D&D General How To Reconcile the Settings

[Arnwolf666]

I tend to resurrect the family of orphans and make them part of the story. Then kill them off in some messy and painful way that is the fault of the PC of course. Doesn't every DM?

You are an evil DM

 

[Oofta]

You are an evil DM

Thanks!

 

[Arnwolf666]

Thanks!

I think I want to play a paladin oath of the ancients for you. That is a tiefling orphan with the hermit background.

 

[Nellisir]

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​

Just for kicks, I'm going to break this down a bit. Not arguing, just curious.
Aquatic: Aquatic elf, Koalinth, Kuo-toa*, Locathah, Merfolk, Sahuagin, Triton. 7 total.
Extra-Planar (non-competing for resources): Githyanki, Githzerai, shadar-kai. 3 total. You could also plunk the various genasi in here. And zerth, by what I can dig up, are a class of githzerai, so not counted.
Underdark: Deep gnome, Derro, Drow, Duergar, Grimlock, Kuo-toa*, Quaggoth. 7 total.
Human (and races that exist within humanity): Aasimar, Air genasi, Deep Scion, Earth genasi, Fire genasi, Human, Jackalwere, Sea spawn(?), Tiefling, Water genasi. 10 total. I left out "genasi" because that's double-counting. You could also add half-elves, half-orcs, and hagspawn for a total of 13, but those all exist within humanity. No different than a particular religion or profession, really. Jackalwere are an oddball case, not being crossbreeds, but they exploit humanity as prey, so....
The Rest: Aarakocra, Bugbear, Bullywug, Dragonborn, Dwarf (2), Elf (5-ish; High, Sun, Star, and Moon are arguably only two races, but you didn't list Wood Elves, so we'll let it fly), Giff, Gnome (2), Firbolg, Firenewt, Gnoll (2), Halfling (3), Hobgoblin, Goblin (2), Kenku, Kobold (2), Lava Child, Lizardfolk (2), Meazel (really?), Mongrelfolk, Orc (2), Skulk, Tabaxi, Thri-kreen, Tortle, Troglodyte, Xvart, Yuan-ti pureblood. 28 total

I think lava child and meazels are a stretch. Many of The Rest occupy distinct territories not sought after by humans, so it's reasonable to assume that they have the means to sustain themselves in those territories and thus don't infringe on human agricultural needs. The elves are definitely a problem, but that's not new. Many of the races are also likely small populations

One thing that I don't think people really comprehend today is the sheer amount of biomass we've lost on the planet. When passenger pigeons died, nothing "replaced" them. There just aren't passenger pigeons anymore. There's evidence that South America still hasn't recovered from the loss of its native megafauna roughly 10-12,000 years ago, and the ecological niches they used are just uninhabited. We're nowhere near the limit of animal life a balanced biosphere could sustain.

Anyways, just musing.

 

[Oofta]

Just for kicks, I'm going to break this down a bit. Not arguing, just curious.
Aquatic: Aquatic elf, Koalinth, Kuo-toa*, Locathah, Merfolk, Sahuagin, Triton. 7 total.
Extra-Planar (non-competing for resources): Githyanki, Githzerai, shadar-kai. 3 total. You could also plunk the various genasi in here. And zerth, by what I can dig up, are a class of githzerai, so not counted.
Underdark: Deep gnome, Derro, Drow, Duergar, Grimlock, Kuo-toa*, Quaggoth. 7 total.
Human (and races that exist within humanity): Aasimar, Air genasi, Deep Scion, Earth genasi, Fire genasi, Human, Jackalwere, Sea spawn(?), Tiefling, Water genasi. 10 total. I left out "genasi" because that's double-counting. You could also add half-elves, half-orcs, and hagspawn for a total of 13, but those all exist within humanity. No different than a particular religion or profession, really. Jackalwere are an oddball case, not being crossbreeds, but they exploit humanity as prey, so....
The Rest: Aarakocra, Bugbear, Bullywug, Dragonborn, Dwarf (2), Elf (5-ish; High, Sun, Star, and Moon are arguably only two races, but you didn't list Wood Elves, so we'll let it fly), Giff, Gnome (2), Firbolg, Firenewt, Gnoll (2), Halfling (3), Hobgoblin, Goblin (2), Kenku, Kobold (2), Lava Child, Lizardfolk (2), Meazel (really?), Mongrelfolk, Orc (2), Skulk, Tabaxi, Thri-kreen, Tortle, Troglodyte, Xvart, Yuan-ti pureblood. 28 total

I think lava child and meazels are a stretch. Many of The Rest occupy distinct territories not sought after by humans, so it's reasonable to assume that they have the means to sustain themselves in those territories and thus don't infringe on human agricultural needs. The elves are definitely a problem, but that's not new. Many of the races are also likely small populations

One thing that I don't think people really comprehend today is the sheer amount of biomass we've lost on the planet. When passenger pigeons died, nothing "replaced" them. There just aren't passenger pigeons anymore. There's evidence that South America still hasn't recovered from the loss of its native megafauna roughly 10-12,000 years ago, and the ecological niches they used are just uninhabited. We're nowhere near the limit of animal life a balanced biosphere could sustain.

Anyways, just musing.

