How many intelligent (playable?) races does your worldspace have?

[bedir than]

Myself, in the World of the Everyflow, started allowing just three playable races. One of those was basically ignored (of the 13 people who have played more than a session only 1 picked my version of goliath). Everyone else is a human or halfling. As they explored the world they met the sexually trimorphic version of goblins. Later they also met a dwarf, who told them of elves.

That might be it. I've tentatively created gnomes but may not add them in. There is a space for kobalds/lizard-men/saghauin as well, but they may not be necessary for the story.

I have no halfbreeds. Halflings, humans and goliaths can cross-breed, but most offspring are then human. So we're talking about a world with 6-12 races, where culture isn't necessarily tied to phenotype.

Is that enough? Does your world have more?

 

[Acr0ssTh3P0nd]

I've got Humans; Hill and Mountain Dwarves; High, Wild, and Dark Elves; and Half- and Old Hobs. I may add in gnomes if needed, as well as goliaths, but that's it. My world tends to be pretty gritty, like the Witcher series if the non-human races felt more "non-human".

 

[steeldragons]

Playable races for the World of Orea include:

Humans: 7 major nations, 5 varying ethnicities. 2 non-pc ethnicity/nations.

Elves: High elves. Orea's analogies of Wood, Valley, and Grey elves might wander the realms as adventurers [PCs], in significantly reduced numbers. Orea's Drow exist in the world's version of the "Underdark" (simply and none-too-creatively just called "the Underworld") but are emphatically NOT-for-PC-use. Aquatic elves exist but are not permitted for PCs.

Dwarves: various separate nations, traits-wise Mountain or Hill...doesn't really matter.

Halflings: of the hairfooted original variety, "the Daelvar."

"Unusual/uncommon" PC races include: Half-elves, gnomes, satyrs, centaurs, zepharim (Orean winged folk)

Races that have been used, rarely, as PCs include lizardmen, goblins, and jerali (Orean felinoids)

So thaaaat's...9 (?) most of the time, up to 15 possibilities for PCs.

"Intelligent races" is a whooole 'nother ball o' wax.
Goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears, orcs, grorn (Orean "gnolls"), kobolds, trolls, ogres ("intelligent" being a relative term), froglins (Orean bullywugs), lizardmen, troglodytes, ...should I count giants and their kin? Dragons? Fayekin?

So looots of intelligent races. How many of them are actually widespread, cultured, possibly interacting with/among other civilized peoples/nations, or have built (or looking to build) actual nations of their own varies greatly.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Orcs, Halflings, and Ogres. Oh, and some turtle guys.

I honestly couldn't fit more into the world. There's just nowhere to put them, where it would make sense for them to have evolved independently from another race that was already in the area. You can only re-invent the wheel so many times before it runs into another pre-existing wheel that stomps it out of existence.

 

[CubicsRube]

I've wondered about the ideal number. I don't want to limit the number of options my players can choose from, but I feel having a smaller number allows you to focus in more depth in the culture and the differences within the cultures rather than having them as a bland stereotype.

That being said, I'm working on a homebrew that has essentially 6. There are:

• Not playable races - Seafaring Orcs with a goblin underclass
• Humans who have imported the gods from the old world from which they are now cut off
• Elves that exist in High, Dark, Wood and Sand varieties who worship nature Kami and who are the source of druidic magic
• A small community of Gnomes that excel in gadgetry and illusions (I may not include these guys)
• Hill and Mountain dwarves that have an animosity towards each other
• Shamanistic halflings who inhabit the ruins of powerful landscape shaping magical artifacts that no one today understands. Halflings that are consumed by "the wild" become feral and inhabit the swamps as canibalistic opportunists
• Not really a playable race, but Dragons who influence politics and who are the source of all arcane magic

 

[Xeviat]

Lately, I've been running a lot of "generic D&D", so if it's in a player book I'm down with it.

For my own setting, I'm counting 10-12 races (the extra two are more villainous races that I'll let in depending on the nature of the story), with 2 or 3 cultures for each. The "subrace" distinctions in 5th would be hard for me to reconcile with my setting; I'm not sure how I'll deal with them when I run my setting in 5E again (when last I worked on it, it was for 4E and M&M)).

 

[delericho]

I'm currently using Eberron, which means I'm using all the races from the PHB plus Warforged, Changelings, and Shifters. (Ideally, I'd like to add Kalashtar, but they're not currently supported in 5e.)

However, going forward it's likely I'll be switching to a homebrew world, which will have four: Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and Goblins/Gnomes (in that setting, they will be the same race, known by different names). Though I've been considering whether I need non-human races at all.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Depends on the campaign. Sometimes, I use lots, sometimes just a few. Occasionally, I have few races, but with wide variety within the species.

Once, I ran a Lankhmar/Nehwon campaign, so everyone was human.

One interesting footnote: I once tried to run a campaign with no humans. Nobody wanted to play, so I relented. Only about 1/3 of the party were human. Despite what people played, all of the players wanted "human" to be an option.

 

[StuckInTheEther]

I've thought about running a dwarf campaign and expanding the subrace groups so that everyone could choose a dwarf that suited them, but I've never attempted nor suggested it because I don't think there'd be interest.