Plea to traditionalist fans: No more “half” races?

[the Jester]

Plea: No more “half” races?

Its awkward treating “half” races as separate races.

Talking to the traditionalist players, can you handle getting rid of “half” races?

So instead of a “Half-Orc”, just play an “Orc”?

Its easy to use either Orc or Human mechanics and reflavor it as a hybrid.

If for roleplay reasons its important to mechanically express part human parentage, maybe select a “Half-Human theme” that grants some Human features, perhaps including humanoid shape and size in some cases.

Rather than asking people who like something that you don't like to be okay leaving it out of the game entirely, why don't you just not use it in your games?

 

[avin]

Double.

 

[avin]

Half-Elves - Want
Half-Orcs - Don't care

Half-orcs should be replaced by Orcs. Half-orcs should be rare, more rare than Dragonborn.

Looking at D&D art I can't think a human being too much attracted to an orc, so Half-orcs would born in rare cases where that happens, or rapes.

Half-elf on the other hand, it's easier to figure out.

Look, I'm not a fan of Dragonborn, but being a pure race they look like a far more plausible choice for a gameworld than Half-orcs.

Half-orcs are a silly tradition, IMHO.

 

[rogueattorney]

The half-orc pc in 1e was very different from the half-orc of subsequent editions and quite distinct from the full-blooded orc as presented in 1e, and I think it was a far more interesting character than the half-orc of subsequent editions.

In 1e, Orcs were beast-men who'd mate with about anything except maybe demi-humans. 90% of the offspring (regardless of the race of the non-orc parent) would be an orc for all practical purposes. In the case of humans, 10% of the offspring would be exceptional and produce the half-orc pc race. These characters were virtually indistinguishable from ugly humans. If we were to put things into Tolkien terms, they were far more like the swarthy hoodlums of Bree than the Urak-Hai (which, in 1e, were probably best represented by hob-goblins).

Prior to Unearthed Arcana coming out, half-orcs' STR and CON bonus and wide range of multi-class options made them one of the more attractive non-human races. Unearthed Arcana pretty much let the elf kick all the other demi-humans in the junk and take their stuff, but that's a discussion for another day.

 

[renau1g]

Are you kidding me? We need more of them. half-dwarfs,

We have them.... Humanoid (Dungeons & Dragons) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Crazy Jerome]

I have no objection whatsoever to half-elf or half-orc or half-anything being mechanically and flavorfully supported in the rules. A lot of people like them, and they have their niches.

I do object to using race as the mechanical means to produce "half-elf" and such as bad design, on the grounds that it is a terrible, inflexible kludge of the race mechanic used solely because that is what early D&D had to work with. We've been one very small step away from it being totally unnecessary for some time now, and the inclusion of traits in 5E has finally taken that last step.

Half races take up inordinate space for what little they provide. What, you spend two pages or so on "half-elf" and you get one variety of one conception of one particular mix. Do that a couple of times, and it scales linearly--which means we get a handful of the most popular half races. Spend the same page space on some traits that show trace amounts of "elven blood" or "orc blood" or whatever, and you get a huge number of combinations that people can use to make anything they want. If your great grandmother on your dad's side fooled around with a dragon, and then dear old dad married an elf, you're covered.

 

[Janaxstrus]

Half-orcs should be replaced by Orcs. Half-orcs should be rare, more rare than Dragonborn.

Looking at D&D art I can't think a human being too much attracted to an orc, so Half-orcs would born in rare cases where that happens, or rapes.

Half-elf on the other hand, it's easier to figure out.

Look, I'm not a fan of Dragonborn, but being a pure race they look like a far more plausible choice for a gameworld than Half-orcs.

Half-orcs are a silly tradition, IMHO.

Disagree. I'd much rather have half-orcs than lizard people with mammalian sexual characteristics.
Half-Orcs have been around since first edition as well, so they are completely plausible for the D&D world.

 

[avin]

Disagree. I'd much rather have half-orcs than lizard people with mammalian sexual characteristics.
Half-Orcs have been around since first edition as well, so they are completely plausible for the D&D world.

Because of "tradition"? No, thank you very much.

Agree with the mammalian sexual part, tho. Draconians with boobs is as silly as half-orcs as a common race.

 

[Guest 85555]

Because of "tradition"? No, thank you very much.

Agree with the mammalian sexual part, tho. Draconians with boobs is as silly as half-orcs as a common race.

Tradition is the wrong word: brand identity is the right one. If their goal is to appeal to people who played earlier editions (and they said that is one aim) then they are going to have to make the race selection recognizably D&D to those folks. I think there is a strong argument to be made that half orcs are a key part of the d&d brand identity. They were in 1e, their absence in 2e was a source of controversy, and their return in 3e was hailed.

 

[avin]

Tradition is the wrong word: brand identity is the right one. If their goal is to appeal to people who played earlier editions (and they said that is one aim) then they are going to have to make the race selection recognizably D&D to those folks. I think there is a strong argument to be made that half orcs are a key part of the d&d brand identity. They were in 1e, their absence in 2e was a source of controversy, and their return in 3e was hailed.

A better wording, yes.

DDN wants to appeal to every edition players, not just the earlier guys (I'm AD&D2E earlier guy myself...) so my point is: if there's a place for Half-orcs (and should be) there must be a place for Dragonborn.