In response to
this thread, and a little bit of the Evolution thread.
D&D24 has ten ancestries,
including tiefling and aasimar. D&D14 has nine,
including half-elf and half-orc. Level Up has eight, not including any of the above as separate races.
So... you're writing the next PHB. It's your job to pick out between
seven and
twelve Ancestries to put in the core rules, and make the major players in the implied setting of the core rules. Your job isn't to appeal to the fans of prior editions, or to the widest possible audience-- your job is to pick the ancestries that you think will make the game most fun and interesting.
Rules:
- No fewer than 7; no more than 12.
- All races have to come from D&D (any) or Pathfinder (any) material, but 3PP is allowed.
- Something has to count as "human" in the core rules.
- Subraces are free; bonus points if you include them in your summary.
- Half-races are similarly free. Just indicate which ancestries can produce them.
- If you want to take a couple of paragraphs to describe what your "implied setting" looks like and how your picks reinforce it... please, be my guest.
1)
Grippli - I like little frog people better than the usual D&D smallfolk
2)
Dwarf - Mostly what you would expect, but I would go with different cultural and literary influences than D&D's short Scottish Viking. I can't remember where I saw the idea, but I like the idea of leaning heavier into the connection to stone and stoneworking. Give the dwarves a bit of a Grecco-Roman influence. The few big settlements in this setting would be dwarven cities. Dwarves would not be completely underground but still have a connection to mountains, stone, and the usual stuff. If someone wants to play the more typical D&D style of short Scottish Viking dwarf, there could be a few scattered groups of a dwarven analogy for the Picts, Caledonians, and various other "barbarians" active during the Roman empire.
3)
Elfasi - Elf kills Genasi and takes some of their stuff. I lean into elves being "people of the land" or whatever you want to call it. However, I would base the elements and land-based subraces on the Magic the Gathering mana colors. They would still be longer lived than humans, but not nearly to the extent that they are now.
4)
Ibixian (or Minotaur) - with a culture that blatantly steals a lot of ideas from Mass Effect Krogan. I think Ibixian are a cool idea from 3rd Edition that got left behind because of how late in the edition they were introduced, so I would prefer to use Ibixian for this, but that may be too obscure for a lot of people. So, I might be open to using a version of Minotaur for the same idea instead, if that made it easier for people to grasp the idea.
5)
Shardmind - Much like the Ibixian above, I think he general concept of Shardmind was cool, but it came too late in the life of 4th Edition. I would keep their general background story and vibe mostly as presented in the 4E PHB3, with only minor modifications to make their story make sense in the context of a different setting.
6)
Deva - This is another piece of 4th Edition that I would like to see again. In almost every way, I find the Deva style, aesthetic, mechanics, and cycle of reincarnation to be a lot more interesting than their aasimar counterparts in other editions.
7) Human - eh... I guess I had to include this somewhere. However, in this setting, humans would not be the dominant species. Humans are still doing relatively okay and may have handful of smaller balkanized settlements, the dwarves mentioned above would be the species currently at the head of the setting's few large settlements or organized kingdoms.
8)
Mul (Half-Dwarf) - I had not originally considered this. But, looking at my previous entries, this would make sense for this setting. Likely with some changes from the Dark Sun species of the same name. Depending on the final version of the setting, I may keep some portion of their sterility, or at least being less fecund, to help differentiate them from similar options and to explain why they are more rare in a world where dwarves and humans are among the most common races.
9)
Humasi (Half-Elf) - Reading through the conversations about them in other threads, I think having this option is meaningful to people. Also, with the different take on elves (above,) there are some interesting things that could be added to the concept.
10)
Tabaxi/Khajit - Enough of my players have played Elder Scrolls that Tabaxi already get roleplayed as Khajit. Might as well lean into it.
The setting would be a world in transition. I would like the general vibe to be similar to what it was like to look at the World of Greyhawk map for the first time, but a more primal version of that. Conversely, I would want to embrace a lot of the Points of Light idea from the 4th Edition PHB, but maybe a little less primal. Yes, the wilderness can be a dangerous place, and there are a lot of unknown parts of the map, but the few rare parts that are known are currently bright (though are at risk of not being so).
Transition is also a good way to explain the general technology level and aesthetic. It is somewhere between sword & sandal and typical kitchen sink fantasy settings. It is more advanced than sword & sandal, but only maybe by a generation or two (and because some of the bright spots have help from magic). So, there may be areas where the old stuff from the previous age is still the prevailing norm, and it degrades as you get further and further from a point of light.
Looking at the species choices, I have, the world is also in a phase of transition and tension between the settle "civilized" parts and the more spiritual and mystical elements. While the dwarves may have caved a larger and more settle point of light, in the form of the Dwyzantine Empire, many elves still live at one with the primordial forces of the land; and Devas have a direct connection with spirituality that exists beyond the mortal realm. The young humans stand at a crossroads, with the possibility of multiple paths before them, and a famous Grippli tells you about in a pub as he plays the banjo.
I would like to keep a lot of the 4E ideas for deities. I like that some of them were ambiguous enough to be either good or bad. For example, Erathis represents civilization, which could be good or bad depending on how you look at it. The names need not remain the same, but I like having more ambiguity when it comes to deities because I would like answers to prayers to be more mysterious, with omens that could be twisted to justify good or bad (if the one doing the twisting so desires). This would also fit with the tension of a world in transition. Even if the world knows that something like the Dawn War (or a similar celestial event) happened at some point in history, not everyone may have the same details in their version of how it happened.
TLDR: Put AD&D Greyhawk vibes and 4E Points of Light in a blender. Then decorate what comes out with a dwarven centerpiece, anachronistic Punic War era accents, and mysticism.
