Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Matthias" data-source="post: 5918387" data-attributes="member: 3625">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). Elves, dwarves, and halflings seem almost universally considered to be more "interesting". This in turn has translated into every incarnation and derivative of D&D (and even some that aren't, such as Shadowrun) having Tolkien's fantasy people becoming sacred cows whose inclusion in the standard ruleset can never be questioned. This extends to official settings of D&D and its derivative games--Forgotten Realms, Eberron, Dragonlance, Dragonstar, Golarion--if the standard elf, dwarf, halfling, et al seems worn-out then the solution is to do a refit of the race and put a new spin on it. The term "obsession" is not quite the word I am looking for, but this tendency to accept these traditional races for granted as necessary to cement a game or setting's appeal to <s>players</s>customers has become a nuisance to me.This analogy may serve to illustrate my problem better: having to include Tolkien races in every d20 fantasy game and setting is like having to include Vulcans, Klingons, and Ferengi in a Star Wars, Buck Rogers, or Stargate SG-1 RPG just because those universes are sci-fi based and include many similar story elements such as getting to visit other planets, meet interesting aliens and kill them, and being able to make out with their beautiful females.So, What I would like to see for D&D Next is a new position concerning "races": If it's not human, it's optional. Don't flood the character creation section of the rulebook with elves, other elves, other other elves, and dwarves (and reluctantly include humans). Start and end with humans as the norm, particularly for new players, and then bring in a nice variety of "alternative races" that can include the old standbys, without having the standard rules begin and end with them. I would earnestly like to see the new species from Races of Stone, Wild, Destiny, and Dragon elevated. The Goliaths, Illumians, and Raptorans were nice, and other options are worth considering such as lizardfolk, rakastas, lupins, muls, half-giants, and other seldom-remembered PCs from previously retired settings. All of these could be brought back. That's what I'd like to see.</blockquote>

Verification