How is the best selling Realms books all being from 3e "going back to its roots"? 3e made some very deep changes to the Realms. Particularly moving it away from trad fantasy and into having a bajillion PC races and very much embracing changes made in 2e.
Well, Ed's book is not from 3rd edition, it's really a throwback to 1st edition since that's the Realms that is closest to his own. In addition, the 1st and 2nd edition books are not as readily available, combined with the popularity of the 3rd edition rules. I just found it interesting.
While there are a lot more playable races in the 3rd edition, the sourcebooks themselves don't give any impression that those races are common. Planetouched, while pictured as more exotic, are nevertheless described as appearing primarily as human, and the concept of planetouched works really well with the Realms cosmology. The 2nd Edition was still made with a lot of Ed's involvement as well. So while he didn't embrace all of the changes in his campaign, the general feel was fairly consistent with the 1st edition.
Otherwise, the majority of the races in the actual Realms supplements are just existing monster races, now playable. In some areas that works very well. For example, if you wanted to run a native campaign in the Underdark, then you'd have a party of races native to the Underdark. Coming up with reasons for multiple races to work together, along with the interesting role-playing opportunities such an unlikely alliance would present would be quite cool. Taking that same party to the surface and expecting the general population to ignore that it's a group of "monsters" is a whole different thing.
But while gnolls are common in Thay, for example, and creating a gnoll character would work there, they also don't receive a warm treatment even in their homeland.
The pattern for 3rd edition releases was to include new races, (prestige) classes, spells, magic items, and/or monsters in every supplement. However, once you got into the lore portion of those books, the new races and such were almost entirely ignored. Gnolls are mentioned a number of times, but as monsters, or fighters and guards hired by the Thayans. Other races, such as the Taer and Volodni exist only in their specific regions, and if one of them were seen outside of those, PC or otherwise, people would treat them differently. Aside from the fact that it would be very, very rare, as in mostly never. It specifically says, for example, that they are "isolated in the remoter portions of the region or found only here."
So yes, they are available as playable races, but they are presented in a way that doesn't change the fundamental nature of the Realms. Individual campaigns, of course, could go whatever direction they wanted. And whether something is very rare, or even nearly unique, once you put it in as an option (and this includes the video games), they start to feel common. The natural assumption being that they are everywhere.
3E added Thrii-Kreen to the realms
I mean, don't get me wrong, I am a Kreen fan through and through and gladly take the opportunity to play everyone's favourite mantis-people, but 3E was sort of the edition where they decided "Well, we need a setting where we can shove everything" and FR became it
Dragonborn are fine in cities when you consider what they're not. Which is any of the very present other 1,001 threats your average village might face
(I think I once had a sorcerer character in NWN who's entire backstory was that their parents were semi-famous adventurers due to defeating a bloody Pyroclastic dragon who someone found its way into FR. They also managed to blind a Drow by casting Light on their raven because it was 3 AM and they were a bit tired with squinting)
Actually, Thri-Kreen have been mentioned as monsters in the south, the Shining Plains and Shaar since the 2nd Edition Campaign Setting. There is also note in that set of thri-kreen being among the monsters of the Mindulgulph Mercenary Company of Priapurl. They also include wemics, beholders, and other monsters.
With the Shining South, they introduced them as playable races. This followed suit with the general approach to make as many playable races as possible. But they are indicates as "reclusive and alien, even to those that share the plains with them." I like that they have unusual monsters and races in the Shaar and the south, it should feel like a foreign land in nearly every way. But I also think that those monsters and races are limited by culture and biology. Loxo are the same way.
I don't see any reason to turn either of them into playable races, really. The loxo, for example, are shown is standard D&D-era clothing with a dagger, and the thri-kreen have specialized weapons, one of which appears to be forged metal (presumably steel), the other crystalline. The thri-kreen is also wearing a skirt (Kilt? Loincloth?) when it doesn't really require anything of the sort.
Now, as other alien races you could argue that they brought the technologies of mining, metallurgy, smithing, etc., with them. Except that the rest of their culture in the Realms doesn't seem to support that. You could argue that they trade with others (and it does state the the loxo do), but again, for what? Some people might like things that look 'exotic' so trinkets and art. But I would think that as nomadic hunters on the great plains of the Shaar that they would have all crystalline, stone, or bone weapons.
