D&D General The Tyranny of Rarity

[Micah Sweet]

Everyone gives bad advice sometimes.

Advice you don't agree with, not bad advice. Your opinion is just that.

 

[Older Beholder]

Do those who don't like restricting races have the same expectations of new DMs to be open to everything, or do they get cut some slack?

("Thanks for DMing! We know you're still a bit nervous after running us through the starter adventurer with pre-gens, but it went great and we're here to help. Like we all said in the group chat, we love your idea of using Dark Sun based on that adaptation you found online and shared, it's super that module fits, and we're glad it will help you recapture some of the flavor of the novels you love so that you'll be more comfortable running it. The four of us have some characters ready that we've been drooling to play - Pure-blood Yuan-Ti , Kenku, Fairy, and Lizardfolk. We've got great backstories for our Oath of Vengeance Paladin, Arcane Trickster, Divine Soul Sorcerer, and Tempest Domain Cleric that should fit right in with your plans!")

The original post offers a bunch of ideas on how you could make those races work, it was sorta the point of the thread. All it takes is a bit of imagination and creativity. Putting Yuan-Ti into Dark sun might end up inspiring the DM to create their own adventure arc around the idea (personally I really like the sound of snake-folk on Athas, I think there's a lot you could do with that).

Also just to quote from the original post:
As a last note, there’s nothing wrong with not putting a creature or race into a campaign because its doesn’t fit the theme the DM and players are looking for.

 

[Cadence]

The original post offers a bunch of ideas on how you could make those races work, it was sorta the point of the thread.

Yes, the original post did, and offered:

As a last note, there’s nothing wrong with not putting a creature or race into a campaign because its doesn’t fit the theme the DM and players are looking for.

The way the thread works is that we get reminded of that every 20 pages or so (thank you for picking up this one!), and the rest of the time is spent with people saying inflexible DMs are Tyrants (or words to that affect that actually aren't that bad) and the responses to that of folks saying how reasonable it is to actually care about world building (especially compared to calling people Tyrants). So, my post was in that vein, and not in response to your bucket of reasonableness dumped back into it.

In any case, I assume most of the DMs on here could run it as you say. But to do that to a nervous new-DM who loved the original source and is using source books that explicitly have limited races and classes (that you went against entirely)...

 

[Filthy Lucre]

Having no DM and not having them have final authority are not identical sets.

Authoritarianism is more efficient than democracy.

 

[Older Beholder]

The way the thread works is that we get reminded of that every 20 pages or so (thank you for picking up this one!), and the rest of the time is spent with people saying inflexible DMs are Tyrants (or words to that affect that actually aren't that bad) and the responses to that of folks saying how reasonable it is to actually care about world building (especially compared to calling people Tyrants). So, my post was in that vein, and not in response to your bucket of reasonableness dumped back into it.

In any case, I assume most of the DMs on here could run it as you say. But to do that to a nervous new-DM who loved the original source and is using source books that explicitly have limited races and classes (that you went against entirely)...

Personally I wouldn't mind picking something specific to Dark Sun, it seemed pretty aimed at players bored with standard LotR based fantasy. I mean there's been what, 15 different races to choose from across the various editions? Give me an option to play a Genasi and I'm happy.

It's not unreasonable for the DM to ask players to pick a race from DS,
Nor is it unreasonable for a player to ask to play something outside the standard DS options if they have a cool idea they want to try. Such as a Yuan-Ti based on a desert snake.

The opposite hypothetical to choosing anything would be if you're playing Dark Sun but the DM only lets you pick from Humans and Elves. (Both could actually be cool campaigns, it's really just a question of personal reference)

 

[Oofta]

We just got done watching Arcane League of Legends* on Netflix. Enjoyable show, but something that really stuck out to me was the art style and the massively oversized weapons they use. I mean, it looks cool to put on fists that probably weigh 500 pounds each, but how do you even move with those things on?

Which, in context of the show it was fine. It fit the genre. The look and feel worked for the show because of the tone the show was going for. I really enjoyed the it, I thought it had an interesting plot and the visuals fit. But in a different show? In a different show it would have just been weird and detracted from my enjoyment. If all the show had going for it was "look at mah big weapons!" it wouldn't have held my interest. For me, it can be the same with what races are allowed.

So if every race under the sun makes sense for a campaign world, if it fits the style the group is going for, then having a multitude of races can fit. On the other hand in some games it would actually be a big negative for me.

*I know nothing of the game, I don't really do MMOs. Edit: or mobas or mmorpgs or mmorts or mmofps or any other combination of letters I'm not familiar with.

 

[Mind of tempest]

We just got done watching Arcane League of Legends* on Netflix. Enjoyable show, but something that really stuck out to me was the art style and the massively oversized weapons they use. I mean, it looks cool to put on fists that probably weigh 500 pounds each, but how do you even move with those things on?

Which, in context of the show it was fine. It fit the genre. The look and feel worked for the show because of the tone the show was going for. I really enjoyed the it, I thought it had an interesting plot and the visuals fit. But in a different show? In a different show it would have just been weird and detracted from my enjoyment. If all the show had going for it was "look at mah big weapons!" it wouldn't have held my interest. For me, it can be the same with what races are allowed.

So if every race under the sun makes sense for a campaign world, if it fits the style the group is going for, then having a multitude of races can fit. On the other hand in some games it would actually be a big negative for me.

*I know nothing of the game, I don't really do MMOs.

LoL is a moba not an mmo

 

[Thomas Shey]

I'm sure it works for some people. That doesn't mean it's going to work in general when 90%+ of the people likely still use the "DM makes the final call".

As I noted multiple times, the fact that its got tradition behind it and is functional is all that's needed for that.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Authoritarianism is more efficient than democracy.

Not really demonstrable, because authoritarianism destroys any ability to check the errors of the leader. Its got some temporal process advantages, but that isn't the same as being net more efficient.

 

[Oofta]

LoL is a moba not an mmo

Well excuse me for not being an omniscient geek with knowledge of every video game genre.