D&D General How To Reconcile the Settings

[Zardnaar]

Isn’t it mostly a case of when you entered the hobby? Like, those who were there for the earliest D&D hold Greyhawk in some kind of awe. Those who got into gaming in the late 1e/ early 2e days might have a special spot for Krynn or the Realms. A few years later, Athas, Ravenloft, and Sigil are all big. Then 3e and Ebberon.

I personally use them all. In the same campaign. They all have appeal of some kind, or can be made to with a tiny bit of effort.

I don’t think any is all that much “better” than the others, or that we need to reconcile them, whatever that means.

Maybe. I started in 2E prefer 1E GH, 3.0 F R, and War of the Lance era DL.

I prefer earlier in a settings life though. This is because there's usually something you like in it. A future author or freelancer will do something kewl which usually involves blowing something up. Often that something is whatever attracted you to the setting in the first place.

Follow on authors often think that destroying the old is a good idea to get their new stuff over. Usually fails.

 

[hawkeyefan]

Maybe. I started in 2E prefer 1E GH, 3.0 F R, and War of the Lance era DL.

I prefer earlier in a settings life though. This is because there's usually something you like in it. A future author or freelancer will do something kewl which usually involves blowing something up. Often that something is whatever attracted you to the setting in the first place.

Follow on authors often think that destroying the old is a good idea to get their new stuff over. Usually fails.

Sure. I probably agree to some extent. But you don’t have to play in whatever the “current” era of the setting is considered to be. You can take whatever era you want. Or you can mix and match elements from different eras.

 

[Zardnaar]

Sure. I probably agree to some extent. But you don’t have to play in whatever the “current” era of the setting is considered to be. You can take whatever era you want. Or you can mix and match elements from different eras.

Yeah I'm more or less going back to the start. Well playing 3pp actually.

 

[Anoth]

I would much rather play a homebrew than a published setting. For me that is what the game is about and love to participate in a game that someone at the table out their heart and soul into.

 

[Bohandas]

Oh yes, because using orcs as a stand-in for the nebulous, faceless, subhuman hordes that are threatening to tear down the foundations of civilizations of the "good peoples" is oh so original. It's never them minding their own business while the "good peoples" with their industry and their manifest destiny can't leave well enough alone; nope, gotta get'em rapacious hordes! It's not like that stereotype wasn't born out of hateful assumptions about the real world, is it?

'' Repeat to yourself "It's just a show; I should really just relax" ''

 

[Bohandas]

Let's say you have every monstrous race in the book, along with every possible PC race. Where do they all get their food from? There's only so much arable land, they can't all live "in the mountains". Even if you assume magical food sources for underground (I do to a certain degree), there's a limit to population density of relatively large species.

Some of it may depend on how genetics works as well in your campaign. Can a race continue to exist if there are only a few dozen members of the species? Inbreeding will kill off a species after a few generations. I'm assuming we're all familiar with the whole "last of my species" trope, but how long does that last? One generation and they're gone.

I just find it hard to find room for a sustainable population of all the following humanoid races:

Aarakocra, Aasimar, Air genasi, Aquatic elf, Avariel, Bugbear, Bullywug, Deep gnome, Deep scion, Derro, Dragonborn, Drow, Duergar, Dwarf, Earth genasi, Elf, Firbolg, Fire genasi, Firenewt, Flind, Forest gnome, Genasi, Ghostwise halfling, Giff, Gith (race), Githyanki, Githzerai, Gnoll, Gnome, Goblin, Gold dwarf, Grimlock, Grung, Halfling, High elf, Hobgoblin, Human, Jackalwere, Kenku, Koalinth, Kobold, Kuo-toa, Lava child, Lightfoot halfling, Lizard king, Lizardfolk, Locathah, Meazel, Merfolk, Mongrelfolk, Moon elf, Nilbog, Orc, Orog, Quaggoth, Rock gnome, Sahuagin, Sea spawn, Shadar-kai, Shield dwarf, Skulk, Star elf, Strongheart halfling, Sun elf, Tabaxi, Thri-kreen, Tiefling, Tortle, Triton, Troglodyte, Urd, Verdan, Water genasi, Xvart, Yuan-ti pureblood, Zerth​

Which is not the only reason I limit races, as I posted above.

Just use the conception of the material plane from Spelljammer. Different races are spread out over many different planets. Furthermore, finding a member of a race somewhere does not necessarily imply a stable breeding population on that planet as it is possible to travel between them via spelljamming ships or unlimited range teleportation.

