If they weren't in the phb...

[Fallen Seraph]

Tieflings - I can't really find a place for them. I could see them in certain campaign settings, but frankly they are so EeeeVIL that I can only think of three backgrounds for them. 1) Decadent Nobility 2) Religious sect or Warlock Cabal 3) Slave populations forced into it. In any case, you have the backstory that humans and devils were doing the nasty. It just feels like it is uninspired to me, probably because FR and Greyhawk have had so many demon or devil descended families that I feel that vein is tapped out.

If I was to have tieflings therefore they would have to be rare, and if they are rare, they would have to have the flavour text of being able to easily pass for humans. I'm not sure if the mechanical rules of the race will let me do that.

As villains though, I've already got plans for how the agents of the devils will be on the move in the material world.

In my setting I am taking Tieflings completely away from the Devil concept while still keeping them "corrupt".

Essentially in my setting, Tieflings are those unfortunate souls who thanks to the Flux (reality twisting and churning) because of the Pandorans (Aberrations) controlling the World; they are born deformed.

Now not deformed generally in a manner as we know it. Deformed in a monstrous way, fangs, claws, tail(s), extra appendages, extra eyes, blue, grey, black skin, insectoid legs, etc.

They are viewed with distaste by all races. Humans view them as abominations and many Humans parts kill them upon birth. Eladrin view them as cohorts with their enemy the Pandoran. Pandorans view them as a threat and nuisance, since they could reveal the truth of Pandorans and as part-aberration they are a natural threat for command.

The only reason Tieflings are not exterminated by the races is they are quite abundant, and many Wealthy and Noble-Families are said to have many Tiefling family members (this is thanks to more contact with Pandorans).

 

[Darkthorne]

I voted for all 3, we already use Tiefling. I like the distinction between the Eladrin and Elves. As for the Dragonborn I think it would be cool to play a funky Sleestak (probably dating myself here). Btw I would not only ban Kender but draw and quarter them with extreme malice and joy (My main experience was with one so annoying it could make any lg pally go postal and kill it). Also to me Kender <> halfling. I have seen some scary cool halfings being played.

 

[Nowehgo]

Our group is incredibly NOT excited about more elves. We sometimes have a token elf, but we don't have a big demand for "I want to be an elf - but like, a really cool special type of elf." In fact, we've only once had a player want to play a different variety of elf from the vanilla PHB version. I don't see the need for it.

Shut up and roll a dwarf, I say. Or gnome. We have 4-5 players and it's a rare game that doesn't have a gnome.

I'll admit - I play WoW too and I was less than thrilled when they added Blood-elves. xLlegollasx running around on my RP server. Yay.

Oh well, I'm in the grumpy minority on this one. We'll have gnomes in the game from day 1. I'll be curious to see if our DM allows the "cool elves." I doubt it.

 

[Sphyre]

All of the races existed as options in my campaign setting beforehand with their own flavor, so I have no problem with a player playing one with the proper story behind it. Although, I've always required players to determine their character motivations and backgrounds despite what race they are.

Although, I would not have fleshed out an alternate reason for tieflings to exist in my campaign setting without knowing they would be in the 4e PhB. It would have been completely upto the player to figure out why he had a demonic heritage.

Also, I already divorced elves from their "arcane mastery" in my setting before 4e was announced, so adding Eladrin in was very simple, especially since I actually like the new cosmology and never liked the greatwheel.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

I will be using them all. My first 4E campaign will be exploring the broader world of the Linley's Dungeon Crawl rogue-like game, so dragonborn and tieflings will be perfect for draconians and demonspawn, and I expect eladrin to make fine high elves or deep elves.

EDIT: I must say that I don't particularly like the idea of common dragonborn or tieflings in a regular D&D game, and would only admit them grudgingly. Eladrin and elves are just the magic-y/urban elves and woods elves, and I'm fine with them. I never liked the outsider-eladrin anyways.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I'll be unlikely to allow dragonborn or tieflings despite being in the PHB.

 

[Jhaelen]

When I start playing 4E I'll start just as I started with 3E: Just with the core books without any optional rules or houserules. So any playable races in the MM will be off-limits - at least initially.

 

[OakwoodDM]

I'm like Jhaelen. I voted none of the above, but nothing to do with the races themselves. I plan on running it as PHB only, so if they weren't in the PHB they wouldn't be an option.

 

[mhensley]

None of these races have ever appeared in any game I've run before, so why should I stick them in now? PC races are a huge element in the flavor of a campaign setting and not one that should be changed like the flavor of the month IMO. If wotc put in Gelatinous Cube, Robot, and Winged Monkey as standard pc races in the phb, would you accept that as well? Unless the phb really does a great job of selling me on these new races, I don't plan on allowing any of them. I will probably allow several from the MM though- gnomes, lizardmen, orcs, etc. You know, stuff that actually lives in my campaign world.

 

[Drkfathr1]

I don't mind the new races so much, they won't be common in my campaign at all, but I'll let my players run what they want, provided everything is balanced.

But just because they're in the Player's Handbook, doesn't mean I would let them use them if I didn't like them. I still feel free to restrict the player's choices to what fits my campaign. But I rarely have need to do so.