D&D 5E Unearthed Arcana: Gothic Lineages & New Race/Culture Distinction

The latest Unearthed Arcana contains the Dhampir, Reborn, and Hexblood races. The Dhampir is a half-vampire; the Hexblood is a character which has made a pact with a hag; and the Reborn is somebody brought back to life.

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Perhaps the bigger news is this declaration on how race is to be handled in future D&D books as it joins other games by stating that:

"...the race options in this article and in future D&D books lack the Ability Score Increase trait, the Language trait, the Alignment trait, and any other trait that is purely cultural. Racial traits henceforth reflect only the physical or magical realities of being a player character who’s a member of a particular lineage. Such traits include things like darkvision, a breath weapon (as in the dragonborn), or innate magical ability (as in the forest gnome). Such traits don’t include cultural characteristics, like language or training with a weapon or a tool, and the traits also don’t include an alignment suggestion, since alignment is a choice for each individual, not a characteristic shared by a lineage."

 

[FireLance]

What about Elf Dragons and Dragon Elves?

When they tried that in Eberron, it didn't end well.

EDIT: I just realized that Erandis Vol would be Erandis d'Vol by Eberron's current naming convention, and she had the Mark of Death (mort), giving us the syllables Vol, d' and mort. And she's a lich. I wonder if that was deliberate?

 

[Azuresun]

Not that I want to rewrite the past, but let's borrow this as an example: how do you change Barsoom to be less dependent on those racist and colonial tropes? It sounds like you could easily change John Carter's history prior to going to Mars to remove the confederacy and Indian-fighting elements, but you literally make it sound that the entire premise is inherently flawed and there is nothing that can be done. If someone wanted to use JCoM as a template for a game or other media work, they couldn't avoid repeating the same mistakes.

Look at the movie adaptation from a few years ago. Carter is still a former Confederate soldier, but he's embittered, expressing no particular love for the Confederacy or their ideology. There's more of a focus on him working with the people of Mars (especially Dejah) and taking on their causes, rather than rising to the top due to his own innate superiority. And the movie isn't afraid to poke a bit of fun at him, such as the Greens assuming his name is "Virginia" based on how he introduced himself. And the villains are much more in the "colonialist" mode than Carter himself, being a cabal of rich white guys who are ruthlessly exploiting the planet with no concern for what it does to the natives. The essentials of the story are not heavily changed, but it still feels very much like it captures the essentials of Burroughs' world.

 

[Remathilis]

Part of that is having too many options.

I mean, not to reference the obvious, but let me just list Elves and Dragons

Elves (some are setting specific names for specific cultures)
Elf
Aquatic Elf
Dark Elf
Drow
Deep Elf
Grey Elf
High Elf
Wood Elf
Moon Elf
Snow Elf
Sun Elf
Valley Elf
Wild Elf
Grugach
Winged Elf
Avariel
Aereni Elf
Valenar Elf
Faerie (another specific version of Grey)
Cooshee?
Shadow Elf
Athasian Elf
Lythari
Silver Elf
Star Elf
Mithral Elf
Gold Elf
Green Elf
Copper Elf
Sylvan Elf
Vil Adanrath
Xendrik Dark Elves
Ghost Elf
Painted Elf
Eladrin

True Dragons (and yes, they are all real)
Red
Blue
Green
Black
White
Gold
Copper
Silver
Bronze
Brass
Brown
Grey
Orange
Purple
Yellow
Adamantine
Cobalt
Mercury
Mithral
Orium
Steel
Amethyst
Crystal
Emerald
Sapphire
Topaz
Obsidian
Avalanche
Blizzard
Earthquake
Tornado
Typhoon
Volcanic Dragon
Wildfire
Lung
Iron
Nickel
Tungsten
Cobalt
Chromium
Adamantite (different than Admanatine, obviously eyeroll)
Shadow
Arboreal
Astral
Axial
Battle
Beast
Chaos
Chole
Concordant
Ectoplasmic
Elysian
Ethereal
Gloom
Howling
Kodragon
Oceanus
Pyroclastic
Radiant
Rust
Styx
Tarterian
Hellfire
Deep
Fang
Rattelyr
Song
Incarnum
Sand
Force
Prismatic
Time
Hex
Tome
Cerilian


After a certain point... we started feeling like we had enough things, and that we actually needed fewer things

Well you can start trimming that list by removing all but one default setting from the game, but I expect there would be a lot of "but mah Greyhawk!!11!" Type responses. Esp if the default was Realms or Eberron.

