D&D General Race Has No Mechanics. What do you play?

[cbwjm]

Instead of completely no mechanics, do you think that if only that build your own race from Tasha's (?) was available and that players could flavour their PCs however they wanted that people would build, say, a dwarf with skills and feats that feel kind of dwarfy?

 

[Micah Sweet]

The only current difference in mechanics is how long it lasts, correct? And elves still have to rest for 8 hours, just not sleep. I don't see how that is measurably different from a mechanical perspective.

It is representative of it being a different thing. That's what rules are for: to represent things in the world.

 

[Argyle King]

I wouldn't necessarily say it's a turnoff, but I do believe that it would create an extra level of abstraction and distance from the game for me.

I often have difficulty in conversations that draw a line between fluff and crunch. To me, they should have a coherent relationship, and one doesn't exist without the other.

Let's say I were playing a minotaur. It is already sometimes a little weird that D&D has some restrictions on when and how I can use my horns -but I accept that some level of abstraction might be best for game mechanics. If it were taken a step further and there were zero mechanical support for my minotaur character being in any way different from a human, that would seem odd to me.

I think a good game could be built around not having fantasy races in the same way that D&D does. R. Howard's Conan stories had different cultures and nationalities, but didn't (typically) have fantasy races. I highly enjoyed those stories.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Awakened gorilla. Final answer.

Only correct answer.

 

[Azzy]

Awakened gorilla. Final answer.

Only correct answer.

Okay, Grod.

 

[Azzy]

I dunno. Anything really.

 

[Lanefan]

I think you know my position all this, but not necessarily. They could just be fluff, lore with no crunch, just a 'oh elven culture has this because they can access their memories from their various lifetimes' or whatever.

No mechanical benefit, no extra rules, just a claim in the lore that does nothing.

Whatever the "this" is that elven culture has is going to arise in mechanics at some point. In this case it might be when an Elf accesses memories from a previous lifetime; even though there's no roll, being able to access ancient memories without having to do historical research etc. is still a mechanical advantage Elves get that other species do not.

 

[Deset Gled]

Hypothetical sitation: you are joining a new campaign in which all other factors are positive (you know the GM and group, it's in a setting you like, whatever) but there is one hitch: race/heritage/species is cosmetic only.

I mean, I stipulated that everything else was positive to you, so it's up to you what edition and world you are answering from.

These statements seem at odds with each other. You can't really change something like that and not have larger changes to the game.

On the one hand, I'm 100% fine with a DM who is very restrictive about character creation. "You're all humans" or "Elves are kill-on-site by other races" are the type of world building I can get behind at Session 0. From that standpoint, it doesn't sound like there would be a problem.

But, if I'm choosing the edition and world... Let's say we're playing a 3.x OA/Kara-tur campaign. I say "I want to play a Hengeyokai on a personal journey to connect with my animal self". The DM says "Sure, but mechanically, they're the same as a human". Huh? Their alternate form is literally turning into an animal. Does that mean that, in this campaign, Hengeyokai don't have the Alternate Form ability? That normal Hengeyokay do but I don't? That I can turn into an animal, but still function exactly as a human? Even if I'm a small sized carp, or a crane with a fly speed, it's "cosmetic only"? How the heck is that supposed to work?

Okay, that's an extreme example. But what about undead races? Warforged? How can differences like breathing and sleeping be "cosmetic only"?

Let's go even more basic. I'm a human scout. I see a Goliath fighter. I ask the DM to try an assess what kind of a threat he his. The DM says he apears to be about average build for a Goliath. What the heck does that mean? Should I expect him to be stronger than a human, using larger, more dangerous weapons? Because Goliaths are obviously stronger than humans and use big weapons that do more damage. Or does average build for a Goliath mean he's the same as an average human?

Honestly, this just sounds like a mess. Easier to say "Everyone is a <insert race here>" than to say "It's cosmetic only". I can get behind the former. The latter would take a lot of work. And if the DM doesn't have an immediate answer worked out for the questions, well, that's a sign the DM really didn't know what they were doing.

 

[Lanefan]

First off, I don't think long life qualifies as a mechanic, unless the game in question has real and impactful aging effects. They were real in some TSR era D&D, but never in my experience what one would call "impactful." I guess maybe elves and dwarves could handle a lot more haste spells cast on them?

The mechanical advantage to long life is they get to use their living memories to access historical information where Humans have to go digging through old books and scrolls (which takes much longer) to access the same stuff.

Or to use your elf example: elves experience a trance rather than real sleep, and their dreams are not dreams but the sifting of memories of many lifetimes. You are absolutely right that should inform both individual elf characters as well as elf culture broadly, but it does not require any special game mechanics.

Depends. Does the trance take less time than normal sleep? Is it easier to awaken an Elf from trance than a Human from sleep? And does that sifting of memories give any advantages when recalling ancient information?

If the answer to any of those is "yes" then there's a mechanical difference between Elves and other species; and if the answer is "no" across the board, why bother?

 

[Tonguez]

Let's go even more basic. I'm a human scout. I see a Goliath fighter. I ask the DM to try an assess what kind of a threat he his. The DM says he apears to be about average build for a Goliath. What the heck does that mean? Should I expect him to be stronger than a human, using larger, more dangerous weapons? Because Goliaths are obviously stronger than humans and use big weapons that do more damage. Or does average build for a Goliath mean he's the same as an average human?

Honestly, this just sounds like a mess. Easier to say "Everyone is a <insert race here>" than to say "It's cosmetic only". I can get behind the former. The latter would take a lot of work. And if the DM doesn't have an immediate answer worked out for the questions, well, that's a sign the DM really didn't know what they were doing.

really if the average Halfling can be as strong as the average human then why cant the average human be as strong as the average Goliath?
It takes combat away from reliance on Attributes and more towards Class add-ons

and if we use Human as the base for character building including the extra feat then no reason why the Goliath cant just be a tall human with the Powerful Build Feat.

I admit Hengeyokai are going to be harder but a Fey Background (cosmetic detail of fox ears and tail), and expertise in disguise (to hide them) might replicate shapechanging