D&D (2024) What new jargon do you want to replace "Race"?

[Jfdlsjfd]

Why are you acting like those are contradictory ideas? Having a dragonborn parent does mean you have a dragon in your past heritage. The text says any given sorcerer might be the first of a new bloodline, distant relation is not required.

On the other hand, I wouldn't want to be the first of new line of dragonborn. "Hey mum, thanks, I was going to grow as a full dragon, then you meddled with your eggs and now I am a dragonborn. I am going to brood for a long time! But don't worry, I'll be dead before you notice." Much better to be a dragonborn born out of other dragonborn.

The fun thing will be when we'll see a gnome with a Goliath ancestor. "Yes, I can double my carrying capacity, turn Large for 10 minutes and have advantage on Grapple. I am a gnome, looking exactly like any other gnome, but my great-great-grand-father was a goliath".

 

[Charlaquin]

In the first playtest doc, Tieflings and Ardling had legacies, the Elves and Gnomes had lineages, Dragonborn had ancestries. The idea of dilineation within a schmorp is there, but they're tossing around a lot of different words testing it out.

Surprisingly, that language is mostly consistent with existing language. PHB Dragonborn get the “Draconic Ancestry” feature, and Tieflings get the “Infernal Legacy” feature. Ardlings make sense to use the same language as Tieflings if they’re a celestial counterpart. And while I’m not aware of existing language calling elf varieties “ancestries,” they did use that term for the not-race-races in Van Richten’s Guide.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Legacy! There's one that's not just 'race, but with different letters'.

 

[Scribe]

The fun thing will be when we'll see a gnome with a Goliath ancestor. "Yes, I can double my carrying capacity, turn Large for 10 minutes and have advantage on Grapple. I am a gnome, looking exactly like any other gnome, but my great-great-grand-father was a goliath".

 

[Incenjucar]

On the other hand, I wouldn't want to be the first of new line of dragonborn. "Hey mum, thanks, I was going to grow as a full dragon, then you meddled with your eggs and now I am a dragonborn. I am going to brood for a long time! But don't worry, I'll be dead before you notice." Much better to be a dragonborn born out of other dragonborn.

The fun thing will be when we'll see a gnome with a Goliath ancestor. "Yes, I can double my carrying capacity, turn Large for 10 minutes and have advantage on Grapple. I am a gnome, looking exactly like any other gnome, but my great-great-grand-father was a goliath".

And that's why they hang out with duergar.

 

[Celebrim]

I'm liking Shmorph more and more, but the logical part of me knows that all you are doing is hopping on the euphemism treadmill and 20 years from now some young person is going to be calling the term out as coded racist language.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I'm liking Shmorph more and more, but the logical part of me knows that all you are doing is hopping on the euphemism treadmill and 20 years from now some young person is going to be calling the term out as coded racist language.

That's only because most of the options people are clamoring for because it's old timey is coded racist language... because that's what people use old timey words for 'race' for when they're not playing D&D.

 

[Charlaquin]

Legacy! There's one that's not just 'race, but with different letters'.

I like that. Appeals for the same reason heritage does, but doesn’t carry as much baggage.

 

[Yaarel]

Yes, that's my reading, too, despite it not being explicitely written as such.

It opens the door to have humans (as a whole) having differentiated traits. Sure, no ability score increases as they come from background, but still, it might be enough to make a differnce between two humans, something that wasn't present before. If some traits are more desireable than other, it can lead to introducing a difference that wasn't there before, like to humans saying "sure, he's better, because he has an ardling ancestor..." Not something that may be intended.

Heh. I have competing feelings about how to describe a character from diverse ancestors.

As a player, I want to say: "My character, my choice!"

As a DM, I want the verbiage: "that both the player and the DM agree is appropriate".



Generally, the player plays the character, and the DM plays the setting. Whatever species are in a setting significantly define the flavor of the setting. Therefore, if the ancestral species of a particular character actually impacts the flavor of the overall setting, then as DM I want to have say about which options are helpful for the setting. But if the character doesnt really impact the setting, then pretty much the player can do whatever one wants for ones character.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Heh. I have competing feelings about how to describe a character from diverse ancestors.

As a player, I want to say: "My character, my choice!"

As a DM, I want the verbiage: "that both the player and the DM agree is appropriate".

You can go ahead and ignore that second guy.