D&D General How many Races it too much?

[Warpiglet-7]

For me it would depend on the context of the question.

how integrated is any society you see is one thing.

special characters are the stuff of fantasy tropes however.

for there to be a tiefling not all towns have to have a hell district! Maybe the pc tiefling is the only one for hundreds of miles:

a drow pc does not mean there are drow neighborhoods!

as a result, world building is only a blocker sometimes. The Tabaxi could be a 1 in a million that is not likely to be seen again or to change the flavor of the campaign. But it might appeal to the player.

playable race is not synonymous with what you encounter in the world. Think hellboy. For what most people knew he was 1 of a kind.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

For me it would depend on the context of the question.

how integrated is any society you see is one thing.

special characters are the stuff of fantasy tropes however.

for there to be a tiefling not all towns have to have a hell district! Maybe the pc tiefling is the only one for hundreds of miles:

a drow pc does not mean there are drow neighborhoods!

as a result, world building is only a blocker sometimes. The Tabaxi could be a 1 in a million that is not likely to be seen again or to change the flavor of the campaign. But it might appeal to the player.

playable race is not synonymous with what you encounter in the world. Think hellboy. For what most people knew he was 1 of a kind.

That is exactly my points. I don't make my worlds be kitchen sinks, but my games certainly are. My players can choose whatever race they want (within reason), but they may not exist in my world. If they want that race, they have to explain why they are playing that race and how their character exists.

 

[FrogReaver]

Why can't you all just let the other races exist in peace!

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Now I just really want to know.

How many races is too many for you DM's out there? (Let's leave sub-races out of it for now.)

I know in my locked continent, there are 8 distinct cultures, 5 distinct races. I have plans for there to be other continents, so more will get added. But for the continent, 8 is as high as I can logically go. The resources for the continent are tapped (in my own head, which is only in my head).

So how many races are we looking at for everyone else and their worlds?

Currently Eberron, so . . . lots?
Most notably though, most of the different races actually have multiple different cultures. Orcs use Orc stats. But there are 4 - 6 different cultures of orcs in the world.

Does this include sentient monsters, like orcs, goblins, gnolls, trolls, ogres, giants, ithillids, fey, and dragons? Because I don't see many people advocating for "limited races" that are also advocating that DMs should be constrained to only the original Monster Manual or just a part of it.

Probably depends on the setting. Some of those people you listed as "sentient monsters" are playable races, some aren't.

Or they will take something gonzo and then complain about it. For example, I ran a human-centric game (the dwarves were almost extinct, the elves were lotus-eaters, other races were extremely rare). The players picked goliath, genasi, ghostwise halfling and tiefling. They then complained when guards chased them out of towns and merchants overcharged them... The player of the ghostwise halfling was particularly upset that someone tried to kill them for speaking into their mind.

Did the DM explain why they chose to make the NPCs react like that? There is a massive distinction between "humans are the dominant race" and "humans are psychotically xenophobic" and it sounds like the DM may have said the former, but then played them as the latter.
The players choosing "exotic" races probably knew they were in for attracting attention, but it was the DM that decided that all the npcs were going to react to them with massive levels of hate.
Generally that sort of reaction is reserved for races that are both well-known and have a lot of history between them to produce that amount of ill-feeling.

 

[Remathilis]

Probably depends on the setting. Some of those people you listed as "sentient monsters" are playable races, some aren't.

Which was kinda my point: there are DMs who will claim they limit races due to making them have unique places and cultures in their world, and then send thier PCs to the Caves of Chaos or similar. I wonder how many of those DMs who think that thier world can't include halflings or dragonborn go though and decide they also can't include bugbears and gnolls for the same reasons...

I mean, it's one thing to ban aarakroca because they can fly, but another to say your world has no place for them but since they are still in this module I'll use them.

 

[Oofta]

Which was kinda my point: there are DMs who will claim they limit races due to making them have unique places and cultures in their world, and then send thier PCs to the Caves of Chaos or similar. I wonder how many of those DMs who think that thier world can't include halflings or dragonborn go though and decide they also can't include bugbears and gnolls for the same reasons...

I mean, it's one thing to ban aarakroca because they can fly, but another to say your world has no place for them but since they are still in this module I'll use them.

That assumes you have dozens of "monstrous" races as well, or that they are native. In my campaign world for example it's basically orcs, goblins, gnolls. While goblins (and hobgoblins I guess but I view them as a subspecies) are fairly dispersed around the world, gnolls are found in deserts and semi-arid areas while orcs fill in other areas.

There are the occasional troll, ogres and giants but they are crossovers that come from Jotunheim, land of the giants. Orcs were originally were originally from Jotunheim, goblins from the feywild, gnolls are corrupted fiendishly cursed hyenas (sort of).

In any case, just saying not all DMs run things the same way. I will agree that a lot of DMs don't put a lot of thought into where the monsters live and how that would affect the world. That goes for both humanoid and non-humanoid monsters.

