D&D (2024) Should 2014 Half Elves and Half Orcs be added to the 2025 SRD?

[Minigiant]

Chalk me up as one of the folks who believes people are perfectly capable of roleplaying as something even without a game mechanic attached to it.

You can roleplay as a shaman without there being a shaman Class. You can roleplay as a lighthouse keeper without there being a lighthouse keeper Background. And you can roleplay as a half-elf without there being a half-elf Species. It's all about just who you are, how you behave, and what is important to you as a character within the story of the campaign.

So we can get rid of elf lineages, dragonborn ancestries, and tiefling legacies?

 

[Vaalingrade]

So we can get rid of elf lineages

God, yes.

 

[DEFCON 1]

But your stance is that the rules are irrelevant anyway, which is hard to square with being a gamer.

Merely a different type of gamer.

But at least I'm a gamer that's actually getting what I want. I get to spend more time being happy playing D&D rather than being miserable.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Sure, but that same argument can be used for getting rid of basically any species, class, background or game element.

Yep.

There's not a single thing in the game that is necessary. WotC can give us whatever it is that they want to give us, and if there's something we feel is missing... we can either make it ourselves or use any number of the thousands of different things that have been made by other people and which you can find on DMs Guild, Discord, Reddit so on and so forth.

Requiring WotC to make it and include it is unnecessary.

 

[DEFCON 1]

So we can get rid of elf lineages, dragonborn ancestries, and tiefling legacies?

If the people making the game do not wish to include them, absolutely.

The game makers decide what they want to include in their game. And we receive what they give us. They can include or leave out anything they want for whatever reasons they want. And anything we feel is missing, we either find elsewhere or we make do without.

What else is there to do? Rant about it here on EN World until the game designers change their mind? That's a massive amount of wasted of time if you ask me. Spend that time actually making for yourself what you want rather than doing without. You'll be a lot happier with your game.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Yep.

There's not a single thing in the game that is necessary. WotC can give us whatever it is that they want to give us, and if there's something we feel is missing... we can either make it ourselves or use any number of the thousands of different things that have been made by other people and which you can find on DMs Guild, Discord, Reddit so on and so forth.

Requiring WotC to make it and include it is unnecessary.

Sure, they don't need to do anything, and I can make my own stuff, but more we get into that territory, less need there is for me to buy their rules.

(I don't care about this specific issue that much, but in general I have become a bit tired of fixing the work of professionals who expect me to pay for their stuff.)

 

[Minigiant]

What else is there to do? Rant about it here on EN World until the game designers change their mind?

No one is expecting that the designers change their mind.

But I can still call their decision bad, hardheaded, lazy, and/or chicken.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Sure, they don't need to do anything, and I can make my own stuff, but more we get into that territory, less need there is for me to buy their rules.

(I don't care about this specific issue that much, but in general I have become a bit tired of fixing the work of professionals who expect me to pay for their stuff.)

Yeah, I make a lot of my own content, but you're not getting any of my money unless you make something worth paying for.

 

[Maxperson]

Chalk me up as one of the folks who believes people are perfectly capable of roleplaying as something even without a game mechanic attached to it.

You can roleplay as a shaman without there being a shaman Class. You can roleplay as a lighthouse keeper without there being a lighthouse keeper Background. And you can roleplay as a half-elf without there being a half-elf Species. It's all about just who you are, how you behave, and what is important to you as a character within the story of the campaign.

I can roleplay a rock. That doesn't mean that I want to. Being able to roleplay it isn't the same as liking it. A half-elf without half-elf mechanics is lipstick on a pig. You are an elf or human, not a half-elf.

 

[Maxperson]

Yep.

There's not a single thing in the game that is necessary. WotC can give us whatever it is that they want to give us, and if there's something we feel is missing... we can either make it ourselves or use any number of the thousands of different things that have been made by other people and which you can find on DMs Guild, Discord, Reddit so on and so forth.

Requiring WotC to make it and include it is unnecessary.

Close. Race is necessary. Not any particular race, but there has to be at least one race or you have nothing you can play. Since this is D&D, class is also necessary. Like race no particular class is necessary, but there has to be at least one class or you can't interact with the rules properly.