Get rid of the half-races, except halflings ;o)

[Baby Samurai]

I would like then to ditch the halfling, half-elf, and half-orc – too campaign setting specific (Middle-Earth).

 

[Li Shenron]

I'm fine with a few half-races as long as the game treats them as exceptions and doesn't try to give a whole culture for each of them or anyhow fit them at any cost in the default setting.

 

[Black Knight Irios]

I don't mind all those half-things hanging around.

But I wouldn't care, if they banished them from the PHB and would give us instead a tool to mix the standard races (maybe to mix everything...), as we see fit!

 

[FourthBear]

I'm pretty happy about the 4e announcements to date, with an exception for the half-elf's inclusion in the PH. I have no problem with the half-elf being in the game, but it shouldn't be taking up valuable page space in the race section from races that aren't just watered down versions of other, more interesting, races. And as King Crab noted, the way they're trying to make half-elves distinctive (their inspiring trait) just seems weird. Elves probably don't have it and humans probably don't have it, but for some reason half-elves are just naturally inspiring? Meh.

 

[Baby Samurai]

the way they're trying to make half-elves distinctive (their inspiring trait) just seems weird. Elves probably don't have it and humans probably don't have it, but for some reason half-elves are just naturally inspiring? Meh.

They'll probably justify it as the glory fruit of the union.

But I have often noticed that half Caucasian and half African people are often much more attractive than either of their parents (by a long shot). Same for half Caucasian and half Asian.

 

[Driddle]

YES: The limited "racial" mixing is silly -- we should not have a default assumption that a "half-" origin is necessarily human. Nor should the game designers try to force a group of "half-" anything into a standard culture description. The game mechanics of this issue are badly designed.

NO: Nearly everything else posted on this thread. People of obviously mixed race and heritage are becoming more and more common in our (real) world, and it's about time to shake your assumptions of how such characters (real or fantasy) should act and look. ... They are not "lame." They do not necessarily take after one parent or another. Not all mixed people have the same attributes. They have a very important place in almost any thriving society's economic and cultural history. And they are not watered-down or "asian lite," "black lite" or "human lite" any more than a PC in a game would be "orc lite" or "elf lite."

And YES: I'll keep poking into threads like this. Because our experiences in real life influence our fantasy game playing, and our experiences at the roleplaying game table can influence our real lives.

 

[Baby Samurai]

They do not necessarily take after one parent or another. Not all mixed people have the same attributes. They have a very important place in almost any thriving society's economic and cultural history. And they are not "asian lite," "black lite" or "human lite" any more than a PC in a game would be "orc lite" or "elf lite."

It's true, in South Africa, many of the Mulato (sp? - I know some people hate that word) people have started forming their own communities.

 

[HP Dreadnought]

Great idea! Then get rid of the halflings while you're at it and we can call that progress!

 

[Baby Samurai]

Then get rid of the halflings while you're at it and we can call that progress!

God willing.

 

[Aust Diamondew]

...Also, why does the sudden mixture of elf and human suddenly give some sort of charismatic new get-along-with-everyone powers (as was sort of mentioned for the 4e half elf)? You combine the genetics of a human and an elf and suddenly new powers appear that neither of them had before? Doesn't feel right to me.

I'm in complete agreement.
This is one thing I really dislike about half elves, and they're amping this aspect up quite a bit in 4e by the sound of it.