Humans are corruptible!

[Ian O'Rourke]

Whether it has a mechanical effect or not I don't know, but I suspect it will be along the lines of how humans are betrayed in some other fantasy properties - amazingly adaptable and flexible, but also prone to many weaknesses.

In Lord of the Rings, the story is very much about humans standing up to be counted despite the fact it is their weakness at being corrupted by their own failings that resulted in the ring not being destroyed previously. Hell, in the movie they spend the whole time trying to keep the ring away from men for that very reason.

It's even true in RPG properties, the WHRFRP game plays on the fact humans, due to their wants, desires and failings can more easily fall to chaos in order to attain these things.

I suspect it will be this sort of thing, while the Elves and Dwarves (or whatever) are potentially less dynamic, flexible and driving for change, prosperity and expansion, but are in turn less prone to falling to corruption to attain these things (as they are wiser or happier with their lot).

 

[Wepwawet]

The world is 100% tieflings in 144 generations. No humans left. If the tiefling population is any greater than 1 in a 1000 to start, or if intermarriage were even a little more common, than it happens a lot faster.

You can argue that 144 generations is a long time (~3,000 years in human generations), and it is, but that's no excuse. The point remains that if tielfling-human marriage always results in tieflings, it's game over for the human species, eventually.

Well, there's always the sexual attraction factor. I'm sure a tiefling would find most humans unnatractive and dull, because of the lack of those sexy horns and tail.

That's a thing I never understood: in most sci-fi we see all kind of alien races and species attracted to humans, and wanting to be like them. It's stupid.

 

[Amphimir Míriel]

The world is 100% tieflings in 144 generations. No humans left. If the tiefling population is any greater than 1 in a 1000 to start, or if intermarriage were even a little more common, than it happens a lot faster.

Your calculations assume that Tieflings have the same fertility rates than humans.
For example, it has been stated in several sources that Elves have very low fertility rates, so that means that even though Half-elves are common enough, there is no risk for them to overrun the human population (which breeds like rabbits).

Edit: Gunpowder explained it better, nevermind

 

[RigaMortus2]

That, by the way, is an example of someone at WotC thinking with their kidneys. Or I should say, not thinking at all about what they wrote. If there was any interbreeding at all (it doesn't even have to be that much), the tiefling population would quickly swallow the entire human population and humans would disappear entirely.

Some quick and dirty math ...
- even if you start with tieflings only being 0.01% of the population
- and even if only one marriage and twenty was human-tiefling (all others are intra-racial)
- and even if those h-t marriages breed strictly at replacement rates (2.1 children), and not at any rate higher than the rest of the population ...

The world is 100% tieflings in 144 generations. No humans left. If the tiefling population is any greater than 1 in a 1000 to start, or if intermarriage were even a little more common, than it happens a lot faster.

You can argue that 144 generations is a long time (~3,000 years in human generations), and it is, but that's no excuse. The point remains that if tielfling-human marriage always results in tieflings, it's game over for the human species, eventually.

I know most of you people don't care about this stuff, but it grates on my emulationist nerves. I really wish WotC had a "common sense" checker to keep an eye out for stuff like this before it went out the door. This doesn't even have a "it makes the game more fun" excuse, leaving it just a pure chunk of undiluted stupid.

That is very interesting...

Would it matter if they changed it so that if the father was a tiefling, then the child is always a tiefling? And if they father was a human (the mother then being the tiefling) the result is always a human?

 

[Stogoe]

Fantasy Game. Not Population Genetics Simulation.

 

[Amphimir Míriel]

Fantasy Game. Not Population Genetics Simulation.

Still, it must retain some degree of verisimilitude.

But the parent poster's math was wrong, even if a Tiefling-Human kid is always a Tiefling it doesn't mean they irremediably replace humans in a few thousand years...

At most, it means social relations between races become strained, as some humans would no doubt become xenophobic towards tieflings and engage in ethnic cleansing...

 

[Remathilis]

Well, there's always the sexual attraction factor. I'm sure a tiefling would find most humans unnatractive and dull, because of the lack of those sexy horns and tail.

That's a thing I never understood: in most sci-fi we see all kind of alien races and species attracted to humans, and wanting to be like them. It's stupid.

Ah humanity, what a vain, egocentric lot...

 

[Remathilis]

Still, it must retain some degree of verisimilitude.

But the parent poster's math was wrong, even if a Tiefling-Human kid is always a Tiefling it doesn't mean they irremediably replace humans in a few thousand years...

At most, it means social relations between races become strained, as some humans would no doubt become xenophobic towards tieflings and engage in ethnic cleansing...

which, coupled with their sinister origin, makes perfect sense for a race that hides, plots, and tries to earn acceptance through heroic adventuring.

Tieflings, the proverbial outsider. Sounds good to me.

 

[kinem]

... some humans would no doubt become xenophobic towards tieflings and engage in ethnic cleansing...

Exactly. In my last PBP game (set in a homebrew world) this was threatening to start happenning with half-orcs, which face a similar issue. In the real world the problem also arises, with ethnic characteristics that are dominant in the offspring so that a 'one drop rule' type of thinking emerges.

 

[Emirikol]

Sounds to me like they're stealing the mechanic from CONAN RPG. Corruption.

jh