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

[Minigiant]

I think we've veered off.

I thought the issue was that Halflings, Elves, and Dwarves were "humanized" to be relatable. And in the same way. And thus they have become redundant.

And Aasimar, Orcs, Goliaths, and ESPECIALLY Tieflings have or are following suit.

So now it's a bunch of humans in funny hats and not different races and the SRD is sharing boring fantasy

 

[Not a Decepticon]

The origin of the Halfling is murky, but mainly they are nonmagical and might have naturalistic evolutionary origins. If so, they either are a Homo sapiens sapiens ethnicity, or a closely relating species branching off from modern humans.

What setting? If LotR then please show me any evidence of that, when Tolkien told us clearly all races were created, he didn't explain origin of Hobbits because they weren't originally meant to be part of Middle Earth, he added them later. But they were clearly not counted among the Men.

I think we've veered off.

I thought the issue was that Halflings, Elves, and Dwarves were "humanized" to be relatable. And in the same way. And thus they have become redundant.

And Aasimar, Orcs, Goliaths, and ESPECIALLY Tieflings have or are following suit.

So now it's a bunch of humans in funny hats and not different races and the SRD is sharing boring fantasy

There is a difference between races being "humanized" or "relatable" and "everything needs a human to be relatable" I am arguing against. And honestly, if you find anything you can related to to be just human or humanized, that is a very sad way to look at life, and I feel bad for you. But that doesn't make Tieflings or Orcs or Goliaths boring.

 

[Yaarel]

I think we've veered off.

I thought the issue was that Halflings, Elves, and Dwarves were "humanized" to be relatable. And in the same way. And thus they have become redundant.

And Aasimar, Orcs, Goliaths, and ESPECIALLY Tieflings have or are following suit.

So now it's a bunch of humans in funny hats and not different races and the SRD is sharing boring fantasy

In D&D nomenclature, the Human species classifies as a "Humanoid Beast".

The Elf species is a "Humanoid Fey".

The Aasimar is a "Humanoid Celestial".

The Goliath is a "Humanoid Giant".

The Orc is murky − I associate them with both Giant (ogre) and Shadowfell (orcus). They arent "undead" but might be Undead in the sense of necromantic Shadow negativity as part of their origins. Possibly, the 5e 2024 presentation of Orc makes them more clearly nonmagical and naturalistic, whence they strongly resemble Neanderthal or other human species.

These classifications are sharply distinct from each other. A DM can make them as different from each other as the DM wants by heightening the difference between Fey and Beast, and Celestial and Giant, and so on.

 

[Minigiant]

There is a difference between races being "humanized" or "relatable" and "everything needs a human to be relatable" I am arguing against. And honestly, if you find anything you can related to to be just human or humanized, that is a very sad way to look at life, and I feel bad for you. But that doesn't make Tieflings or Orcs or Goliaths boring

I said they are attempting to be relatable in the same way.

There are different ways to be relatable.

D&D and most modern fantasy is removing the differences of species outside of powers and making them more and more standardized. They aren't even delving into how that would affect a society or culture. They just copy old stories that didn't, copy old stories and remove those parts, or make them into humans with slight super powers

I mean...

Elves are innately magical beings who live hundreds of years and don't sleep and have heightened senses

How does that affect their cultures?
How does that affect how many skills they have?
How does that affect which magic items their ruins would contain?

 

[AnotherGuy]

Your claim Hobbits are humans because they're relatable renders the entire argument moot because it turns everything that was ever relatable in all of ficiton into human. By your logic, Winnie the Pooh is human.

Okay I have mentioned this plenty upthread but it seems you have chosen to ignore it, repeatedly.
PLEASE STOP IGNORING IT!
I will mention it again for posterity purposes.

As more and more material (novels and published settings) incorporate the other races (as they are currently doing), the weird and wonderful become more and more familiar and less and less alien.
It will feel less like a company of Mos Eisely.

