NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="steeldragons" data-source="post: 6485695" data-attributes="member: 92511">Obviously it varies from world to world. That would be the point of a thread asking the general community what they do/how they do it.For my campaign world, the parameters are fairly straight forward, though there is (also obviously) variations from region to region/place to place within the game world. So, as they say, "location, location, location." It's important.First, we need to lay down some parameters. What do any of these terms actually mean? Is "Common" 1 in 10 beings? "Rare" 1 in a million? Are those your only options or are the gradations of "Common" and "Uncommon" with "Rare" being jaw-droppingly unusual? This all needs to be defined (or at least understood enough by the DM to be able to share it with their table) before you can start slapping things into places and groupings into things.1) Assuming a simple 3-tiered structure of Common-Uncommon-Rare scale, conceivably adding in Very Rare-Unique if we want to tease it out to a categorical system of 5. For my purposes, they go a little something like this: Common: Your "everyday" person sees this everyday or nearly so. They know/hear all about them. Some familiarity (perhaps mistaken or folkloric, but "common knowledge") with their culture. Their existence can not be questioned by any reasonable/sane person. Just about everyone encountered on a daily basis is one of these things. If someone looks at one of these twice, it's because there is something unusual about the  character or they are actively trying to get attention: loud/unusually colorful clothing, unconventional or disruptive behavior, notable handicap or deformity, something deliberately unusual about their demeanor or appearance (walking into town with a tiger in tow, for example or riding in on a pegasus). Uncommon: Everyone has heard of these things. You don't see them every day, certainly, but they may pass through every once in a while. They exist in stories, songs, and histories. Trade might be conducted with them. They have a known realm/region where they "come from" even if your everyday person will never actually get there or see them or might believe it to be a fabled/magical place. The Uncommon walking into the everyday village/town, will attract a second look. There will be talk around the well, market and at the tavern about "Did you see/hear there's <an Uncommon> about?" It might not amount to anything. But it will be noticed unless steps are taken to hide/disguise its true nature. Rare: Some folks have heard of these. Some haven't. Depends on where you are and how near this region is to your point of origin. It might be taken as fact that you exist, but never dreamed of ever seeing one! Or it might be you are a fable-made-flesh. You will attract a LOT of attention and, more than likely, elicit strong emotional reactions (fear, panic, anger/defense, love, awe) unless steps are taken to hide/disguise your true nature.[Optional] Very Rare: Few have heard of you, most haven't. Some believe you exist. Many don't. ALL will consider you a fable-in-the-flesh, a real living myth! Or perhaps something that existed, once upon a time, but has long been "known"/thought to be gone from the world and/or extinct. You will elicit strong emotional reactions if you are found out...not necessarily favorable.[Optional] Unique: You are the only one of your kind anyone has ever seen. Knowledge of your kind [if there is one and you are not actually an individual single creature] is either highly specialized/rare knowledge or completely non-existent. Alternately, you are one of a single small community of your kind. A single secluded tribe of fewer than, like, 50 members...in the known world. Perhaps the last of a dying/slain/leaving the world race. Perhaps you just have a very slow reproductive rate and long life cycle that sustains but never grows your numbers beyond a certain (again, small) range. You will be a walking myth, if anyone has every heard of you at all. You will elicit extreme emotional reaction (whether wondering awe and love to fearful anger or panic), often with the threat of violence or imprisonment (to prove to others you actually exist). You do attract fearful/awesome notice and attention of a disruptive/distracting amount if you are found out for what you are.   2) Assuming a standard "Human-centric nation/region/kingdom" as a point of origin.3) Assuming a standard small town point of origin for your "everyday person." Opinions/views in Larger or smaller communities will vary, of course. And for large cities/cosmopolitan centers, I would say everything gets bumped up 1 category of commonality: "Very Rare" becomes "Rare." Uncommon will be viewed as Common, etc... Common is still Common, but dismissively so. For more rural/smaller villages, everyone except the same species and ethnicity (humans, for the purposes of this example) shifts one category more Unique. So, for my world as detailed below, Dwarves, Elves and Halflings become Uncommon, and everyone else moves "down" one. Important #4) Variations happen and things need to be adjusted to make sense for where the party is. A Half-elf in a region abutting an Elf kingdom would/should be shifted one category more common, for example. A city on a lake beneath the slopes of a great dwarven stronghold might see Humans and Dwarves as Common and everyone else stays the same. A single Half-Orc NPC in a village where, otherwise, they would be "Very Rare", might be viewed as only Uncommon, because the Half-Orc the locals know is a respected productive member of the community. So, all of these categories are painted with fuzzy mutable lines.    OK. So now, a World of Orea "average" mid-sized town in a human region/kingdom PC races:Common: Humans [of the west and south].Uncommon: Humans of the Tankuun United Island Kingdoms. Humans of the Thelitian Desert. Humans the Gorunduun Tribes [Barbarians]. PC Elves, Dwarves, Halflings. Satyrs. Centaurs. Rare: Humans of the Principalities of R'Hath. Half-Elves. Gnomes. Jerali (Orean feline humanoids). Sprites.. Very Rare: Humans of the Selurian Empire. Zephari (Orean winged humanoids). Half-Orcs, if someone wanted to play one, would go here.** I would be inclined to allow it just based on tradition/legacy, not any great love for the species. While their creation might not be as rare as (or even en par with the rarity of) Half-elves, a Half-Orc adventuring would-be hero [i.e. a PC] would be very rare when taken among other half-orcs or, as in this specific case, your typical human town.As for the remaining "in the PHB" classes: Dragonborn and Tieflings (or Aasimar) do not exist in this world. They were never added/retconned in. I could, conceivably, introduce one for single characters as Unique individuals. But we'd need a damn good story to make that happen and the character's mere existence would be a focal/huge/recurring plot point everywhere they go. For this reason, I nearly universally decline a proposed PC of these races. Drow elves are simply forbidden for PCs. They are evil. We play a heroic fantasy game. Evil PCs are not permitted...or to put it in a way that might not be pounced upon as being a "dictatorial/badwrongfun DM", Evil PCs are "outside the accepted assumptions/consensus of the table." Drow are, by their mythology and creation in the world, beings of inherent and irretrievable Evil. And, yes, I also/in addition to/on top of that am not a Drizzt fanboy. End of story. Classes are another matter...and another post as I need I get muself some lunch. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Happy Sunday all.</blockquote>

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