D&D 5E What is the appeal of the weird fantasy races?

[FrozenNorth]

Thats fair, but when I had asked for examples for Tiefling for example (my own personal issue, I cant get over what 4e did lol) I was given this list of things which...remove the 'I now look like your stereotypical Devil but i'm not I promise!' was just stuff that can be ANYONE's back story.

Unless I misunderstand your post, this line of reasoning leads to “all non-human races are just humans in funny hats”.

 

[Crit]

So people saying that they don't want their campaign to look like Mos Eisley's Cantina is an insult? Even when they clearly state that their personal preference has nothing to do with other people's campaigns and is no way saying that anyone else running their campaign differently is wrong?

Say what you will, but having many races does not automatically mean it's Mos Eisley. It only gets to that point if you make it to be. Consider immigration and population patterns-- many things can exist around the world, but that doesn't mean you'll see each thing everywhere you look. If you don't want your campaign to look like Star Wars, the first step is just changing when things show up.

If anything, I think Star Wars' worldbuilding is kind of funky-- you rarely, rarely see a concentration of any population in an urban environment. No matter what you say, I don't think that there'd be that many humanoid species in the galaxy, much less ones who are equally dispersed around the galaxy.

 

[Scribe]

Unless I misunderstand your post, this line of reasoning leads to “all non-human races are just humans in funny hats”.

That's what I came to, and why I continued to ask. Not trying to kick a hornets nest.

 

[FrozenNorth]

I did read that bit and the human only guy seems to for what ever reason no longer be on this thread, so I will start from the small step away from human of the F.D.F or fellowship derived folk.

does anyone have an idea for why people would play a halfling or halfling derived race? well be only mentioning stats in passing as they change per edition or setting.

I agree with your idea, but unfortunately cannot contribute with respect to halflings, as that is one of the races that consistantly baffles me as to why someone would want to play it. That, and every halfling I’ve seen played is just “human, but shorter”.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

At this point, the discussion is going a bit in circles, but it bears repeating...

That's because it's not true.

The DM has control over the entire universe. Even if he spent 100+ hours on his world-building, because he has control over so many aspects of the world, the onus is on him/her to be flexible.

That simply does not follow. A does not imply B. In fact it implies the opposite of B. The onus is on the players to either enjoy all the DM's hard work or to walk away.

 

[FrozenNorth]

That simply does not follow. A does not imply B. In fact it implies the opposite of B. The onus is on the players to either enjoy all the DM's hard work or to walk away.

That seems to be the crux of the disagreement, yes.

 

[Maxperson]

That's because it's not true.

That simply does not follow. A does not imply B. In fact it implies the opposite of B. The onus is on the players to either enjoy all the DM's hard work or to walk away.

I don't think either one of those is what follows in a shared experience.

The onus on the players is to be understanding if the DM doesn't go along with the idea, but there is also an onus on the DM to allow the player request if it won't be disruptive to the game. At the end of the day, it's a shared experience intended for everyone present to have fun.

 

[FrozenNorth]

That's what I came to, and why I continued to ask. Not trying to kick a hornets nest.

Well, these are my reasons for liking Tieflings. Though I played 2e, we didn’t play a campaign that had tieflings, so my first exposure to tieflings was the 4e incarnation (I didn’t play 3e or 3.5).

Tiefling:
I want to be an outcast for my heritage.
I want to be a hunter of my own kind.
I want to be an atoner for the sins of my forefathers.
I want to be a charming sophisticate pining for Bael Turath.
I want to play a character that leverage devilish heritage and high Charisma to intimidate people.
I want to have a cool rivalry and banter with the party dragonborn.
I like horns.

I’m sure @EzekialRaiden can respond (and has in several previous posts) about playing a dragonborn.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I don't think either one of those is what follows in a shared experience.

The onus on the players is to be understanding if the DM doesn't go along with the idea, but there is also an onus on the DM to allow the player request if it won't be disruptive to the game. At the end of the day, it's a shared experience intended for everyone present to have fun.

I wouldn't disagree with that. My experience is that players are players and not DMs because they don't want to do the world building stuff. They would rather have someone else do it. But there is nothing wrong with taking a collaborative approach to world building if that works for the group. What is wrong is trying to tell someone else they are doing it wrong.

 

[Oofta]

When it comes to non-human races just being humans in funny hats, isn't that always going to be true? I mean people assign human attributes to pets, much less humanoid races. It happens in fantasy and sci-fi all the time. It's very difficult for us to really understand how different species think and process the world.

Everyone has a frame of reference, we can only get out of that a little bit. So most cultures mimic human cultures, most races just represent some aspect of human nature.