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

[Micah Sweet]

The PHB is the base assumption for a D&D edition
The SRD is is the legally free rules and most stripped down assumptions.

What assumptions does it strip down? That there are beholders and mind flayers?

 

[Maxperson]

Otherwise, the appearance of species seem to depend on the specific setting. For example, the Elf entry mentions "elves have pointed ears and lack facial and body hair", but details like skin color which the Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms obsess over, are absent from core rules. Forgotten Realms Drow Elves generally have gray skin ranging from black to white, with a hint of purple, ranging from blue to red. Tashas has an image of two Elves, one "High" and one "Drow". It took me a moment to realize, the dark blue skin was the High Elf and the pale silver skin was the Drow Elf. When I looked into it, it turns out these color possibilities are canon in the Forgotten Realms.

Where did you find that? In 1e FR boxed set says that drow have skin of polished obsidian. The 2e FR Adventures book doesn't list a skin color for drow. 3e Races of Faerun calls them obsidian skinned. 5e says that drow have skin that is charcoal or obsidian in color.

I did see that pale silver was listed as an eye color for drow. Perhaps you confused that with the skin color.

 

[Maxperson]

What assumptions does it strip down? That there are beholders and mind flayers?

It loses many, if not most of the subclasses as well. And more than just mind flayers and beholders from the MM. The SRD loses a whole lot of 5e.

 

[Micah Sweet]

It loses many, if not most of the subclasses as well. And more than just mind flayers and beholders from the MM. The SRD loses a whole lot of 5e.

Still pretty solidly a faux-medieval/Renaissance game.

 

[Remathilis]

Still pretty solidly a faux-medieval/Renaissance game.

Agreed. A D&D is best when it sticks to its lane. It becomes an untenable mess when it deviates from that. Dark Sun. Masque of the Red Death. Theros. The whole Green Book series from 2e. Each of those exposes the limit of what D&D* can do. D&D works best when it's doing vaguely medieval/Renn magical worlds with sprinkles of other genres and such (like Age of exploration ships or some Victorian gothic horror).

* D&D as presented in whatever Player's Handbook is bad. D20 (in any iteration) is more than up to the task, as the number of d20 based games from 3e onwards showed. But the PHB bakes in too many assumptions that are hard to remove and replace.

 

[TiQuinn]

Agreed. A D&D is best when it sticks to its lane. It becomes an untenable mess when it deviates from that. Dark Sun. Masque of the Red Death. Theros. The whole Green Book series from 2e. Each of those exposes the limit of what D&D* can do. D&D works best when it's doing vaguely medieval/Renn magical worlds with sprinkles of other genres and such (like Age of exploration ships or some Victorian gothic horror).

* D&D as presented in whatever Player's Handbook is bad. D20 (in any iteration) is more than up to the task, as the number of d20 based games from 3e onwards showed. But the PHB bakes in too many assumptions that are hard to remove and replace.

Can’t agree since Masque of the Red Death ended up being one of the high points of my 2e experience.

 

[Remathilis]

Can’t agree since Masque of the Red Death ended up being one of the high points of my 2e experience.

Masque would have been 100% better if it has a dedicated rulebook rather than needing the PHB/DMG/Ravenloft red box and then not using 80% of it.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Agreed. A D&D is best when it sticks to its lane. It becomes an untenable mess when it deviates from that. Dark Sun. Masque of the Red Death. Theros. The whole Green Book series from 2e. Each of those exposes the limit of what D&D* can do. D&D works best when it's doing vaguely medieval/Renn magical worlds with sprinkles of other genres and such (like Age of exploration ships or some Victorian gothic horror).

* D&D as presented in whatever Player's Handbook is bad. D20 (in any iteration) is more than up to the task, as the number of d20 based games from 3e onwards showed. But the PHB bakes in too many assumptions that are hard to remove and replace.

I'm saying the core game is faux medieval/Renaissance. New rules can and have easily modified that core successfully.

 

[TiQuinn]

Masque would have been 100% better if it has a dedicated rulebook rather than needing the PHB/DMG/Ravenloft red box and then not using 80% of it.

I maybe used a little bit of the PHB for it but I remember it as being very self-contained. I don't think I ever referred back to the original RL box set.

 

[Remathilis]

I'm saying the core game is faux medieval/Renaissance. New rules can and have easily modified that core successfully.

Yeah, that's what d20 games did successfully for years. Star Wars. Mutants and Masterminds, Spycraft. Dungeons & Dragons, as you say, is too faux medieval. To get away from that, you have to basically strip it for parts and make a new d20 game out of it.