 

[Remathilis]

That assumes you have dozens of "monstrous" races as well, or that they are native. In my campaign world for example it's basically orcs, goblins, gnolls. While goblins (and hobgoblins I guess but I view them as a subspecies) are fairly dispersed around the world, gnolls are found in deserts and semi-arid areas while orcs fill in other areas.

There are the occasional troll, ogres and giants but they are crossovers that come from Jotunheim, land of the giants. Orcs were originally were originally from Jotunheim, goblins from the feywild, gnolls are corrupted fiendishly cursed hyenas (sort of).

In any case, just saying not all DMs run things the same way. I will agree that a lot of DMs don't put a lot of thought into where the monsters live and how that would affect the world. That goes for both humanoid and non-humanoid monsters.

I'm sure there are. I'm also sure they are a minority, even you exclude the kitchen sink ones. There are probably a lot of Shrodingers monsters; they could exist unless the DM uses them. Which to me feels a bit like the the DM keeping his toys but denying the PC there.

Again, there are exceptions (for example, Athas) but I think there is far more who put harder limits on PCs than they put on themselves.

 

[Helldritch]

I'm sure there are. I'm also sure they are a minority, even you exclude the kitchen sink ones. There are probably a lot of Shrodingers monsters; they could exist unless the DM uses them. Which to me feels a bit like the the DM keeping his toys but denying the PC there.

Again, there are exceptions (for example, Athas) but I think there is far more who put harder limits on PCs than they put on themselves.

I don't think it is a matter of denying the PCs any choice. They have aplenty in Oofta's game.
1) There are such things as PC races and NPC races. They can be as mutually inclusive or exclusive as the campaign needs it to be.
2) There is nothing wrong in not allowing a race or restrict the race's choice for PC. It is not because it is there, that it is good campaign wise. There are such things as consistency in story building.
3) I am one of those DM that restricts players' choices up to a certain point. I often go on a case by case basis and your concept better be unique and interesting before I allow you a normally non player race. And even there, I am not the Mosesley Cantina type of DM. Be ready to be ostracized up to a certain point.
4) Although almost any races can be found in my campaigns, they will appear on a need to be there basis. Evil gods (or good ones) might port some from other dimensions and these either die at the hand of PC or will simply wink out of existence when their need to be there no longer suits the god's need as the god will port these to their respective dimension. This help out a lot in making the world believable. Where are all those giants comming from? When did this X tribe came into existence? The answer is either they were there all along or one god ported them in for some purpose known to him/her only.

This also explains why evil god are also worshipped. To placate them and appease their anger. A pantheon might declare war on an other pantheon and their war will reflect back on the prime material plane where monsters will appear to plague the worshippers of the other pantheons. The Norse Pantheon might declare war on the Greek one and the worshippers of Zeus might see themselves besieged by trolls and various giants while the worshippers of the Norse will see Titans, Satyres, Harpies and Centaurs attack them. And in the meanwhile Ades and Hel might sent undead in the nights to attack worshippers of both sides just for fun of it.

Mono pantheon worlds can be so boring compared to a multi pantheon one...

 

[Voadam]

I usually like to start with a small palette for major races with options for oddballs.

In my planned 5e Iron Gods (think Thudarr the Barbarian some post apocalypse sword and sorcery with some sci-fi) game I said the main races are humans with Mad Max style ethnically Kellid (Celtic/Cimmerian) nomadic barbarians being the majority, with lots of wolf-blooded shifters (Eberron) and demon-blooded tieflings. Villages and cities are Bartertown-esque or considered decadent cesspools generally dominated by the sorcerous technic league and their golem gearsmen with populations of non-nomadic Kellids and other ethnicities. There are also the occasional Cylon "rune-children" (androids) people with magical tattoos who show up with no memories and weird low emotions. In addition to the humans there are pockets of other races, so tribes or settlements of humanoids are not out of place. If I had a decent 5e mutant race option I would definitely spotlight it.

So four main PC race options that fit the specifics of the setting plus flexibility for many others to fit in easily.

So far one player is planning on playing a kobold with an interest in rediscovering ancient lost civilizations.

In my prior Gothic Horror Ustalav 5e Carrion Crown game I asked for human, near human, and traditional Core races and the party ended up with mostly human, plus a half-elf and a half-orc, and the NPCs through two modules expanded out to elves and dwarves with background material about orcs and some fey. I was specifically going for a human to near human perspective for the gothic horror angle there though.

 

[jasper]

Now I just really want to know.

How many races is too many for you DM's out there? (Let's leave sub-races out of it for now.)

I know in my locked continent, there are 8 distinct cultures, 5 distinct races. I have plans for there to be other continents, so more will get added. But for the continent, 8 is as high as I can logically go. The resources for the continent are tapped (in my own head, which is only in my head).

So how many races are we looking at for everyone else and their worlds?

For player races 7 to 8. Enough for flavor but not so many that Star Fleet is amazed they haven't discover that many. For in world races as many as needed.