Second, elves and dragons are literally the two most popular things in D&D. Elves are the most popular non-human race, dragons are the monster type in the title. Popular things tend to get a lot of variant versions as people want new spins in old faves. To whit, look at how many different types of stormtroopers or daleks have cropped up over 40+ years.

It's when people say "we don't need halflings AND gnomes" or "we don't need orcs, goblinoids and other humanoids", it always feels like the desire is to shrink and make the game duller and more uniform. The game is already low on unique low-level challenges, let's make it harder but making the only low level foes bandits and kobolds. It's akin to opening a pizza joint and only have pepperoni and mushrooms as toppings because those are the two most popular.

 

[Krachek]

Considering that GoT includes child rape (among other things), that's a real low bar.

And you could also mention torture, slavery, genocide, sadism, dictatorship, racial hate and many others. Maybe censorship is influenced by popularity.

 

[Laurefindel]

Well you can start trimming that list by removing all but one default setting from the game, but I expect there would be a lot of "but mah Greyhawk!!11!" Type responses. Esp if the default was Realms or Eberron.

Second, elves and dragons are literally the two most popular things in D&D. Elves are the most popular non-human race, dragons are the monster type in the title. Popular things tend to get a lot of variant versions as people want new spins in old faves. To whit, look at how many different types of stormtroopers or daleks have cropped up over 40+ years.

It's when people say "we don't need halflings AND gnomes" or "we don't need orcs, goblinoids and other humanoids", it always feels like the desire is to shrink and make the game duller and more uniform. The game is already low on unique low-level challenges, let's make it harder but making the only low level foes bandits and kobolds. It's akin to opening a pizza joint and only have pepperoni and mushrooms as toppings because those are the two most popular.

The point isn’t about removing « savage pillager » orcs from all settings. The point is to remove the « they are orcs; therefore are savage pillagers » part of the equation.

 

[Remathilis]

The point isn’t about removing « savage pillager » orcs from all settings. The point is to remove the « they are orcs; therefore are savage pillagers » part of the equation.

I was specifically referring to a post that said that bugbears, minotaurs and orcs fill the same design space and are therefore redundant. It's a refrain I've heard more than once in this board when it comes to two options that can be used interchangeably.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Well you can start trimming that list by removing all but one default setting from the game, but I expect there would be a lot of "but mah Greyhawk!!11!" Type responses. Esp if the default was Realms or Eberron.

Second, elves and dragons are literally the two most popular things in D&D. Elves are the most popular non-human race, dragons are the monster type in the title. Popular things tend to get a lot of variant versions as people want new spins in old faves. To whit, look at how many different types of stormtroopers or daleks have cropped up over 40+ years.

It's when people say "we don't need halflings AND gnomes" or "we don't need orcs, goblinoids and other humanoids", it always feels like the desire is to shrink and make the game duller and more uniform. The game is already low on unique low-level challenges, let's make it harder but making the only low level foes bandits and kobolds. It's akin to opening a pizza joint and only have pepperoni and mushrooms as toppings because those are the two most popular.

perhaps greater detail on them and some detail like goals, modes Operandi and the general difference between any groups of all types?

I do not get the elf and dragon thing, elves are just well kinda odd and a dragon wants to eat you and take your stuff.

 

[reelo]

This one is a (elven) dog...

View attachment 132120

Do you think that, just as "you dog!" is an insult in certain parts of the world, "you cooshee!" would be an insult in a D&D world? Maybe used by dwarves?

 

[Vaalingrade]

And you could also mention torture, slavery, genocide, sadism, dictatorship, racial hate and many others. Maybe censorship is influenced by popularity.

Whenever I tell people I'm a writer, the immediate response is 'So you're going to be the next GRRM?" and I say, "No, I hope to be good instead of popular."

And that's not me being a hipster. GoT has poisoned the fantasy genre with all this weird edgelord crap where there's more graphic death and rapes scenes than sword fights and somehow even the most opulent noble manor is described as smelling like a midden every 30 seconds.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Being good just takes hard work, being popular requires luck...