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

[Garthanos]

Listen, RuneQuest is an Old School game as far as I'm concerned (it came out in 1978), and you've always been able to play other races -- and they weren't Tolkienesque at all! The Elves are animate plant creatures, the Dwarves are machines, and the Trolls don't match any folklore Tolkien drew from.

Ducks ... you could play humanoid ducks.

 

[jmartkdr2]

you know for a game literally named dungeons and dragons i'm kind of surprised that dragonborn get as much dislike as they do, i would've thought they'd fit right in.

In practice they're the fourth most popular race, behind humans, elves, and tieflings. (If half-elves are counted as a separate race they come in third).

So more popular than dwarves or halflings at least.

 

[Garthanos]

In practice they're the fourth most popular race, behind humans, elves, and tieflings. (If half-elves are counted as a separate race they come in third).

So more popular than dwarves or halflings at least.

Not surprising at all. I would be mildly surprised Tieflings beat them out... but I am not. Have seen some really fun portrayals of them.

 

[MGibster]

So more popular than dwarves or halflings at least.

I haven't seen a dwarf PC since I ran Curse of Strahd way back in 2016. I've seen a few halflings and gnomes.

My stance on species in D&D is that I don't care for the most part. I might not want players to pick anything that flies or is size Tiny or something like that, but they can go ahead a pick whatever else they might want to play. It's just not going to make a big difference in how the game is played. A human Fighter is the same as a dragonborn Fighter is the same as a dwarf Fighter.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

I have long advocated for the DMG (and possibly the PHB too) to include, rather than the infuriating "true exotics" blather and insistence that various things are part of basically every fantasy world etc. etc., to instead explain how playable species affect the tone of a game.

So, for example, you could start with the standard "core four" Tolkien-esque options. "This is an extremely classic fantasy feel, rooted in Tolkien, and through him, Norse and Gaelic mythology, and to a lesser extent the wider body of European myth and folklore." Perhaps give commentary on how one can spice up even this well-worn example.

And then you list other examples, explaining what can arise from them. For example:

• Humans, dragonborn, tieflings, kenku, halflings, changelings. A seemingly-strange combination--until you realize that these are or correspond to various mythical creatures from Japanese myth, such as ryu in humanoid form, oni, tanuki, and the many shape-changing youkai such as kitsune. The absence of many "traditional" options better reflects the cultural mores of ancient and medieval Japan, especially if paired with the right setting elements and optional rules such as an Honor stat.
• Humans, genasi, loxodons, owlin (modified to have burrowing rather than flight), leonin. This one may be a bit more obvious--an Arabian Nights/Sultans of India setting, where humans with genie blood are hardly rare, and with owlin inspired by burrowing owls rather than flying ones. Loxodons and leonin provide additional options and variety while staying fairly on-theme.
• Humans, satyrs, minotaurs, centaurs, wood elves (no others), dragonborn (rare). If the list hasn't given it away, a sword-and-sandal Ancient Greece setting. The inclusion of dragonborn might seem unusual, but they have precedent in the Spartoi (not to be confused with Spartans), the "sown ones", warriors who sprouted from sown dragons teeth in the myths of both Cadmus and Jason. Elves are restricted to wood elves to represent dryads.
• Humans (rare), changelings, elves, fairies, firbolgs, gnomes, goblins, shifters. A consciously Celtic-leaning setting, including various races inspired by the aes sídhe of Irish myth, with Shifters a reference to the Werewolves of Ossory. Humans being rare emphasizes that this is an innately supernatural land, where humans live only on the fringes; perhaps it is Annwn, or Tir na nOg, or some other mythical otherworld, with the few humans here the only ones who have crossed over in bodily form, or something similar.

Same treatment would be applied to classes, deities, and other elements. Help show the GM (and the players) not just THAT they can shape things with these choices, but HOW they can do so.

Yes, absolutely this! Such curated palettes are great for setting the tone of the campaign, and it would be awesome if the official rules would advice how to do this and give such examples.

I however find it wild that this is coming from you, given that every time anyone else has expresses preference for such curated palettes you have fiercely opposed them!

 

[J-H]

My favorite non-traditional species to include is Warforged. There are a lot of different ways to do one, and there are good story paradigms to draw from in terms of personality and personal growth (Asimov, Data from TNG, Bolos, etc.).

 

[Bohandas]

you know for a game literally named dungeons and dragons i'm kind of surprised that dragonborn get as much dislike as they do, i would've thought they'd fit right in.

There's other human shaped dragony things in D&D and the dragonborn, or at least the 3.5e version that I'm most familiar with, are by far the lamest. Draconians are better. So are kobolds.

I seem to remember a lot of it was a visceral dislike of the Tiefling and Dragonborn, both of which became core races in 4E; in 3.0/3.5, there were race writeups for them, but the core books only had the Tolkien standards.

Actually 3.5 had gnomes as a core race too, not just the tolkien standards.

I don't get the visceral dislike for tieflings, but the dislike for dragonborn as a core race definintely makes sense to me. Dragonborn were not a major or well established part of D&D when 4e dropped. They were created at the very end of 3.5's run as part of one of the weaker entries in one of the weaker splatbook series. There are so many other races that would have made more sense as an addition to core - such as goblins, kobolds, githzerai, genasi, bariurs, or aasimir

 

[Garthanos]

you know for a game literally named dungeons and dragons i'm kind of surprised that dragonborn get as much dislike as they do, i would've thought they'd fit right in.

In practice they're the fourth most popular race, behind humans, elves, and tieflings. (If half-elves are counted as a separate race they come in third).

So more popular than dwarves or halflings at least.

Some people who dislike them seem to wish people had to buy separate material to get them because they are selfish traditionalists who want a layer between them and anything they do not like (usually it is new). So even if the content is very popular it must be hidden away for them personally. It is a pattern around here really.

 

[Garthanos]

My favorite non-traditional species to include is Warforged. There are a lot of different ways to do one, and there are good story paradigms to draw from in terms of personality and personal growth (Asimov, Data from TNG, Bolos, etc.).

Very distinct indeed though they make me think of animated suits of armor like something out of fullmetal alchemist.

 

[Bohandas]

My favorite non-traditional species to include is Warforged. There are a lot of different ways to do one, and there are good story paradigms to draw from in terms of personality and personal growth (Asimov, Data from TNG, Bolos, etc.).

Bender from Futurama