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

[Weiley31]

I mean, do you know how badass it is to play a domesticated Black Cat warlock that slays demons with Eldritch Blasts?

Or wield a sword as a Grey Wolf Rune Knight?

I mean yeah you can get the same results as a human, but then your a human.

 

[Bitbrain]

I’m on the autistic spectrum. I don’t really think or behave in a similar fashion to other humans I know in real life, so why would I ever want to play a human at the game table?

Fantasy is more than just Tolkien, and different people like different things. Why do some people like superhero films and others prefer gritty gangster movies while others enjoy romantic period pieces? The point is to have options for people, not proscribe one single example of the fantasy genre.

Very true.

Unfortunately, the only Fantasy the other two DMs in my group care for is Tolkien.

 

[Mecheon]

One of my big fantasy things is Shining Force, the ol' Sega game.

So... Bird people doesn't seem 'weird' to me given how that game goes. They're just, part of the world and part of how fantasy goes. Along with the phoenix, the jellyfish, the ratman thief you can promote into a ninja, tanks being sort of common, and the Gamera

 

[iserith]

I play them for the memes.

 

[Oofta]

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.

 

[DND_Reborn]

I'm totally with the OP on this. I am amazed at how many players seem to want to play the more "unusual" races nowadays. A lot of the minis people preview in the HeroForge Color thread I started shows the rather strange eclectic hodgepodge (to me) of PC concepts that are out there... I don't see the appeal and when someone insists on playing one, when you go into towns, etc. in my games you are likely to get some strange looks from the townsfolk--who don't often see such strangers in their communities.

Now, when we played our online monk game, we purposefully took animalistic races: Aarakocra, Tabaxi, Tortle. BUT the idea for the campaign was there existed an "animal kingdom" continent (sort of like Zootopia) in part of the world where animal-races flourished and were the norm. So, in that setting, such races get some looks outside of their own lands, but everyone knows of the kingdom and understand where they are from.

Frankly, it has been a little fun, but more often just seems silly to me, personally. shrug

 

[Undrave]

Just challenge your player to a mono-race party if it bothers you that much. I’m in a game where the whole party is Dwarf (okay, my last dwarf was killed and I’m playing a rock gnome, but it worked at that point in the story and if we had been closer to our home base I would have switched to a Dwarf Mastermind!)

 

[Sword of Spirit]

For me, it has everything to do with the setting. I‘m right with the OP...until someone mentions thri-keen on Athas, and then I’m like “well, that’s legit.” Or Planescape, where it’s kind of supposed to be the Mos Eisley cantina.

For me, setting is everything, and there has to be a clear understanding that D&D baseline settings have traditionally been predominantly the Tolkien-like races as the massive majority of the population. So it’s when someone wants to play a thri-kreen on Oerth, or a tiefling on Krynn, or a dragonborn..well, anywhere...that it throws everything off for me.

So if I were playing in Eberron, sure make that party of weird choices, because it was designed that way, but if I’m playing in a setting that wasn’t designed that way, it bugs the crap out of me. Treating every setting as if it were Eberron means you don’t get the other experiences at all, much sh less as a baseline. And since there are a lot of new younger players (who did not grow up saturated with just elves and dwarves, but grew up with weird races, so it’s not even something new for them) they are coming into D&D and seeing all that weird fun presented to them as the default rather than as, well, weird! Id prefer if they got a chance to see what the classic settings looked like, so they can choose what settings to use for what story ideas, rather than just get the idea that D&D is supposed to be a kitchen sink menagerie on every setting by default.

Now, when we played our online monk game, we purposefully took animalistic races: Aarakocra, Tabaxi, Tortle. BUT the idea for the campaign was there existed an "animal kingdom" continent (sort of like Zootopia) in part of the world where animal-races flourished and were the norm. So, in that setting, such races get some looks outside of their own lands, but everyone knows of the kingdom and understand where they are from.

I might have to borrow that idea. Sounds like a really cool idea for a world...in Spelljammer!

 

[DND_Reborn]

I might have to borrow that idea. Sounds like a really cool idea for a world...in Spelljammer!

LOL have at it! I figure if I run these types of games, I will continue to use this concept.

The idea is on this continent, the "animal-gods" humanoided the animals to compete with the other races of the world. So, you have everything and anything that is animalistic in race.

Hope it works out well if you use it.

 

[Shardstone]

Weird Fantasy races do a lot of things for me.

First off, they explore new ideas, and allow me to really think about what life would be like if you weren't human. Things like Loxodons and Simic Hybrids must live pretty wild lives, and I like to explore those speculative ideas.

More importantly, I am obsessed with symbology, and I like thinking about races as symbols. What does it symbollically mean to be an race of elephant creatures? What does that say about the society? About being a hero? How does it recontextualize and change Fantasy to have these ideas? What do these symbols lead to, and as a vector, what new stories do they create?

But ultimately, I play weird Fantasy races because of threads like this. Because of people who like mainstream Fantasy but turn their nose up at weird Fantasy. Something about being a rebel punk and a kid and all that I guess. Dunno.

Like really man, dwarves and elves, those sure are normal, lmao. I guess after Tolkien and Dragonlance were written, Fantasy as a whole was tapped for some of you, eh?