ALSO, if any type of elf, dwarf, orc, or goblin does go extinct, then corellon/moradin/gruumsh/maglubyiet can always just make more. They could even persist without breeding at all, like in Greek mythology, where the first generations were all males created directly by Prometheus, up until the time Prometheus pissed off the other gods and they created Pandora, the first woman, to take his job.

 

[Son of the Serpent]

Oh yes, because using orcs as a stand-in for the nebulous, faceless, subhuman hordes that are threatening to tear down the foundations of civilizations of the "good peoples" is oh so original. It's never them minding their own business while the "good peoples" with their industry and their manifest destiny can't leave well enough alone; nope, gotta get'em rapacious hordes! It's not like that stereotype wasn't born out of hateful assumptions about the real world, is it?

The point of orcs is that they ARE an evil race. You presuppose a misunderstanding. You are incorrect. They are, classically, matter-of-factly evil. You might as well presuppose that most vampires are actually vegetarians and that people are bigotted for thinking rhey drink blood. No. You are way off base. They DO drink blood. There is no misunderstanding.

It is the same with orcs. They ARE evil. This is the only supposition you are meant to make. If you make a different one you do so ignorantly, irrationally, or both. No other options. Stop getting indignantly enraged over your ignorance.

Orcs being non evil is a recent thing. If you are using classic orcs you are not using a racist npc choice. You are doing the same thing as when people use evil demons instead of demons who want nothing more than to give teddy bears to needy children. Its prescriptively evil race that preempts all supposition and to get obsessively enraged about it is just the product of a poorly read mind. Read some literature. This is no different than using demons for gasp evil things. Orcs just happen to be mortal.

Ps. Just about tge dumbest argument anyone can make is to take the literal point of a thing which completely invalidates assumptions of racism and to then position it as "racist". When talking about classic orcs, its not a group with the possibility of being simply misunderstood. To assume as much is you entirely missing or denying the point.

 

[Son of the Serpent]

'' Repeat to yourself "It's just a show; I should really just relax" ''

something tells me they wont be introspective enough to pull that off.

 

[Son of the Serpent]

Just use the conception of the material plane from Spelljammer. Different races are spread out over many different planets. Furthermore, finding a member of a race somewhere does not necessarily imply a stable breeding population on that planet as it is possible to travel between them via spelljamming ships or unlimited range teleportation.

ALSO, if any type of elf, dwarf, orc, or goblin does go extinct, then corellon/moradin/gruumsh/maglubyiet can always just make more. They could even persist without breeding at all, like in Greek mythology, where the first generations were all males created directly by Prometheus, up until the time Prometheus pissed off the other gods and they created Pandora, the first woman, to take his job.

they also created pandora to punish man by ruining his paradise and sowing chaos. Its heavily implied.

 

[Oofta]

Just use the conception of the material plane from Spelljammer. Different races are spread out over many different planets. Furthermore, finding a member of a race somewhere does not necessarily imply a stable breeding population on that planet as it is possible to travel between them via spelljamming ships or unlimited range teleportation.

ALSO, if any type of elf, dwarf, orc, or goblin does go extinct, then corellon/moradin/gruumsh/maglubyiet can always just make more. They could even persist without breeding at all, like in Greek mythology, where the first generations were all males created directly by Prometheus, up until the time Prometheus pissed off the other gods and they created Pandora, the first woman, to take his job.

What comes first, the decision on number of races or the description of the setting?

Let's say I start with setting first. If I want my campaign to be a crossroads of sorts using SpellJammer rules or similar. Perhaps gods are very actively creating races. Maybe some races spontaneously form because of magical curses or similar magic (i.e. Kenku). Maybe, like Eberron, some races are manufactured for other reasons and aren't self-replicating (Warforged). In those cases a multitude of races is fine.

But in my personal setting, the gods (or more likely their messengers) may intercede in minor ways, but there's some debate as to whether the gods were created by the races that worship them or vice versa. While other planes of existence are hinted at, travel to them is impossible as far as anyone knows.

So in the first scenario you can have as many races as you want. The latter? Well, that's where you look at real world analogies like the number of large predators and note that for any given region there are only a handful. Since intelligent races would likely overcome physical boundaries and spread more easily, dozens and dozens of races doesn't make as much sense.

The alternative is to decide how many races you want and justify it from there.

All the above are viable options as long as it's logical and consistent.