Homogenized Races?

[sylvansnake]

I think I prefer homogenized fantasy races to homogenized campaign settings. That's where the 5th Edition "Multiverse concept" is heading. By encouraging players to demand that all character options be available in all campaign settings, they in-turn destroy the uniqueness of each setting. By making all Forgotten Realms character options part of the Core D&D mechanics and releasing tomes like Tasha's Cauldron to bring a multitude of other previously setting-specific options into the Core ruleset, every campaign setting is going to be a hodgepodge of alien races and classes that dilutes the feel and lore of the setting.

Dungeons and Dragons was originally conceived as a story about the players assuming the roles of mostly human-looking characters doing battle against fantastical and often nightmarish monsters. But now most of the player races available are monstrous-looking themselves. Without that human perspective, the sense of dread when confronting a beholder or mind flayer is gone. We're just a couple monsters using powers against each other. Yay!

 

[Bohandas]

Okay, folks... here's a good discussion topic for you;

Racial languages/religions/alignments.

I personally really dislike the "homogenous" races idea which seems to be present in a lot of TTRPGs, (D&D in particular). The idea that an entire race follows the same pantheon or speaks the same language, regardless of where in the world they're from just doesn't ring very true to me.

To me it wouldn't ring true if the people in a fantasy setting didn't all worship the same gods (with the exception of gods who presided over highly local phenomena, such as a specific mountain, or something that there's nore than one of or more than one side to). That would imply that the setting's gods weren't real, even though in many settings they're explicitly meant to be real.

 

[James Gasik]

I’ve always thought of Common as either a trade pidgin or constructed language (like Esperanto), the most common primary/secondary language in the world (think Greek, Latin, French, and English, in turn), or a mechanical mesh mash of both.

That is it's purpose, but something I've always found to be strange is; why is Common the Human language?

 

[Tonguez]

That is it's purpose, but something I've always found to be strange is; why is Common the Human language?

Its not, its a simplified form of Old Elfish that has become a creole adopted by humans

 

[CreamCloud0]

oh wow a 2019 thread, what led you to come across this?

actual thoughts might come after i've read the other two pages.

 

[uzirath]

Yeah, it's always strange when I look over an old thread like this and see my own posts that I have no recollection of.

 

[James Gasik]

Its not, its a simplified form of Old Elfish that has become a creole adopted by humans

Sure but that begs the question; why are humans the only race that has completely abandoned their native tongue?*

*I know this isn't true in all game worlds, like the Forgotten Realms, where there are other human languages, and there might be a species out there that similarly only speaks Common that I've forgotten about, but as presented in the PHB, it sure seems odd.

 

[dragoner]

Assuming Common isn't like Koine Greek, which was spoken in the mediterranean basin longer than Latin and is what the Bible was written in.

 

[James Gasik]

Assuming Common isn't like Koine Greek, which was spoken in the mediterranean basin longer than Latin and is what the Bible was written in.

Yes but if that's the case, humans would have to be an elder race (something that isn't usually true in D&D), so that every civilized race bothered to learn their language!

 

[Tonguez]

Sure but that begs the question; why are humans the only race that has completely abandoned their native tongue?*

We arent speaking Old Englisch anymore either.

But consider Elfs live for 750 years, speaking the same language and producing a huge and influential body of songs and literature.
Humans want to trade with elfs so they learn a simple form of elfish to talk to them. But Humans also die every 60 (or so) years and the new generation born not only learns to talk to the same elfs, they hear the same elf songs and read elf books.
Each generation the Human tongue changes and after 12 generations (750/60) the Humans have stopped using the archaic language of their ancestors and are all speaking Common - which is actually a simplified Elf creole.

The PHB suggests that Halflings speak Common but also have an almost ‘sacred’ language used in their oral tradition they dont otherwise share (irl compare spoken Coptic). The other races dont live in the same areas as Elfs, and Dwarfs, Orcs and Dragons arent likely to adopt an Elfish language either