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

[Maxperson]

You're missing the point.

I'm sure that you meant it positively. But, the point I was trying to make was that it is so ingrained in people's minds that "non-standard" races are "weird" and bad, that you used a very negative term to describe a positive thing. You couldn't even describe a positive thing - a fun game - without using negative language. Intentional or not, it is rather telling that your first "go to" comparison is a negative one, regardless of whether the experience was positive or not.

He didn't use negative language. He used neutral language in a positive manner. You don't get to tell him that the language he used is negative, just because you've encountered the neutral language used negatively before by OTHER people.

 

[Oofta]

This is what the 4e and 5e PHB say. Tieflings are discriminated on and between that and their history, it affects them and their culture.

@Hussar was saying that I was making unfounded accusations again. All I did was make a comment about making sure that if anyone did enforce discrimination against tieflings (which is still in the 5E PHB) that they should okay it with a player first.

I was not accusing anyone of anything. Whether any given table actually does anything about the discrimination as written in the book should be up to the DM and the player. Actually I should correct that - the DM and all the players. Discrimination is not something that should be taken lightly.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Correct, it isn't correlated, yet some people (ahem) in this thread have made that correlation

In fact, IIRC one of our earlier disagreements was over this exact thing, where you attributed the OPs discomfort with weird races to a desire for "consistent believable worldbuilding" when nothing in the original post supports that.

First of all: I never said anything despairingly. Nothing. I gave a compliment that had the word cantina in it. A compliment.

I didn’t say you did.

Second, your are not accurate. If you like soccer. But someone says, "Yeah, I don't get it. There's not enough scoring for me. And there are so many leagues it seems hard to keep track of. But, it has mass appeal. Just not for me. So you do you and enjoy the game."

Are you telling me you can't take that as a, at worst, neutral statement. You would say that person's criticism of a game you like makes his: "You do you," meaningless?

That’s an incredibly mild example. Go back and read oofta’s first posts in this thread. Nowhere near neutral.

 

[Oofta]

I didn’t say you did.

That’s an incredibly mild example. Go back and read oofta’s first posts in this thread. Nowhere near neutral.

I have a preference and opinion that doesn't match yours. That does not make your preference wrong.

 

[Scott Christian]

That’s an incredibly mild example. Go back and read oofta’s first posts in this thread. Nowhere near neutral.

I will do that. Again, I don't remember his posts being that way at all. But I will go back and reread his posts as you suggest. Your memory might be sharper than mine.

 

[Oofta]

I will do that. Again, I don't remember his posts being that way at all. But I will go back and reread his posts as you suggest. Your memory might be sharper than mine.

I'll save you the trouble.

I limit races to the "traditional" ones myself for a variety of reasons, not least of which that I don't want my towns looking like they're getting ready to enter Mos Eisley's cantina. Even with standard PHB races (no dragonborn or drow) it feels like there are already too many species to me. I get that some people want to "explore" other perspectives, but do we really do that in any meaningful way? We are limited by life experience, biology and built-in unconscious biases, limited in our ability to take on an alien perspective.

On the other hand, when it was available in LFR I played warforged and a gnoll. To be honest, the former was largely to see how many people would get the Star Wars reference because I named him TK-542, the latter so I could play Scooby-Doo. So whether that's a robotic warforged who doesn't really understand meat based life forms or an over-enthusiastic gnoll who will do just about anything for a snack, it's just funny caricatures that easily stick.

So I'm a bit torn here. On the one hand, as a DM I don't want a silly cartoon universe. Even limiting as I do(there aren't that many "monstrous" humanoids running around either) it still feels too crowded. On the other hand for a more casual game playing wacky fun time is fine. In casual public games I want have to have a really simple "hook". Something I can latch onto that stands out.

So that's why I play "weird" fantasy races now and then even though I don't allow them in my home campaign.

I assume the phrase "I don't want my towns looking like they're getting ready to enter Mos Eisley's cantina." is the problem. I don't see how that is insulting in any way, especially when I follow up with "Even with standard PHB races (no dragonborn or drow) it feels like there are already too many species to me. "

I have a preference and an opinion. I expressed what I don't want, I never said anyone was wrong for wanting anything else.

 

[Bohandas]

D20 =/= DnD

So... your point is that mechanics can be transferred, but that doesn't make them the same game.

I have that book. There's a conversion guide in the back for porting everything into D&D 3e. It was written, at least in part, with D&D in mind.

 

[Thomas Shey]

It only stands out as a "freak-show" if it is unusual. Remember the truism about New York? Or a similar one about Comic-con?

The example I was responding to was specifically about one-off unusual races when they were otherwise not found locally. That's what makes it a freak-show. If there are examples of the same species all over the place, that's not what I was talking about.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Let me ask this question.

Can your problem be solved by making "sub-races" for Fiendish Dwarves, Elves, Ect? Because it sounds like that is your problem. "It used to be that I could be a dwarf with fiendish heritage, but now I'm using the generalized stats for a human with fiendish heritage, so I can't be a dwarf, so Tieflings are terrible"

But, like I said, this is a trivial thing to change, especially post-Tasha. And it is something I've had to do. I had an Aasimar born to a Goliath parent, that meant I had to adjust somethings, because it was an Aasimar, but that wasn't too bad to actually do.

In fact, PF2e has Tieflings as an applied ancestry that can be added to any base ancestry. They do assume there will be visual elements that give it away (just as they do with aasimar), but those can be applied to any of the base races (my wife is playing an elf-tiefling right now).

 

[Gammadoodler]

I'll save you the trouble.


I assume the phrase "I don't want my towns looking like they're getting ready to enter Mos Eisley's cantina." is the problem. I don't see how that is insulting in any way, especially when I follow up with "Even with standard PHB races (no dragonborn or drow) it feels like there are already too many species to me. "

I have a preference and an opinion. I expressed what I don't want, I never said anyone was wrong for wanting anything else.

I think it's fair to say that several of your posts, especially your earlier ones were worded to suggest that the act of limiting races, by itself, results in better worldbuilding (more consistent, more believable, deeper, more cultured, possessing history).

Your stance since then had gotten considerably milder and brought in more context.