More importantly, the thri-kreen are described as having "no solid personalities as humans would define them. Unpredictable in everything they do, thri-kreen do not evidence much emotion in their behavioral patterns...the focus of the thri-kreen is always on survival, and they respect only prowess and strength," and they "neither seek nor shun contact with other races. They simply exist with other species and share territory so long as others do not begin to over hunt an area or waste precious resources." and "Lacking any sense of honor or loyalty, thri-kreen are a hard species with which to negotiate."
The loxo are a little better, essentially a 'primitive' culture of peaceful creatures that are only aggressive in self defense. It says they occasionally come to cities to trade their "rustic works of art" but I'm not sure what they would be trading for. I don't see them as a race that would use money, nor be trained in the use of weapons.
They try to give both of them a reason to be an adventurer, but they really don't make good PC races unless you ignore how alien they are, and play them as mostly human in a monster skin.
So I love that they exist where they do, as monsters. It makes sense. They won't be wandering around many cities, although I could see the thri-kreen being used as a sort of intelligent pet, and that's how I'd probably approach the one in the Mindulgulph Mercenary Company.
I've already covered in great detail why I think that dragonborn would be viewed in a worse light than simply being "one of the 1,001 threats they're not." But the way that exotic races were introduced in the 2nd and 3rd edition, as rare creatures from a specific region, and some with quite unique treatments in regards to personalities, culture, and their relationships with the civilized cultures of the Realms is much better thought out and presented than the minimal treatment that the dragonborn received.
On the other hand, it's not surprising because in the 4th Ed, races and classes were for the most part the driving forces of the game, not the settings and lore. Throw in the video games in which not only are there lots of playable races, but that they are presented visually, and it's easy to see that the focus was/is very, very different.
For those of us that started prior 1st edition, the "proper" way to roll a character was at the table. You rolled your stats, in order, using only 3d6. Because of race and class requirements, your abilities limited the options for selecting either. By the 1st Ed DMG (and several Dragon articles if I recall), other methods were used, but most everybody I've ever met used the 4d6 minus the lowest, arrange as you desire method so you had some control in choosing your class. The ability requirements, plus race level limitations, had a direct effect on how common a given race or class was in the game itself. Which meant the game as a whole had a feel that reflected how common those races and classes were in the setting. Paladins
required a STR 12, INT and CON of 9, WIS 13, and CHA 17. Characters with high abilities also gained a +10% XP bonus, and for a paladin that meant a STR and WIS of 15. Imagine before the publication of the DMG and the alternate methods to generate ability scores how common paladins were in our games when you had to roll those stats, using 3d6. In order. Paladins were very, very rare.
Then there were racial restrictions. Humans could reach any level in any class. Elves could be fighters (max 7th level, 6th if 16 or lower STR), magic-users (11 with 18 INT, 10 with 17, 9 if lower), thiefs (unlimited), or assassins (10th level). PC clerics could only be half-elven (5th level), half-orc (4th level) or human.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying any of this makes sense. I'm only pointing out that the game design itself has an impact on the perception of the players. Release 100+ races, and the idea that the people of the world are used to seeing exotic races becomes the 'normal' that the players expect. Forgotten Realms was 'normal' in the sense that the (A)D&D standard at the time was what set normal. As the 2nd and 3rd editions came out, the lore was largely maintained, despite the game system itself changing the concept of 'normal.' At the same time the Forgotten Realms was becoming the default setting where anything published would 'fit' and be allowed (although in a more regional and segregated manner than is thought today), they released the Dark Sun campaign where 'normal' was very specifically defined. That narrow (and unique) definition is what makes a game set in Athas instantly recognizable.
The Realms used to be more like that. And to a large degree, the lore through the 3rd edition maintained that. The exotic stuff was relegated to certain parts of the world. Kara-Tur existed, but was entirely separate. A character from Kara-Tur was a rare site in Faerun, most likely didn't speak the language, and didn't 'fit in.' They fit in with a motley band of adventurers, but once they got to town, not so much.
The 5th edition lore so far leaves open the possibility for a more exotic Realms, if that's what you like. But most of it looks back to the earlier editions. That's not entirely unexpected, because in each edition there has been a lot of material that has simply been reprinted from the 1st edition. So it also makes it easy to maintain the same feel as the earlier editions, wherever you fall on that continuum.
Ilbranteloth
