D&D General Old School DND talks if DND is racist.

[Remathilis]

Art, Stats, and a 10000 foot look at a default, with 'change as you like' bolded on the front.

So it's the SRD. Got it. Hope WotC continues to give it away for free online and doesn't have the audacity to charge $50.00 for that.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Along with a single simplified baseline starting point that you can use or toss, yes.

the problem people have is the baseline, the thing we are all arguing about.

 

[Oofta]

the problem people have is the baseline, the thing we are all arguing about.

It's easy to point fingers and say "that's wrong". What would you do to fix it? I mean, I've given suggestions and reasoning. What's yours?

 

[DnD Warlord]

So what would it be? Not just for orcs, but say for gnolls or goblins?

I mean, I've said it repeatedly, they should be more explicit that what we have is a default starting point. But what would you add beyond a generic section that applies to all monsters (including non-humanoid ones). Does every monster need it? If not, how do you decide?

Any race that has a culture, so maybe not Medusa (solitary) or zombies (mindless) or animals (birds wolf fox ect) but most. So like goblins orcs Mindflayers dragons

 

[Oofta]

Any race that has a culture, so maybe not Medusa (solitary) or zombies (mindless) or animals (birds wolf fox ect) but most. So like goblins orcs Mindflayers dragons

Orcs have a base culture. It's just one you object to. What would you do different that would still give them a niche, make them worthy of an entry in the MM?

 

[jmartkdr2]

the problem people have is the baseline, the thing we are all arguing about.

It does seem there are two camps:

1. We need a baseline. It should be clear it's just a baseline and subject to variation, and it should be well-done (interesting, not racially insensitive, etc), but without one the entry isn't fully usable.

2. We should not have a baseline, but several brief suggestions and have the dm's fill in the details as they see fit. This avoids any sense of the baseline being seen as 'canon' (because some people will see it that way no matter how many times you tell them not to) and prevents any sense of monocultures because there's clearly more than one culture here.

The "why not both?" argument is the page count would get crazy if we included multiple complete cultural descriptions, meaning the MM would need to be huge and/or contain half as many monsters.

(Spitball idea: maybe it would be better to pick 2-5 "core" monsterous races and just -not- include obscure ones on the main MM. So orcs, goblinoids, lizardfolk, something that swims, giants of several sizes, maybe drow, and everything else can come later?)

 

[Oofta]

It does seem there are two camps:

1. We need a baseline. It should be clear it's just a baseline and subject to variation, and it should be well-done (interesting, not racially insensitive, etc), but without one the entry isn't fully usable.

2. We should not have a baseline, but several brief suggestions and have the dm's fill in the details as they see fit. This avoids any sense of the baseline being seen as 'canon' (because some people will see it that way no matter how many times you tell them not to) and prevents any sense of monocultures because there's clearly more than one culture here.

The "why not both?" argument is the page count would get crazy if we included multiple complete cultural descriptions, meaning the MM would need to be huge and/or contain half as many monsters.

(Spitball idea: maybe it would be better to pick 2-5 "core" monsterous races and just -not- include obscure ones on the main MM. So orcs, goblinoids, lizardfolk, something that swims, giants of several sizes, maybe drow, and everything else can come later?)

I mean we could do the spitball idea, but to me those kind of things are campaign and setting specific. Which is what we have now.

 

[Scribe]

So it's the SRD. Got it. Hope WotC continues to give it away for free online and doesn't have the audacity to charge $50.00 for that.

I've looked over the SRD, not a lot of art there.

 

[Mind of tempest]

It does seem there are two camps:

1. We need a baseline. It should be clear it's just a baseline and subject to variation, and it should be well-done (interesting, not racially insensitive, etc), but without one the entry isn't fully usable.

2. We should not have a baseline, but several brief suggestions and have the dm's fill in the details as they see fit. This avoids any sense of the baseline being seen as 'canon' (because some people will see it that way no matter how many times you tell them not to) and prevents any sense of monocultures because there's clearly more than one culture here.

The "why not both?" argument is the page count would get crazy if we included multiple complete cultural descriptions, meaning the MM would need to be huge and/or contain half as many monsters.

(Spitball idea: maybe it would be better to pick 2-5 "core" monsterous races and just -not- include obscure ones on the main MM. So orcs, goblinoids, lizardfolk, something that swims, giants of several sizes, maybe drow, and everything else can come later?)

it would need the dragons you have to have the dragons.

 

[Remathilis]

I've looked over the SRD, not a lot of art there.

Still not paying $50 for a picture book when Google Image Search is a thing.