be in a D&D setting. (I ended up making them near extinct having been the victims of the big bad evil empire of the setting.) It got me to thinking about whether or not I really needed drow, halfings, or orcs at all. </p><p></p><p>Not every fantasy race works for every campaign setting. Personally I think dragonborn and half-orcs don't belong anywhere near Ravenloft. If you've got a setting where demons don't mate with demi-humans then tieflings probably won't work. At least not as written and then why bother having tieflings in the first place?</p><p></p><p>I just don't think having a plethora of available races necessarily adds much of anything to the setting. Anyone with me or am I out on a limb here?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MGibster, post: 7634994, member: 4534"] I want you to step in the way back machine and think about all the Dungeons & Dragons games you've participate in. Did it really matter what fantasy race a player chose for his or her character? Obviously there were mechanical reasons to chose one race over another for attribute bonuses, special abilities, and access to kits or prestige classes but what difference did it make in the campaign? Would there be a noticeable difference in the campaign had your human Fighter been a goliath, an elf, or a dragonborn? At the risk of sounding presumptuous I'll bet the answer is probably no. I recently came across what I call the Gnome Problem. I was creating my own campaign setting and since we have rules for all these races the only reasonable thing to do was to shoehorn them into my setting. [I]"Why would you do this, MGibster?[/I] I can hear you ask. It's just kind of expected, isn't it? If I invited you over to play some D&D it would not be unreasonable of you to expect to play any one of the races from the Player's Handbook. As I was figuring out the broad strokes behind my setting I had humans, various elfs, dwarfs, halfings, orcs, and even tieflings figured out but then I got to gnomes. I couldn't think of any reason to add them to the setting beyond that they should just be in a D&D setting. (I ended up making them near extinct having been the victims of the big bad evil empire of the setting.) It got me to thinking about whether or not I really needed drow, halfings, or orcs at all. Not every fantasy race works for every campaign setting. Personally I think dragonborn and half-orcs don't belong anywhere near Ravenloft. If you've got a setting where demons don't mate with demi-humans then tieflings probably won't work. At least not as written and then why bother having tieflings in the first place? I just don't think having a plethora of available races necessarily adds much of anything to the setting. Anyone with me or am I out on a limb here? [/QUOTE]
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