What function does Peter Quill fulfil initially for Guardians of the Galaxy for audiences?
By the end of the show we've humanised the entire cast.

What function does Dorothy fulfil in a Wizard of Oz for audiences?
What function does Tom Cruise's character fulfil in The Last Samurai for audiences?
What function does Hal Jordan fulfil in The Green Lantern Corps for audiences?
What function does Jake Sully fulfil in Avatar for audiences?
What function does Batman fullfil on a suped-up JLA for audiences?
...etc

Like seriously, you really cannot see the common themed touchstone?

 

[Yaarel]

Elves are innately magical beings who live hundreds of years and don't sleep and have heightened senses

How does that affect their cultures?
How does that affect how many skills they have?
How does that affect which magic items their ruins would contain?

Most Elves are high level, Epic tier beings.

Therefore. Elven culture implies that most of the Elves in the Material Plane are "youths" who are there as part of their education process.

When these Elves become "adults" at age 100 years, they typically relocate to the Fey plane (or to Celestial Arvandor) to take on the responsibilities as adults. They spend their time of youth deciding what they want to do with the rest of their centuries.

Not all elves are part of these cultural institutions, but most are.

 

[Yaarel]

Okay I have mentioned this plenty upthread but it seems you have chosen to ignore it, repeatedly.
PLEASE STOP IGNORING IT!
I will mention it again for posterity purposes.

As more and more material (novels and published settings) incorporate the other races (as they are currently doing), the weird and wonderful become more and more familiar and less and less alien.
It will feel less like a company of Mos Eisely.

What function does Peter Quill fulfil initially for Guardians of the Galaxy for audiences?
By the end of the show we've humanised the entire cast.

What function does Dorothy fulfil in a Wizard of Oz for audiences?
What function does Tom Cruise's character fulfil in The Last Samurai?
What function does Hal Jordan fulfil in The Green Lantern Corps?
...

Like seriously you really cannot see the common themed touchstone?

Domestication of a species.

 

[Minigiant]

Most Elves are high level, Epic tier beings.

Therefore. Elven culture implies that most of the Elves in the Material Plane are "youths" who are there as part of their education process.

When these Elves become "adults" at age 100 years, they typically relocate to the Fey plane (or to Celestial Arvandor) to take on the responsibilities as adults. They spend their time of youth deciding what they want to do with the rest of their centuries.

Not all elves are part of these cultural institutions, but most are.

None of that is default D&D or in any of the major settings that TSR, WOTC, or any major publisher creates.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

Okay I have mentioned this plenty upthread but it seems you have chosen to ignore it, repeatedly.
PLEASE STOP IGNORING IT!
I will mention it again for posterity purposes.

As more and more material (novels and published settings) incorporate the other races (as they are currently doing), the weird and wonderful become more and more familiar and less and less alien.
It will feel less like a company of Mos Eisely.

What function does Peter Quill fulfil initially for Guardians of the Galaxy for audiences?
By the end of the show we've humanised the entire cast.

What function does Dorothy fulfil in a Wizard of Oz for audiences?
What function does Tom Cruise's character fulfil in The Last Samurai for audiences?
What function does Hal Jordan fulfil in The Green Lantern Corps for audiences?
What function does Jake Sully fulfil in Avatar for audiences?
What function does Batman fullfil on a suped-up JLA for audiences?
...etc

Like seriously, you really cannot see the common themed touchstone?

Did you really just put Japanese people into one bracket with blue aliens and talkig racoons?

 

[pemerton]

Could you please stop being pretentious and condescending about an old book? Like, take a step back and you'lkl realize everything can be potrayed as silly, you don't get to look down on anyone.

It's not pretentious to assert that LotR is a more significant artistic/literary creation than the Transformers.

And in the same way that you wouldn't take seriously the views on astronomy and geology of someone who thinks that the earth is flat, so I am not going to take seriously the views on artistic/literary works of someone who can't even engage with the symbolic, metaphorical and allusive elements of JRRT's writings.