How Many PC Races?

[Tonguez]

IMC the core regions have humans (which includes half-elfs and half-orcs), Gnomes and Goblins. Giants (half) exists also.
Dwarfs and Orcs dont exists (half-orcs are tainted humans), and Elf and Halfling are both fey (Halflings being playable but not common). Outside the core regions are Gnolls. Lizardmen, Birdmen, Sahuagin (who have the anti-civilisation role of orcs) and Sea People all which may be playable in the right circumstance...

 

[thundershot]

My problem... is I can't get one of my players to play a NORMAL race. He says they're boring, and has to have something different for a character concept. He also says a character is ruined when you take away their "stuff", because it was part of the concept, but that's for another thread...

I like diversity. I really do... But sometimes it's so difficult to run a normal campaign when the Hengy.. hengiy... the shapeshifter from Oriental Adventures REFUSES to change to human form to blend into the town... To the townspeople, it's a MONSTER, so they attack it... that kind of stuff attracts attention in a town that's not familiar with it.

It's a wonder they ever get anything done...


But I don't limit the choices my players make for races, so it's really my fault. My stipulation has been that they have to deal with the consequences of choosing a weird race.. and I get hell for playing the townsfolk like I feel they should... *pulls out hair*

Okay. Much better.


Chris

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

When I run standard D&D, all races are available, ECL permitting (and I'll usually work with a player to produce a racial class, or a usable racial class, when ECL doesn't permit).

When I run low-magic, it's all humans, all the time. Usually, though, I follow the IK/Conan model of giving regional stat modifiers, skill bonuses and the like in those cases, so a human from Lionel in my Ivalician campaign will be very different from one who calls Lesalia home.

But sometimes it's so difficult to run a normal campaign when the Hengy.. hengiy... the shapeshifter from Oriental Adventures REFUSES to change to human form to blend into the town... To the townspeople, it's a MONSTER, so they attack it... that kind of stuff attracts attention in a town that's not familiar with it.

:\ But the hengeyokai turn into normal animals, don't they? How would the townsfolk know it from any other small animal, probably another PC's per?

 

[Vanuslux]

As far as I'm concerned, if it's not something that would be killed on sight in towns, then I'll allow it. This hasn't lead to any problems.

 

[MonsterMash]

IMC I've got the standard humanoid races, but there are a number of human subraces so the choice is wider than it'd initially appear. Some restrictions on classes though.

 

[Thanee]

GMs, how many races do you allow your players to choose from for character creation? I'd be interested to see how more or less variety affects peoples' games.

Hmm... we basically allow everything, except totally odd races, or races with immense LA. No Savage Species type racial classes either, as we use mostly the core rules plus FR and some bits and pieces from other books.

However, usually there are only very few odd choices.

Current party started with four humans, an aasimar and a hobgoblin, and now - after some darwinian evolution - the party consists of four humans (one being on the way to become a dragon (dragon disciple ), however), a halfling and a centaur, tho one of the players playing a human will make a new character tomorrow, so maybe something else is coming up, but I guess it will be a human again.

The centaur is a bit, well, cumbersome at times, but it's quite cool with this oddball around.

The last party consisted of four humans and two elves (moon and sun).

The party before that had two humans, a dwarf, a halfling and a drow (archer, no scimitars, and the drow fit quite well considering that the campaign was heading into the Underdark).

Besides, the hobgoblin, centaur and drow were/are all of the same player.

Bye
Thanee

 

[thundershot]

:\ But the hengeyokai turn into normal animals, don't they? How would the townsfolk know it from any other small animal, probably another PC's per?

Ah, that would be fine, but the hybrid form is the one used all the time, not the human or animal... I keep telling the player "Just change to human form when in towns, so we don't have to go through this all the time..." He figures that after a while I'll get sick of it, and stop doing it.

Granted, one of his other characters is a goblin cavalier, and because of the heroic deeds he's been doing in the name of Heironeous, he's gained some fame in the land, so he doesn't get attacked, but the other? *mutters*

Fortunately the next level 1 adventure is the World's Largest Dungeon, so we shouldn't have to worry about racial problems, I don't think..



Chris

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

One game is Eberron, and I have the standard races for that. The other is IK, so there are Iosan and winter Elves, Rhulfolk(dwarves), ogrun (ogre-guys), trollkin (tres cool!), gobbers (kinda goblins), and a spheric yard of human subraces.

I had a game for a few months that had humans, modified locathah, anthropomorphic cats, and anthropomorphic wolves (not the ones from SS) as the races.

 

[thundershot]

Maybe half of my problem is that I've used the same campaign world for over 15 years.. I love the sense of continuity. (You never know when you'll encounter an NPC or even PC from the past) But the world itself is pretty standard... maybe it needs a huge shakeup... And allow for the weirder races.. Hm....


Chris

 

[Buttercup]

Generally I allow only humans, dwarves and halflings. However, I'm currently running a Freeport Campaign more or less by the book, which means that I'm allowing any core race. I've got a dwarf, a gnome, a half-elf and a human in the party, and it's working out fine.

I'm tinkering with my homebrew world, and the next time I use it, I'll either stick with the three races I mentioned above, or limit to humans.