Well, I did spend a whole 3 minutes coming up with that list. But there are also numerous non-humanoid sentient creatures, everything from beholders to dragons to giants.

Look at it a different way. Let's take as an example the African continent. Lots of diversity, still has mega fauna. But if we look at the carnivore niche, there's really not that much variety. Lions, cheetahs, leopards, hyenas, wild dogs. Could it support more species? Sure. But there has been competition for resources and different species have carved out their specific niche, although they do still compete with each other of course.

With magic you could have more races, but I have an "old" world with a long history. There are hints that some of the sentient races were wiped out long ago.

The number of sentient species you're going to have in a given campaign is just a stylistic choice. As others have said, have too many humanoids running around and it starts to feel like every race is just a human with a rubber mask for some people.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Just for kicks, I'm going to break this down a bit. Not arguing, just curious.
Aquatic: Aquatic elf, Koalinth, Kuo-toa*, Locathah, Merfolk, Sahuagin, Triton. 7 total.
Extra-Planar (non-competing for resources): Githyanki, Githzerai, shadar-kai. 3 total. You could also plunk the various genasi in here. And zerth, by what I can dig up, are a class of githzerai, so not counted.
Underdark: Deep gnome, Derro, Drow, Duergar, Grimlock, Kuo-toa*, Quaggoth. 7 total.
Human (and races that exist within humanity): Aasimar, Air genasi, Deep Scion, Earth genasi, Fire genasi, Human, Jackalwere, Sea spawn(?), Tiefling, Water genasi. 10 total. I left out "genasi" because that's double-counting. You could also add half-elves, half-orcs, and hagspawn for a total of 13, but those all exist within humanity. No different than a particular religion or profession, really. Jackalwere are an oddball case, not being crossbreeds, but they exploit humanity as prey, so....
The Rest: Aarakocra, Bugbear, Bullywug, Dragonborn, Dwarf (2), Elf (5-ish; High, Sun, Star, and Moon are arguably only two races, but you didn't list Wood Elves, so we'll let it fly), Giff, Gnome (2), Firbolg, Firenewt, Gnoll (2), Halfling (3), Hobgoblin, Goblin (2), Kenku, Kobold (2), Lava Child, Lizardfolk (2), Meazel (really?), Mongrelfolk, Orc (2), Skulk, Tabaxi, Thri-kreen, Tortle, Troglodyte, Xvart, Yuan-ti pureblood. 28 total

I'll add that Giff are really extra-planar as they travel in the plogiston (they're from Spelljammer). I almost never see them on a planet.

Also many of these races, although non-farming, aren't exactly building their own cities/towns either, and behave less like civilizations and more like packs of wolves. Firenewts/Troglodytes/Gnolls/Xvart at minimum I think fit the category of "roving bands."

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Well, I did spend a whole 3 minutes coming up with that list. But there are also numerous non-humanoid sentient creatures, everything from beholders to dragons to giants.

Look at it a different way. Let's take as an example the African continent. Lots of diversity, still has mega fauna. But if we look at the carnivore niche, there's really not that much variety. Lions, cheetahs, leopards, hyenas, wild dogs. Could it support more species? Sure. But there has been competition for resources and different species have carved out their specific niche, although they do still compete with each other of course.

With magic you could have more races, but I have an "old" world with a long history. There are hints that some of the sentient races were wiped out long ago.

The number of sentient species you're going to have in a given campaign is just a stylistic choice. As others have said, have too many humanoids running around and it starts to feel like every race is just a human with a rubber mask for some people.

You're really nitpicking here mate... sure you're adding more predators, but you're also adding more prey. More bullywugs means more food for gnolls, which means more food for dragons. You're not just overloading the top of the food pyramid, you're just expanding the food pyramid in general.

 

[cbwjm]

What I tend to find weird is having multiple sentient species full stop. Earth has only ever had 2 sentient species (that I'm aware of) at a single time and now we're down to one.

I get around this generally by shrugging and going "well, it's fantasy" but I will still often limit selections so that I don't have to take into account too many races at once.

 

[Oofta]

You're really nitpicking here mate... sure you're adding more predators, but you're also adding more prey. More bullywugs means more food for gnolls, which means more food for dragons. You're not just overloading the top of the food pyramid, you're just expanding the food pyramid in general.

Wait, we're talking about a fantasy world, right? One that just needs to make sense to the DM and their players? Because there is no "right" answer for this. You want dozens of sentient species with their own cities, cultures, countries? Go for it! I don't. End of story.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Wait, we're talking about a fantasy world, right? One that just needs to make sense to the DM and their players? Because there is no "right" answer for this. You want dozens of sentient species with their own cities, cultures, countries? Go for it! I don't. End of story.

Well sure, of course. It's just you've been kind of stating "It's not possible for a world to sustain many sentient species," which I think is easily refuted by actual population/species figures.

Also I found 44 different species of carnivores in Africa (many of which double as prey to other carnivores, but humanoids eat other humanoids so whatever). And yes, some of these are pretty similar species... but so are the various species of elves and goblinoids for example.

Category:Carnivorans of Africa - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

EDIT: Hilariously that 44 actually lumped all the carnivorous cat species onto a subpage, bring total up to 53. And look at this cute little Sand Cat!