D&D 5E Thought exercise: Faerun as Human Only

[Tales and Chronicles]

Just a thought I had in the shower after reading all the races posts from this week: the FRs dont make much use of the fantasy races, they are all just kinda there. There's about 10000 different races competing for the territory, but none seems to affect the setting beyond the humans, anyway.

The setting would be less kitchen-sinky if the classic playable races where removed, their place in the lore replaced by other human cultures. Like, instead of the dwarves, you would have a culture of builders and artisan living in deep mines, or a culture of Woodsmen instead of the wood elves. Playing a ''blooded'' or planetouched would be a matter of class + background and feats. This would force the setting to focus more on developing the culture of the people occupying the map instead of trying to fit everyone on it.

I'd keep the monstrous races as monstrous races (orcs, goblinoids, fey etc), though. Replacing the Drows spot in the underdark with Grimlock should not be too hard.

So, what do you think? Are the classic fantasy races such a must for the FRs?

 

[DEFCON 1]

So, what do you think? Are the classic fantasy races such a must for the FRs?

Yes, otherwise it isn't the Forgotten Realms. It's just a human world whose map just coincidentally looks like the map of Faerun.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I'm not saying that's necessarily a bad thing if that's what a DM wants to run. But I am saying that it's not the "Forgotten Realms" by definition. By definition, the Realms are what they are as they are.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I'm not saying that's necessarily a bad thing if that's what a DM wants to run. But I am saying that it's not the "Forgotten Realms" by definition. By definition, the Realms are what they are as they are.

I'm not so sure about this. If the game has the same pantheon, the same map and locations, heck, the same cultures (but the inhabitant of Gauntlegrym are Humans living in a super-fortress/forge, loving metal and beer instead of dwarves living in said super-fortress/forge, loving metal and beer), is it not 99% the FRs?

Edit: (Just to be clear, I do not have an answer to that. That's why I ask)

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Sure, swap 'em out.

They're all basically humans with pointy ears anyway. A few things like elven immortality aside, if all you did was change the existing "races" to "cultures" the campaign setting still works fine.

It's a fundamental flaw/feature of D&D.

 

[zarionofarabel]

Sure, swap 'em out.

They're all basically humans with pointy ears anyway. A few things like elven immortality aside, if all you did was change the existing "races" to "cultures" the campaign setting still works fine.

It's a fundamental flaw/feature of D&D.

Agreed!

 

[Benjamin Olson]

I don't know how readily it could go humans only, but it seems like if it, say, went humans, elves, dwarves, orcs or goblinoids, and maybe halflings (ie: Tolkien races only) it would be nearly identical. I think the setting does give somewhat meaningful place to the basic player race options from early editions when it was actually introduced as a setting, and that having a weird evil other race or two whom you can just slaughter with moral impunity is also essential to the feel of the setting, but that everything else is just sort of thrown in haphazardly for exotic flavor. While having the shopkeeper randomly be a tiefling is very Forgotten Realms, that shopkeeper will most likely behave exactly the same as if they were randomly a dragonborn, or a firbolg, or whatever with little culturally specific about them.

 

[TwoSix]

Sounds fun to me. I mean, what's the difference between Netheril and Evermeet, really; they're both with places with crazy high magic. Evermeet could be exclusive based on cultural aspects instead of "race".

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Sounds fun to me. I mean, what's the difference between Netheril and Evermeet, really; they're both with places with crazy high magic. Evermeet could be exclusive based on cultural aspects instead of "race".

Evermeet, I'd make it the hidden spelljammer hub of the setting, some kind of ''Little Sigil''.

 

[TwoSix]

Oh, and I've always this article about reorganizing the dieties in FR into more recognizable religious groups of related dieties, it would mix nicely with a human-centric FR without all of the other racial pantheons.

Organized Faiths and Silent Gods: Redesigning Religion in Forgotten Realms - Tribality

This week we have a guest post from Nitai Poddar that looks at religion in the Forgotten Realms and offers a variation where faiths coalesced and organized into a system of religions, each with its own dogma, values and philosophy. Forgotten Realms is the original homebrew setting, a patchwork...

www.tribality.com