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RPG Evolution: The Trouble with Halflings
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<blockquote data-quote="Chaosmancer" data-source="post: 8806393" data-attributes="member: 6801228"><p>Rare for the world doesn't mean it needs to be rare for this game. </p><p></p><p>Remember, many of us don't have decades long campaigns set in a single world. If I played a Dragon in every single DnD game I am currently in, I'd be a dragon in 3 different worlds that are nothing alike and not connected in the slightest. And very likely if I made a Alseid for my next character, it would ALSO be in a completely unique and different world. </p><p></p><p>And for many of us, the idea of die rolls gating us out of certain race choices is completely against the entire point of DnD. </p><p></p><p></p><p>Also, on the Centaur... just why? I mean, I would get it in a game set in Ancient Greece, where Centaurs were notorious raiders and pillagers of the community. He would cause a panic because he is an known threat, just like an enemy soldier entering a border town. </p><p></p><p>But, these are Fantasy worlds. To me, if Centaurs have lived close enough to humans for a thousand years, they are no longer some crazy thing that will cause people to fly into a panic. They are just a weird foreigner. I honestly feel too many "old school" style games try and make it like the entire world was created and inhabitated for thousands of years, and none of the races have met each other and they have rarely heard of each other. They try and act like all of these forces are completely hidden from the world. </p><p></p><p>And I get it, you want something like Beowulf, where the big twist is that there are TWO monsters in the swamp, and the kingdom has no way of dealing with one monster, let alone two. But DnD doesn't work that way. There aren't just TWO trolls in the swamps. There is a clan of trolls in the swamps, multiple tribes of reptilian/amphibious people, likely a hag and a Dragon in the swamp. And that is just the intelligent threats, not to mention the living plants and the strange beasts, or the potential to find a connection to the Fey where dozens of creatures live, or undead lurking in the swamp.</p><p></p><p>I actually tried to run a game once where the players were in an Empire, and the only monsters were limited to distant borders, and there weren't very many of them. Just like these old style myths, right? They tore through that world so fast, I had to cancel the game and tell them I was out of ideas, because there was nothing left for them to encounter, unless they just went completely off map into things that I hadn't even considered... and I couldn't think of anything to place beyond the edges of the empire, they were already the edges! Now, this was early in my DMing career, and I might do a better job now, but part of me doing a better job is making sure that monsters are kind of sprinkled everywhere, and the same with allies. </p><p></p><p>Because it is a world, full of different races of beings, so they shouldn't only exist in that one valley deep in the mountains where no one has ever been before.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Chaosmancer, post: 8806393, member: 6801228"] Rare for the world doesn't mean it needs to be rare for this game. Remember, many of us don't have decades long campaigns set in a single world. If I played a Dragon in every single DnD game I am currently in, I'd be a dragon in 3 different worlds that are nothing alike and not connected in the slightest. And very likely if I made a Alseid for my next character, it would ALSO be in a completely unique and different world. And for many of us, the idea of die rolls gating us out of certain race choices is completely against the entire point of DnD. Also, on the Centaur... just why? I mean, I would get it in a game set in Ancient Greece, where Centaurs were notorious raiders and pillagers of the community. He would cause a panic because he is an known threat, just like an enemy soldier entering a border town. But, these are Fantasy worlds. To me, if Centaurs have lived close enough to humans for a thousand years, they are no longer some crazy thing that will cause people to fly into a panic. They are just a weird foreigner. I honestly feel too many "old school" style games try and make it like the entire world was created and inhabitated for thousands of years, and none of the races have met each other and they have rarely heard of each other. They try and act like all of these forces are completely hidden from the world. And I get it, you want something like Beowulf, where the big twist is that there are TWO monsters in the swamp, and the kingdom has no way of dealing with one monster, let alone two. But DnD doesn't work that way. There aren't just TWO trolls in the swamps. There is a clan of trolls in the swamps, multiple tribes of reptilian/amphibious people, likely a hag and a Dragon in the swamp. And that is just the intelligent threats, not to mention the living plants and the strange beasts, or the potential to find a connection to the Fey where dozens of creatures live, or undead lurking in the swamp. I actually tried to run a game once where the players were in an Empire, and the only monsters were limited to distant borders, and there weren't very many of them. Just like these old style myths, right? They tore through that world so fast, I had to cancel the game and tell them I was out of ideas, because there was nothing left for them to encounter, unless they just went completely off map into things that I hadn't even considered... and I couldn't think of anything to place beyond the edges of the empire, they were already the edges! Now, this was early in my DMing career, and I might do a better job now, but part of me doing a better job is making sure that monsters are kind of sprinkled everywhere, and the same with allies. Because it is a world, full of different races of beings, so they shouldn't only exist in that one valley deep in the mountains where no one has ever been before. [/QUOTE]
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