Sorry if the title is a bit unclear, but I think that it gets the basic premise of the thread across.
Okay, the topic of this thread relates to many recent discussions that have occurred on this site's forums and similar spaces, and even some ongoing ones (particularly the more recent
racial ability score increases thread, but also my now closed
halfling and D&D race design thread). This topic is, basically, how do we stop people from reading a fantasy race's cultural behavior (likely once the problematic racial elements have been removed) as just "humans with silly hats/rubber foreheads"?
There is a common saying; that if something looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck. The same applies to an extent for fantasy races in D&D, especially with the recent removal of racial ability score modifiers and cultural proficiencies in racial stats. If it looks and acts more or less like a human, it may as well be a human.
(Disclaimer: I know that there is a variety of opinions on this matter, where some feel that if a race is capable of cultural diversity, it might as well be a human, while others believe that even minor cosmetic differences are more than enough to differentiate the many D&D races. I personally am in a sort of middle-ground area on this argument. I certainly believe that most D&D races are different enough from the others to fulfill their niche and justify being different races, but there is a line that you have to draw in order to preserve the individuality of different races/lineages. I'm not trying to say that Orcs, Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, and the many different races of D&D past and present are basically just humans that might as well be replaced by humans, I'm merely trying to point out that races should try to avoid being labeled as "just another duck".)
There are a few different ways to further differentiate the D&D races from one another, like granting more mechanical differences between the various races, making the races have more alien/bizarre psychologies, and just creating more in-depth cultures for the vast swath of D&D races, but those all have their own issues with them. Certain people will argue that mechanical effects aren't enough to fulfill the feeling of being an "Other" species, some will argue that if other races/species/lineages have alien psychologies that it's practically impossible for us human players to properly roleplay them (thus diminishing the enjoyment of playing one of those races), and that if a culture can just be transplanted from one race to another (typically onto humans) that their culture doesn't "justify their existence as a race/lineage, as any other race can just have that culture", and others will question/debate the validity/importance of any (or all) of these criticisms. To put it simply, there's no perfect solution, and our differing tastes, preferences, and opinions will act as a roadblock to universal acceptance for any of these proposals.
However, there is a solution:
Have racial mechanics impact a race's/lineage's culture.
This isn't a even new concept. However, it is often a rare one, and it can also be difficult to design cultures based on racial abilities. However, it's possible, and can be done in compelling and unique ways. Notably, Eberron often does this, through the Warforged, Changelings, Kalashtar, Dragonmarked Races, and plenty of other examples. Try taking the culture of Warforged and applying it to Humans. It doesn't work. Try it with Changelings or the Kalashtar. It doesn't work. Keith Baker (and the other designers of Eberron's cultures) largely succeeded in creating races that have cultures that can't be straight up transplanted onto Humans or any other race. It just plain doesn't work. Kalashtar won't have the same culture without their psychic abilities and bond with refugee Quori, Warforged can't be Warforged if they weren't Forged for the Last War and then set free through the Treaty of Thronehold, and Changelings can't be Changelings without being shapeshifters. They're unique, they're interesting, and most importantly,
they're racially dependent.
I did something similar with the two homebrew races of mine that I mentioned in
the Halfling thread; the Vezyi and the Felshen. The Felshen were basically a race of lab-made sentient Flesh Golems that became fully sentient, could reproduce as the other races could, and their alchemically and magically altered/engineered brains granted them innate sentient powers (which then caused them to go to war as a goblinoid society of psionic-hating mages tried to eradicate them from the world). They've even discovered how to make psionic innovations, like Dream Hubs, "telephone poles" that increase the range of their telepathy, mental libraries stored in giant crystals, and similar creations. The Vezyi are death-touched Vecna worshippers that get "free" resurrections from their Death Priests (called Iremongers), which is largely dependent on their racial ability that lets them be resurrected after the normal amount of allotted time that resurrection spells allow (it's actually 10x the normal duration, so revivify works on Vezyi that have been dead for 10 minutes, raise dead works on Vezyi that have been dead for 100 days, and true resurrection works on Vezyi that have been dead for 2,000 years). They live in the Underfell (the Underdark of the Shadowfell), not eating, drinking, sleeping, or breathing, their only purpose in life is to serve Vecna, and once they run out of free resurrections (called "pardons", which they get 9 of), their bodies and souls are turned into undead thralls in Vecna's fell army. These race's intricate cultures are dependent on their racial abilities, and their cultures even accept races that have similar enough racial features to function in their societies (Felshen accept all benevolent psionic races/subraces/lineages/monsters; such as gemstone dragons, dragonborn, and golmeng, dragonborn, verdan, ghostwise halflings, flumphs, gnome ceremorphs, and so on. The Vezyi accept Reborn, Dhampir, and Fehntüm (incorporeal-undead-touched humanoids) that worship Vecna and his pantheon of demigods).
If a race/lineage's culture is dependent/influenced by their racial abilities, you can get some awesome and diverse cultures that aren't possible through replacing them with humans.
What do you guys think? Do you think D&D is up for changes to racial cultures like this? What issues with this could you see happening? Are there any other issues that this solution also solves? Have you done stuff like this before, and how did it go? Also feel free to discuss possible changes to the cultures of the main D&D races to make these even more apparent (there is a bit of this built into the core game, like dwarves drinking lots of alcohol because of their poison resistance and elven lifespans influencing their behavior, but I feel like it could/should be much more in-depth for many/most of them).
Thanks for reading, and hopefully the discussion stays constructive and interesting below.
