D&D General I finally like non-Tolkien species for PCs

[GobHag]

I may be a boring GM when doing fantasy campaigns, but I prefer my players characters to be human, or at most one of the Tolkien races. The reason for this is simply that I have yet to meet a player who can play an ”exotic race” character as anything other than a human with bad makeup and some cultural quirks. I like to think that I can contribute to make my PCs feel special and unique without them having to be a ghost fairie etc.

I realize that I’m old and that the current fantasy paradigm is way more expansive when it comes to race/speices/heritage. I’m not into it.

In my opinion that's perfectly fine and why you should let them be non-tolkiens, if they can't make playing a living tree/crowman/etc/etc differnet than human than just treat them as one with feathers/branches/etc/etc.

 

[Bohandas]

Oh you mean like elves?

And doubly so for drow

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I may be a boring GM when doing fantasy campaigns, but I prefer my players characters to be human, or at most one of the Tolkien races. The reason for this is simply that I have yet to meet a player who can play an ”exotic race” character as anything other than a human with bad makeup and some cultural quirks. I like to think that I can contribute to make my PCs feel special and unique without them having to be a ghost fairie etc.

I realize that I’m old and that the current fantasy paradigm is way more expansive when it comes to race/speices/heritage. I’m not into it.

I'm pretty sure a thousand year old elf is a lot more alien to a human than a goliath is, yet old school players never object when players completely ignore the impact of having been born long before the humans' kingdom was founded.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I'm pretty sure a thousand year old elf is a lot more alien to a human than a goliath is, yet old school players never object when players completely ignore the impact of having been born long before the humans' kingdom was founded.

Actually, I wouldn't limit that to "old school players". IME, most players of any providence ignore such things in play.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

I'm pretty sure a thousand year old elf is a lot more alien to a human than a goliath is, yet old school players never object when players completely ignore the impact of having been born long before the humans' kingdom was founded.

Though player elves rarely are that old. Super long lived species are weird in D&D though. You might have live couple of centuries, and still be level one, then gain a bunch of levels in a very short period of time. What have you been doing with you life until that point?

 

[Micah Sweet]

Though player elves rarely are that old. Super long lived species are weird in D&D though. You might have live couple of centuries, and still be level one, then gain a bunch of levels in a very short period of time. What have you been doing with you life until that point?

There is an established idea that adventuring strongly "fast-tracks" the leveling process over anything else a person might do with their time, but I see what you mean.

 

[Scott Christian]

Actually, I wouldn't limit that to "old school players". IME, most players of any providence ignore such things in play.

I would add to this. The players that I have seen do a really good job at playing say, an elf or dwarf, are ones that have been playing them for years and years. Not all, but definitely some players thrive in the deep-dive. They played Galena the dwarf, and through a year of game play, learned about Galena. Then they played Garnet, Galena's cousin. So all the familial characteristics became even more honed. Then they played Grog, Garnet and Galena's son, etc. And with each iteration, they became (in my opinion) a better dwarf. The social quirks, the cultural thought at the forefront of decisions, the descriptions of themselves during gameplay, etc. In the end, it became more than a stocky human with a beard. But it took that deep-dive to do it.

 

[TwoSix]

Actually, I wouldn't limit that to "old school players". IME, most players of any providence ignore such things in play.

Which is why I generally favor not worrying about it and just let people play what they want.

If Carl Casual wants to play a dragonborn because scales are cool and a breath weapon sounds fire, let him.

If Diana Deep-Dive wants to play a tiefling because they want to explore a personal story about struggling with feeling predestined for damnation, even better.