My grievance with D&D races

[Matthias]

Don't get me wrong....I do not want a humans-only D&D game. But my perception of this fantasy subgenre of ours is that it has become much too Tolkien-race-centric, that the "core races" of Other Than Humans being taken for granted and expected to exist and be predominant in the game is precisely the problem I am identifying. To its credit, 4E tried to break up this formulaic and stagnant aspect of escapism in the game with its dragonborn and other^3 elves. And it worries and saddens me when I hear that people say if the game doesn't have elves, dwarves, etc. as alt-races on equal footing with footing with humans, then it's not D&D. I gues what I am hoping for is for players to think more outside the box, to imagine campaign worlds where the same six races are not the most common or dominant. A game world in which centaurs, minotaurs, satyrs, wemics, catfolk, and lizardfolk are the dominant nonhumans would be refreshingly different. It should be noted that Rules As Written tend to dictate the style of Games As Played, simply because (and this is not a criticism, only an observation) GMs find it easier to let the books decide how things work for his world than to try to make stuff up on his own.

 

[Tallifer]

What troubles me with D&D is how certain non-human races have become "standard" alternatives to playing a human as a PC. So much so, that "Human" has become the alternative. I can't think of the last time I have played or run a game in which everyone was a human (or even when the majority of the party were humans).

Interesting perspective. In my thirty years of D&D, the vast majority of characters whom I have seen have been human. In AD&D there were level limits and class restrictions to encourage human characters; in various other systems there were ability penalties for non-humans; in Pathfinder the humans get extra skills and a feat; in the Fourth Edition they get an extra feat, an at-will power and a skill. Building strong characters is often easier with a human.

At the same time most new players and many others feel most comfortable roleplaying a human male.

 

[prosfilaes]

And it worries and saddens me when I hear that people say if the game doesn't have elves, dwarves, etc. as alt-races on equal footing with footing with humans, then it's not D&D.

It saddens you when people define the game by one of its long-standing features? Would it upset you if people say that Shadowrun isn't Shadowrun without cyberpunk technology?

A game world in which centaurs, minotaurs, satyrs, wemics, catfolk, and lizardfolk are the dominant nonhumans would be refreshingly different.

It could be. To some extent it's going to be the same old thing with different names, and whether anyone can make something really interestingly different out of those remains to be seen.

If you want to publish your fantasy RPG with those races, all the more power to you. The SRD lets you fold, spindle and mutilate D&D 3 if you want; the GSL lets you make it compatible with D&D 4 if that interests you. Any number of other options exist.

But this is D&D. D&D Next should serve the needs of the people who have played D&D, the vast majority of whom having played PHB races.

 

[trancejeremy]

The thing is, Tolkien didn't invent elves, dwarves, and the like. They're very much a part of folklore and mythology of Western Europe.

So taking the technology and social structure of Western Europe then replacing races from mythology with made up ones (or from other cultures) is jarring.

OTOH, it would make sense, if say, there was a D&D setting based on the Ancient Greeks to not have them, but say, Satyrs, Centaurs, Cyclops and the like

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

The point of including them in Shadowrun is that there was an implied pre-history that could be imagined as resembling D&D.

That was a setting decision to attract people who had already played D&D and might want to experiment with something with more edgy and (perhaps) adult content. And it made the world less disorienting to have new races appear that you sort of understood (even if you really did not).

 

[Glak]

I think that the ideal solution would be:

The first three books (PHB, DMG, MM) should assume a human-centric game with Dwarves, Elves, and Halflings. Humans should clearly be stronger than the other races, but not overpowering. The books would make clear that all of these races (including human) are optional.

A later book would contain nothing but races, maybe 50 solidly designed races with the full amount of content. It would also include an alternate human that is on par with the other races. The first chapter of this book would discuss how to select races to create an interesting campaign. It would talk about picking humans, satyrs, etc... for a Greek campaign, picking certain other races for a elf vs dwarf saga, post apocalyptic, aztec, etc...

 

[Matthias]

The thing is, Tolkien didn't invent elves, dwarves, and the like. They're very much a part of folklore and mythology of Western Europe.

So taking the technology and social structure of Western Europe then replacing races from mythology with made up ones (or from other cultures) is jarring.

OTOH, it would make sense, if say, there was a D&D setting based on the Ancient Greeks to not have them, but say, Satyrs, Centaurs, Cyclops and the like

If memory serves, what Tokien did to elves is similar to what Myers did to vampires, only his reimagining of the mythological beings was done well enough that they have supplanted popular culture's conception of what elves and dwarves are like (closer to human than mystical spritelike creatures).

 

[Janaxstrus]

Humans are probably the most common around our tables.

I do have a soft spot in my heart for Illumians, as I feel the Lore Delver was one of the most fun classes to play in 3.x.

I would like to see more emphasis placed on the core 4, with a handful of other given some space in the core book (half-elf, half-orc) and the rest relegated to setting specific books. That is just a personal preference.

 

[Hautamaki]

If you're looking for a source of alternative races, I really like what Steven Erikson and Ian Esslemont did with their Malazan Book of the Fallen universe. There are at least a dozen races altogether but they are all fairly unique, have interesting societies and characteristics, well-fleshed out histories, and interact with each other and the fiction well.