D&D General How has D&D changed over the decades?

[payn]

There is a difference between rare in the world and rare in the story. Jedi are rare in the SW galaxy but ever present in the stories we see.

If you want gnomes rare in your world you can still have a party full of them in your story (see hobbits at the beginning of LotR). You can also have things not rare in the world but rare in the story (see humans in Gravity).

So the answer to the question about gnome rarity is to ask if you are talking world or story being told?

As said previously, have the gnomes in the entire history of the world never teamed up with each other on adventures? That's just odd for a normally procreated social being.

This is a good framing. Some folks might be thinking SW would be a weird story if it was Luke Skywalker and 4 wookies. If you are looking for that wookie or Groot kind of rarity of story, then I can see limiting how many exotic PCs there are.

 

[Micah Sweet]

There is a difference between rare in the world and rare in the story. Jedi are rare in the SW galaxy but ever present in the stories we see.

If you want gnomes rare in your world you can still have a party full of them in your story (see hobbits at the beginning of LotR). You can also have things not rare in the world but rare in the story (see humans in Gravity).

So the answer to the question about gnome rarity is to ask if you are talking world or story being told?

As said previously, have the gnomes in the entire history of the world never teamed up with each other on adventures? That's just odd for a normally procreated social being.

The thing is, even if they are rare in the world, if the party is full of gnomes then they won't feel rare or special, because every time you throw a stick, you hit a gnome. Either they need to be rare across the board, or as Payn suggested you have to regularly play up how weird it is to see so many gnomes in one place.

 

[Micah Sweet]

There is a difference between rare in the world and rare in the story. Jedi are rare in the SW galaxy but ever present in the stories we see.

If you want gnomes rare in your world you can still have a party full of them in your story (see hobbits at the beginning of LotR). You can also have things not rare in the world but rare in the story (see humans in Gravity).

So the answer to the question about gnome rarity is to ask if you are talking world or story being told?

As said previously, have the gnomes in the entire history of the world never teamed up with each other on adventures? That's just odd for a normally procreated social being.

As to Star Wars, unless you are making a specific point to avoid Jedi, they sure as heck don't feel rare.

 

[overgeeked]

There is a difference between rare in the world and rare in the story. Jedi are rare in the SW galaxy but ever present in the stories we see.

If you want gnomes rare in your world you can still have a party full of them in your story (see hobbits at the beginning of LotR). You can also have things not rare in the world but rare in the story (see humans in Gravity).

So the answer to the question about gnome rarity is to ask if you are talking world or story being told?

As said previously, have the gnomes in the entire history of the world never teamed up with each other on adventures? That's just odd for a normally procreated social being.

Sometimes perception is more important than reality. In a game world where magic is rare, but the party is filled with casters, magic doesn't seem rare. Same for Jedi, gnomes, bards, etc. Sometimes perception determines reality. If you're running an all-Jedi gnome bard party in a Jedi gnome bards are 1-in-a-billion setting...then there's a clear disconnect between what the game world is supposed to be vs what it actually is, because you're interacting with the game world where it's rare...via a party that's dirty with that rare thing.

Another solution is to simply say no. Or limit rare things to no more than one. Here's a list of ten rare things (races, classes, etc) and there can only be one from this list among the PCs in the entire campaign.

 

[Azzy]

The thing is, even if they are rare in the world, if the party is full of gnomes then they won't feel rare or special, because every time you throw a stick, you hit a gnome. Either they need to be rare across the board, or as Payn suggested you have to regularly play up how weird it is to see so many gnomes in one place.

Asking the players to self-limit, or putting a cap on the number of gnomes in the party seems to be a productive solution.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Asking the players to self-limit, or putting a cap on the number of gnomes in the party seems to be a productive solution.

That would also work. I'm flexible.

 

[billd91]

As to Star Wars, unless you are making a specific point to avoid Jedi, they sure as heck don't feel rare.

That's kind of the issue with most RPGs though. How common are superheroes? Pretty rare. Yet, in superhero RPGs, you're constantly rubbing shoulders with them. How common are elite spies or Spectre teams in real life? Yet in James Bond 007, they're everywhere you go as PCs.

So why should Star Wars or D&D have any kind of enforcement of rarity in the group of PCs when you pretty much can't do that with these other games?

 

[Lanefan]

Who cares if two or three of them are in a party? I mean, tens of thousands can be rare, but are you really saying they never ever travel together? Family of gnomes never appear? Gnome friends never travel together? The idea that they are so rare you never see more than one at a time seems more strange than to encounter a couple in an adventuring party.

A couple would be rare but not unheard of; my concern is there being 4 or 5 in a party of 6 where that 4 or 5 Gnomes might be the biggest gathering of them within a few hundred miles.

Classes the same: I want Paladins, for example, to be playable but rare. And so they're gated behind rolls, though in my own case I've little to worry about as my players aren't generally all that keen on playing them anyway.

Dial back races/species/ancestries/ethnicities in RPGs so they all are playable choices that dont require janky random rolls and other oberoni balance solutions.

Dialling them back (and therefore also dialling back their associated drawbacks) ends up making them all very much the same in play; this seems to be the route 5e has gone/is going and is something I intentionally want to avoid.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

The thing is, even if they are rare in the world, if the party is full of gnomes then they won't feel rare or special, because every time you throw a stick, you hit a gnome. Either they need to be rare across the board, or as Payn suggested you have to regularly play up how weird it is to see so many gnomes in one place.

So if you were the GM and had 4 PCs, one of which was a gnome, gnomes would feel rare to you? If then at any point the party met another gnome and it teamed up with the party it would tumble the house of cards and ruin the suspension of disbelief?

 

[Thunderfoot]

Sure it has: the percentage of pizza eaten vs. pizza thrown at other players has, I hope, increased significantly over the years.

Wait, you threw pizza at another person... that's a punishable offense. Pizza, doubly so.

The thing is, even if they are rare in the world, if the party is full of gnomes then they won't feel rare or special, because every time you throw a stick, you hit a gnome. Either they need to be rare across the board, or as Payn suggested you have to regularly play up how weird it is to see so many gnomes in one place.

They are rare, because they all joined the party and became adventurers.