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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MerricB" data-source="post: 2081705" data-attributes="member: 3586">Well, it looks like Joe and I have hit the web together with our respective reviews of the final "core" book of the Races series.For those looking to see how we marked them, here's the links:Races of Stone: <a href="http://www.enworld.org/reviews.php?do=review&reviewid=2065001" target="_blank">Merric: 4 stars</a>, <a href="http://www.enworld.org/reviews.php?do=review&reviewid=2011655" target="_blank">Joe: 4 stars</a>Races of Destiny: <a href="http://www.enworld.org/reviews.php?do=review&reviewid=2063636" target="_blank">Merric: 3 stars</a>, <a href="http://www.enworld.org/reviews.php?do=review&reviewid=2011879" target="_blank">Joe: 4 stars</a>Races of the Wild: <a href="http://www.3rdedition.org/reviews/viewer.asp?id=100" target="_blank">Merric: 4 stars</a>, <a href="http://www.enworld.org/reviews.php?do=review&reviewid=2080518" target="_blank">Joe: 3 stars</a>So, those are the review scores (and links) from the cynic and optimist of ENworld. Remarkably similar, aren't they? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Hopefully Joe will be along to comment, but I thought it'd be a good idea to expound my view of the series as a whole.The "Races of..." series marks a significant departure for Wizards of the Coast from their products for the first four years of D&D 3e: it is a generic (core) series aimed at players that has a large amount of non-game material (often referred to as fluff). That is, although there are new game options for characters, a significant portion of material is aimed at enhancing the roleplaying and storytelling aspects of the game.This approach intensified after "Races of Stone" with the new format for prestige classes introduced in "Races of Destiny" and continued in "Races of the Wild": prestige classes moved from just being a collection of abilities to also including notes as to their place in the world. (A precursor to this can be seen in the "Planar Handbook").It also saw them move away from the strict "Greyhawk" approach to races. Thus, three new major races got introduced (Goliaths, Illumians, Raptorans) that do not have a place in the standard Greyhawk world, but provide more options to those groups who want to move away from the Greyhawkian (or Tolkienesque) versions of fantasy races.I don't think the series was utterly successful. There are some inconsistencies between the books (RoD refers to the elves as "specialists", whilst the big change in RotW is that elves are "generalists"). Common stereotypes of races are redefined - dwarves, halflings and gnomes all had this treatment. The least successful of these was the dwarf redefinition, probably because we're so wedded to the Tolkien and mythological traditions of dwarves. Halflings have problems with their Tolkien origins being used in a D&D game. (Fat stay-at-homes? Hmm). So, I didn't find the redefinition of halflings to be so much of a problem. It was also expanding upon the change from when 3e first came out, anyway.Gnomes have had an identity crisis from day one, so their redefinition as a race was wildly successful from my point of view. Anything that makes gnomes more interesting is worthwhile! (Otherwise you just get the gem merchants with stupid accents from The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun).I do think there's a bit of the bait and switch going on here: players who obsess only over the mechanics will buy the books to make their characters stronger, and suddenly find themselves with all these hints for roleplaying. Surely this is a good move? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> That is part of the impression that I get from these books: new players are going to get a lot of help from them. For me, a 20+ year veteran of D&D and fantasy in general, I don't need as much help in understanding what a dwarf is or how to play one. However, I'm currently DMing several D&D groups, and most of the players have only really been introduced to D&D - and often the Tolkienesque literature - only in the past few years. That's over ten players. Hmm.Eventually, I am glad to have all three books sitting on my shelf. Yes, even "Races of Destiny", and I'm sure that parts of all three books will see use in my game.Flawed, yes, but worthy additions to the D&D canon.Cheers!</blockquote>

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