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."

 

[Argyle King]

I'm admittedly one of the people who (wrongly?) assumed Forgotten Realms as being the default setting of 5th Edition.

If that's not the case, I'm a little confused as to why most of the baseline assumptions of creatures and adventures are tied to FR lore (with other settings being mentioned in sidebars and additional notes).

 

[Charlaquin]

I imagine it's not us grognards who are buying up Wildemont, Ravnica and Theros guides. Apparently, their is an appetite for settings. If there wasn't, we'd probably have seen more Forgotten Realms expansion.

Well, yeah. Players like settings. If anything that would seem to suggest there’s a demand for setting info in core materials. Maybe I’m wrong about that though

 

[Charlaquin]

I'm admittedly one of the people who (wrongly?) assumed Forgotten Realms as being the default setting of 5th Edition.

If that's not the case, I'm a little confused as to why most of the baseline assumptions of creatures and adventures are tied to FR lore (with other settings being mentioned in sidebars and additional notes).

The official party line is that the 5e default setting is “the multiverse,” in which all the various settings such as Forgotten Realms, Grayhawk Eberron, Ravenloft, the various M:tG settings, all exist.

 

[Argyle King]

The official party line is that the 5e default setting is “the multiverse,” in which all the various settings such as Forgotten Realms, Grayhawk Eberron, Ravenloft, the various M:tG settings, all exist.

I would have never guessed that from the content of the books I've purchased.

 

[Don Durito]

Unfortunately, Wizards is in the unenvious position that most people believe D&D is a generic fantasy simulator and howl and wail whenever a default setting influences the core rules. Check out how many people (wrongly) say the 5e PHB is Forgotten Realms inspired, or who hated the Nerath setting of 4e rewriting the lore.

Other settings can have a default setting, like Pathfinder has Golarion. But not D&D; people will scream bloody murder if any setting (new or old) becomes a default. The only two options D&D has is Straddle the line using the multiverse as the metasetting or utterly remove all setting elements and be a fairly bland SRD/rule compendium rules reference.

I'm not sure there needs to be a 'default setting'. But if they want to move beyond the way things have been done in the past, there needs to be something that demonstrates and implements that.

If you want to present Orcs is a more nuanced and less stereoptyped way, I can't see how you can really do that without giving some context to that. Otherwise, you just end up with 'Jungle Orcs' and 'Desert Orc's and vague stuff like that.

 

[Charlaquin]

I would have never guessed that from the content of the books I've purchased.

Me either. I only know it because Jeremy Crawford said it in an interview once.

EDIT: Actually, the spell Dream of the Blue Veil in Tasha’s does now suggest this default setting, as it allows you to travel to another D&D world’s prime material plane.

 

[Hurin70]

Ah, ok, now I see what you are saying. You are right: there is a very slight difference in language here.

So let me change it: Each player says "I want to be shorter* than any other halfling in the world." There, now it is impossible for them both to have what they want, even though what each of them wants aligns with the traditional conception of what it means to be a halfling.

*Or "more dextrous", if you feel it has to be mechanics based.

The other problem here (which I suspect is part of what Morrus was getting at) is that this is a totally contrived scenario.

First, who lets players define their "concept" as "I am the most X in the world"? The rules certainly don't support any such thing. Sure, the player is free to decide that their character's goal is to achieve X, or that their character believes X to be true. But that's different from actually granting it.

Second, even if you were to allow that, for another player to then say, "Well I want to play a character whose very existence invalidates your character concept" isn't a problem with the rules, it's a problem with the people.

And, despite all that, the example of "more dextrous than any halfling in the world" demonstrates that whether or not the scenario is valid, it has nothing whatsoever to do with rules that allow races to break stereotype.

I actually agree with almost everything you say here.

I agree that we shouldn't let players make unreasonable demands. This is why I support keeping assigned racial stat bonuses. If you want to play the strongest character possible, play a Minotaur, not a Halfling.

If you recall, it is not me saying a player should be allowed to start the game as the Halfling that is stronger than any Minotaur. It was someone else who was arguing that.

I was arguing the other side.

 

[cbwjm]

I'm admittedly one of the people who (wrongly?) assumed Forgotten Realms as being the default setting of 5th Edition.

If that's not the case, I'm a little confused as to why most of the baseline assumptions of creatures and adventures are tied to FR lore (with other settings being mentioned in sidebars and additional notes).

I think it is mostly the adventures that tend to be set in the Forgotten Realms and have sidebars for the other settings (though maybe the one with the ships was set in Greyhawk?. The PHB is pretty generic, though I do recall it using the various human cultures from the Forgotten Realms as examples. Other races tended to give examples of where you'd find a mountain dwarf or high elf in all of the settings, Forgotten Realms included.

 

[Argyle King]

I think it is mostly the adventures that tend to be set in the Forgotten Realms and have sidebars for the other settings (though maybe the one with the ships was set in Greyhawk?. The PHB is pretty generic, though I do recall it using the various human cultures from the Forgotten Realms as examples. Other races tended to give examples of where you'd find a mountain dwarf or high elf in all of the settings, Forgotten Realms included.

I think that may be why I assumed FR was the default. Most of the examples given appear to be from FR, with other examples given after.

@Charlaquin

Perhaps newer books make the multiverse connection more obvious. Books, such as ...Yawning Portal (which Crawford himself helped to write) appear to assume Forgotten Realms.

Certainly, the material can be used anywhere. I would never debate that. I'm simply saying that -if the multiverse is intended to be the default setting- I do not feel that is obvious from the content of the books which I own.

I'm trying to imagine what a setting agnostic Monster Manual might look like. Some of the later 3rd Edition material started to go that route. Sidebars and additional information were given to explain how the creatures were different in the settings which were commonly used during that time.

 

[Hurin70]

I am trying to think of all the official Wizards sanctioned adventures, and it sure does seem like the vast majority are set in the Forgotten Realms. Someone can probably give a full list, but off the top of my head i think of:

--Tyranny of Dragons
--Out of the Abyss
--Princes of the Apocalypse
--Rime
--Descent

Not sure about Storm King but I think so too.

The only one I can think of not in FR for sure is Strahd, and maybe Saltmarsh.

Sure seems like most stuff is set in FR.