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What is the purpose of race/heritage?
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<blockquote data-quote="Willie the Duck" data-source="post: 8688854" data-attributes="member: 6799660"><p>I think the primary value is that people like having <em>'choose one from column A, one from column B and order column C from most- to least- preferable'</em> selection schema; and that is true for mechanical reasons, story/theme reasons, and sometimes even no reason at all. D&D 5e's backgrounds are a good example-- they added a third main 'pick one' slot alongside race and class, and people have glommed onto it pretty well (perhaps not as thoroughly as selections which have greater impact on either mechanics or in the personality of the character you play, and that makes sense). </p><p></p><p>I think this gets overblown by both advocates and detractors of the decision. They have deemphasized how much <em>they are going to publish</em> races as having monolithic cultures and personalities. That's it. People are still going to play Tolkieny haflings and warcrafty orcs and haughty or woodsy of cookie-baking/nordic toy-making elves as personal preference permits and goodness if reddit art is any indication then WotC already doesn't get a say in how people interpret tieflings. </p><p></p><p>Agreed. Also, while I bet if Tolkien had not been as big a deal and Gary could have made his humanocentric pulp/myth/S&S-themed version of D&D, people would still have pretty quickly started asking, 'so, can I play as one of these supporting cast centaurs?' and the like. </p><p></p><p></p><p>It certainly helped move the game from a roguelike treasure hunt. "My fighter level 4 has boots of flying, while yours has a sword which shoots fire 3/day" works when the treasure and advancement are the point. Once you are playing a full-fledged character, you need some kind of hooks to hang things on. Especially relatively neutral things, such that everyone doesn't always choose option #3. As much as race has had mechanical difference in most editions, each edition has places where the optimal choice isn't obvious (ex: in AD&D, single class fighters in games where you weren't going to hit the level limit anyways could pick elves for better dex but worse con, dwarves for better magic and poison saves but negatives to speed and using magic items, humans to avoid the lows/highs of other choices, and so on), and that's where I've tended to see a lot of picking a different race each time.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Willie the Duck, post: 8688854, member: 6799660"] I think the primary value is that people like having [I]'choose one from column A, one from column B and order column C from most- to least- preferable'[/I] selection schema; and that is true for mechanical reasons, story/theme reasons, and sometimes even no reason at all. D&D 5e's backgrounds are a good example-- they added a third main 'pick one' slot alongside race and class, and people have glommed onto it pretty well (perhaps not as thoroughly as selections which have greater impact on either mechanics or in the personality of the character you play, and that makes sense). I think this gets overblown by both advocates and detractors of the decision. They have deemphasized how much [I]they are going to publish[/I] races as having monolithic cultures and personalities. That's it. People are still going to play Tolkieny haflings and warcrafty orcs and haughty or woodsy of cookie-baking/nordic toy-making elves as personal preference permits and goodness if reddit art is any indication then WotC already doesn't get a say in how people interpret tieflings. Agreed. Also, while I bet if Tolkien had not been as big a deal and Gary could have made his humanocentric pulp/myth/S&S-themed version of D&D, people would still have pretty quickly started asking, 'so, can I play as one of these supporting cast centaurs?' and the like. It certainly helped move the game from a roguelike treasure hunt. "My fighter level 4 has boots of flying, while yours has a sword which shoots fire 3/day" works when the treasure and advancement are the point. Once you are playing a full-fledged character, you need some kind of hooks to hang things on. Especially relatively neutral things, such that everyone doesn't always choose option #3. As much as race has had mechanical difference in most editions, each edition has places where the optimal choice isn't obvious (ex: in AD&D, single class fighters in games where you weren't going to hit the level limit anyways could pick elves for better dex but worse con, dwarves for better magic and poison saves but negatives to speed and using magic items, humans to avoid the lows/highs of other choices, and so on), and that's where I've tended to see a lot of picking a different race each time. [/QUOTE]
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