What are your core races?

[Storminator]

I like lots of variety.

Human
Dwarf
Elf
Halfling
Half-elf
Half-orc
Gnome
Changeling
Warforged
Dragonborn
Tiefling
Deva
Goblin

I could see replacing Half-elf and Half-orc with some sort of "halfbreed background" that could also be applied to dwarves giving Mul.

PS

 

[lutecius]

Gnomelings?!

Poor halflings...

Well, thematically, they were always standing on each others toes... and the gnome had shoes. Call it natural selection.

IMC "halfling" is just a nickname for young, beardless, adventuring gnomes who haven't found a hobby yet (be it magic, tinkering, gem-cutting, cooking, gardening...), finding a hobby being an important part of gnome culture. I suggested giving the title of "Hobbied" to those who had (yes, I'm hilarious like that) but it didn't stick for some reason. Thievery not counting as an acceptable vocation, even older rogue gnomes are often still called halflings.

 

[MJS]

All PHB D&D races are core, none should ever be dropped. I would also add many monster races. Present them as a 2-3 page matrix with basic modifiers, age/height/weight, basic abilities and not much else. 2-3 sentences on each, with some suggested source reference material where appropriate.

 

[Tovec]

Automatic, in my own setting and/or system:
Human
Elf
Dwarf
Halfling (I like the gypsy version here)
Gnome (for this think more hobbity)
half-dragon (MM/B variant)

Ones I can be persuaded into, but not automatic (backstory/build, not just exotic for its own sake):
half-elf
half-orc
orc
kobold
goblin
aasimar
tiefling
centaur
grey elf
catfolk
serpentfolk (yuan-ti or other depending on what rules I'm using)
random templates or oddities of my setting
.. I'm sure there are others

But ability to play a tiefling in my game is as likely as playing a goblin, I treat them the same when they enter a town (NPC reaction-wise).

NEVAR!!:
Um.. most monsters?
Dragonborn
Draconians
.. you get the idea..
Most outsiders.
GITH.. dislike those races.
DROW (grumbles) and most dark versions of the 'good' races.
.. Dragons excluded actually, assuming the level works, but they're not common by any means.


Now, assuming I'm running pathfinder or 3.5 (rules or setting) then races I allow are more or less the same, except the 'auto' list becomes races in the PHB/Core without restriction (so half-elf and orc added in). Not worth fighting over the randomness with most groups, so I just discourage but allow.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

All PHB D&D races are core,

Which PHB?

 

[Jester David]

Depends on my world.

I tried to fit everything 4e into my last homebrew and that got tricky around the PHB2. So I'd say for that world the core would be: humans, dwarves, elves/ eladrin, gnomes, minotaurs, half-ocs, halflings, dragonborn, warforged, and tieflings.

I play a lot of Ravenloft as well, so I'd probably list the Core for that world as humans with occasional dwarves, halfling, elves, and caliban (half-orcs). With occasional gnomes and kenku. But there might be some unique tiefling, genasi, shadar-kai, dhampires, and the like.
These aren't "races" but unique individual: humans altered by magic and lacking independant society.

For my blog series on worldbuilding I half made a new world. I believe the common races for that world were humans, dwarves, elves, halflings, half-orcs, and kenku. With occasional warforged and tieflings.

 

[Plaguescarred]

My list of D&D core races include;

Dwarf
Elf
Gnome
Half-Elf
Half-Orc
Halfling
Human

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

Wood Elf: Tree-hugger race
High Elf: Enlightened race
Dark Elf: Angsty race
Halfling: Little race
Human: ...
Dwarf: Grumpy miner race
Orc: Brutal race
Dragonborn: How did it take four editions for this to happen?! The game is called Dungeons and Dragons!

This said, I don't put much stock in core vs. non-core. Player races are player races, for the most part, unless they're imbalanced.

I could see replacing Half-elf and Half-orc with some sort of "halfbreed background" that could also be applied to dwarves giving Mul.

I'd rather this than the odd half-breed or two we've always gotten from core. As it is, I tend to ignore half-elves, and pretend that half-orcs are in fact full-blooded orcs.

 

[doghead]

The Kender in 5e thread got me thinking... what races do people think should count as core?

In my games, generally, Human.

... Of course, I'm willing to let any player play any reasonable race that they want. Adventurers being outside the norm makes that an easy call, IMO.

I agree with this. If a player has a particular request, I will work with them to try and make it happen. If it is just about access to some of the unique special abilities, however, there is always the option of having various Human Races (sub-races?) that incorporate them.

Say you were lead designer for 6e, what would your core races be?

In this case it would be different. It would depend on what we were trying to achieve with the game and what sort of game we were trying to create.

thotd

 

[MJS]

Which PHB?

All of them