D&D General Playable races: few or plenty, common or variable, native or outsiders?

[EzekielRaiden]

So, you're in favor of "anything goes" as long as the player claims it's their preference?

Can I play as an ancient red dragon in your campaign? I've always wanted to play an ancient dragon. It has nothing to do with it's power level.

I'm not who you responded to, but: Alright. If it has nothing to do with power level, you can be an ancient red dragon...trapped in the form of a lowly human (or some other "mundane" race). Perhaps it's a curse (a la Cthulhu Saves the World), or you lost a bet, or you accidentally fell asleep for one of your decade-naps while in human form and now can't seem to shift back out. Or maybe you're playing a long, long game, which requires you to "legitimately" earn power as a "mortal" and then unveil your true form only after there's no hope of loosening your iron grip.

That's a pretty fascinating array of possible story arcs--you're going to have to do things you would normally despise (find, eugh, mortal "allies"! be diplomatic with these...these...soft-skinned weaklings!) and perform actions that would normally be a cakewalk if you had your full powers, but which are actually quite dangerous to you in your weakened form. We can work out the specifics; perhaps you retain some of your draconic properties (=Variant Human with a character-specific feat), or have knowledge that normally shouldn't be possible for your class (e.g. if playing a full spellcaster, we can discuss a minor expansion of spells that would be particularly appropriate for an ancient red to know, regardless of the class you choose to play). Perhaps you can even have a super mode where some of your red dragon powers come out to play for a bit, but it can only be used very rarely (e.g. once per level or per major story milestone), or perhaps you can fly around in red dragon form once a day for utility purposes (e.g. carrying loads/people, crossing difficult gaps, etc. and retaining greater and greater materiality and power as you gain levels) so long as it doesn't compromise your goals/mission or violate your curse (etc.) to do so.

Unless, of course, it genuinely does have something to do with power level, aka, you aren't actually okay with being a red dragon without its powers...

 

[Crimson Longinus]

1) Few or plenty?

Few. A limited palette that is chosen for the setting. Though I have to say that this is just 'few' in a D&D sense. I actually like settings that have a lot of intelligent species, I just think that six or eight would be a lot, and what D&D has is just an utterly insane amount.

2) Common or variable?

I want mechanics to be consistent and coherent and I want species to be mechanically district from each other. That being said, there can be some flexibility. I prefer the species format to be "You get X, Y and Z, and then choose two of A, B, C, or D."

3) Native or outsiders?

Native. Or at least in sense that no species from different settings. Outsiders in a sense of extraplanars that are part of the setting might be fine, but then there would need to be some narrative and thematic focus on that.

Bonus question (kind of a combination of questions 2 and 3): how do you feel about using different versions of a race from different settings?

Nope. Consistent mechanics. If goblins in the setting are represented with certain mechanics, then those must be consistently applied. And definitely no characters from other settings.

 

[Stormonu]

1）How many you got? As long as its not mechanically busted in some way, I’ll generally allow any race. I’ve even refluffed races to make others that my players have wanted (we refluffed a gnome into a goblin before Volo’s came out, refluffed aarokara to make owlfolk before Strixhaven was a thing and refluffed a lizardfolk into a hydra thing in another game).

2) I’m not much for sub races (especially elvin ones), so I guess my answer would be stock.

3) While outwardly I try to stay “in theme” for a campaign world, if a player has an interest with playing something I’ll generally go with it. Recently, used a changeling in Greyhawk and shifters in Ravenloft, for example.

As an aside, I’m terribly bored with humans; I play one every day after all. When I do a fantasy game, I want something a bit different. I’ve been greatly influenced by the likes of Chronicles of Narnia, Watership Down, Redwall and Disney’s Robin Hood as well as more “traditional” fantasy so I really enjoy anthropothmorphic races - Kenku, tabaxi, Dragonborn, lizardfolk and the like. Though dwarves tend to be me favorite in the end.

 

[Scott Christian]

For D&D - all of them. It matches the game's style. They add very little real culture to the setting, and mechanically they add even less. So it makes sense to include them all. Because when you do, the sum of the parts equals a new and entertaining culture. I mean, travelling through the mountains and running into dwarves and bird people and gnomes. Then reaching the plains and finding centaurs and humans and halfling. Then going into the marshlands and finding lizard men, turtle people, crab people, and cat people. I mean, what is the point?

The point is to make them all superficial and let the sheer number do the cultural work.