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Does Your Fantasy Race Really Matter In Game? (The Gnome Problem)
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<blockquote data-quote="Shadowdweller" data-source="post: 7636024" data-attributes="member: 14563"><p>From a gaming standpoint, I think the myriad races serve an important and valuable role. In some ways BECAUSE of the stereotypes: They provide a scaffold (much like Class and in 5e, Background) with which to develop a personality. Not, of course, that people can't roleplay WITHOUT race. But given the hordes of individuals who either don't roleplay a consistent character or roleplay with the finesse of a two-by-four (i.e. none at all), I'm happy to have even terrible stereotypes. I much prefer them to two-by-fours amongst my playgroups. Despite any potential overlap in role and character between individual races (/species), there are always differences between them. Is it ever actually beneficial to decrease the number of available colors in your palette?</p><p></p><p>Here's a DMing tip though: If a player wants to use a race that you think just doesn't fit in your game world, consider asking them whether it's the mechanical aspects or the lore about it that appeal to them; and then consider which part of their request doesn't seem to fit. Because it's trivially easy to reskin one race as a variation or subrace of another. Perhaps halflings in your game world are really a type of gnome. Or vise versa. Half-orcs could actually be a type of genasi.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Shadowdweller, post: 7636024, member: 14563"] From a gaming standpoint, I think the myriad races serve an important and valuable role. In some ways BECAUSE of the stereotypes: They provide a scaffold (much like Class and in 5e, Background) with which to develop a personality. Not, of course, that people can't roleplay WITHOUT race. But given the hordes of individuals who either don't roleplay a consistent character or roleplay with the finesse of a two-by-four (i.e. none at all), I'm happy to have even terrible stereotypes. I much prefer them to two-by-fours amongst my playgroups. Despite any potential overlap in role and character between individual races (/species), there are always differences between them. Is it ever actually beneficial to decrease the number of available colors in your palette? Here's a DMing tip though: If a player wants to use a race that you think just doesn't fit in your game world, consider asking them whether it's the mechanical aspects or the lore about it that appeal to them; and then consider which part of their request doesn't seem to fit. Because it's trivially easy to reskin one race as a variation or subrace of another. Perhaps halflings in your game world are really a type of gnome. Or vise versa. Half-orcs could actually be a type of genasi. [/QUOTE]
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