D&D (2024) No Dwarf, Halfling, and Orc suborgins, lineages, and legacies

[Crimson Longinus]

Does GURPS have a D&D-like setting?

I'm sure among all the settings it has it does.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

Does GURPS have a D&D-like setting?

 

[Crimson Longinus]

okay we we know roughly what the disagreement sides seem to be so we can all more effectively figure out what we each want as I get the feeling we talk past each other?

I am broad strokes simulationist. I don't want any sort of exact or detailed simulation, but I ultimately want the mechanics to represent the fictional reality even somewhat consistent manner. Also if we have defined rule package splats like species and classes, I want their mechanics actually tell us something about the fictional reality. I also want things that are different in fiction to be different mechanically. Ideally I would want things to be roughly balanced, so I don't really want halfling barbarians to be terrible, but I would want instead of super strong halfling there to be a dex based barbarian build for them that relied more on their nimbleness (I think this would fit the elves too.) But for me balance is a secondary consideration, and I am willing to make some sacrifices on it for verisimilitude.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

And the thing with an Orc Wizard, maybe it's they've studied some ancient Orcish tradition of Wizardry, or maybe they attended one of those multicultural-but-mostly-Human Arcane Colleges and learned to become a Wizard there.

 

[Remathilis]

I'm pretty sure the fix is to have everyone run around playing pretend and solving all arguments with "you're dead" "no I'm not!".

 

[Remathilis]

That is absurd number of species. Some combination and streamlining is needed. But indeed a big book with rules and lore for several species seems like a good idea.

Part of the reason is the amount of settings D&D has to accommodate. Getting rid of all of them but one default setting would prune the number down.

 

[Scribe]

I'm pretty sure the fix is to have everyone run around playing pretend and solving all arguments with "you're dead" "no I'm not!".

Thats exactly the vibe of these discussions.

 

[tetrasodium]

Sometimes I wonder if that wasn't the intent. Some people want PCs to be different from each other, but only in light, mostly aesthetic ways. And the game has been playing to that philosophy more and more, leveling out mechanical variety in a hundred different ways such that aesthetics and personal characterization are where PCs get to be different.

I'm not saying WotC 5e is all the way there, but I see a trend.

Maybe, but the minus two imposed a weakness that needed to be eaten or compensated for. That -1 to whatever the attribute was linked to could make a big difference in what was worth investing in and what was important to invest in. Without it PCs all just invest in the same S+ S & A+ tier things for their class so everything turns into a smear of "oh I'm proficient too" sameness.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Fighter means something in the context of D&D, but I don't hear people arguing that fighter should only mean high strength, plate mail and shields. In fact, I hear the opposite as people want agile fighters, tactical fighters, inspiring fighters, etc. we want multiple different ways to play fighters, but only one way to play elves.

Nope. Multiple ways to play elves is fine, but they still need something that makes them an elf as opposed to something else, and I would prefer that thing not be primary what they look like.

 

[Micah Sweet]

5e currently has over 46 races. So we would be looking at over 46+ racial splatbooks or one very large tome. The Complete Tome of Races. I could see WoTC creating the latter, if they were inclined to do so. I don't see them creating the individual splatbooks again.

I don't care if it's WotC who makes them (or it if a single tome), though I think they should.