D&D General Which published TTRPG settings do each D&D ancestry best?

[Aldarc]

Sure we have favorite ancestries, and we have favorite published settings. Sometimes our favorite published settings don't do justice to our favorite ancestries. Sometimes they do and that's why we love them so much. Sometimes we really wish that ancestries in one published setting would be like they are in another published setting. And then maybe when you are homebrewing your cleverly-crafted original worlds, you like to draw your inspiration from how X setting does Y ancestry.

Maybe you like the gnomes in Eberron best, but prefer the elves in Dragonlance better, or maybe prefer how Paizo does orcs in Golarion but prefer how Free League's Forbidden Lands does its halflings. I don't know. I'm just giving examples.

So what are your favorite published TTRPG settings for each D&D ancestry and why? Or in other words, which published TTRPG settings showcase what you love most about the ancestries that appear in D&D?

 

[payn]

I never leaped at the chance for Eberron, just didnt catch my fancy. Though, I played DDO for a few years and really warmed to it. Clearly, warforged belong there.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

These are my favorite versions of each of the core 5e races.

Aasimar: Eberron’s Shulassakar. They’re celestial humanoids whose ancestors were transformed into divine Yuan-ti by the Couatls, before the angelic serpents sacrificed themselves to trap the Demon Overlords in Khyber. Now the Shulassakar work ruthlessly to keep the forces of Khyber trapped in their demiplanar prisons. They live in ruined Couatl cities, isolating themselves from the outside world, and worshipping the Silver Flame in their own unique way. They also have their own equivalents of the various levels of Yuan-Ti enemies, which I think is cool.

I have always liked Couatls and I think the Shulassakar are genius. They’re pretty easy to transport to other settings too, which you normally can’t say about Eberron-specific content.

4e’s Devas are also pretty cool. That’s my second choice.

Dragonborn: Exandria (Critical Role setting), by default. Wildemount’s division of Dragonborn into two subraces; Draconians (who have tails and lived in floating islands) and Ravenites (don’t have tails, and were slaves forced to mine in dangerous chasms) is an interesting, if slightly cliche, dynamic, especially with the plot point of the Draconian cities having fallen and the Ravenite slaves overthrowing their former masters.

I like Dragonborn mechanically and as a concept, but I haven’t really found a version of lore that makes me really like them. Every version that I’ve seen just seems like they’re missing something. Eventually I’ll make a homebrew version in line with my preferences. I think it has potential, just I can’t think of a setting that has done them really well.

Dwarves: Does The Elder Scrolls count? The video game series is based off of D&D, and there’s an unofficial TTRPG adaptation. If it counts, the Dwemer are definitely my favorite version. They’re mysterious Mesopotamian Dwarves that accidentally erased themselves from existence by messing with a dead god’s heart.

If The Elder Scrolls doesn’t count, then Eberron’s Daelkyr Dwarves. It fits the “dug too greedily and too deep” line from The Fellowship of the Ring.

Elves: Eberron’s Aereni elves. They’re ancestor-worshipping isolationists that live on a small island continent that is magically linked to the Planes of Light and Death, causing the island to have magically exotic wildlife like trees with wood that is lighter than air. Also, these planar connections allow for the collective worship of the Aereni Elves to be used to reanimate the most wise and skilled Aereni elves as light-powered divine undead. The Undying Court of the Aereni ancestors is so powerful that combined they could fight off a Demon Overlord.

I have yet to find a representation of Elves on any other D&D setting that I think is as interesting as the Aereni.

(Honorable mention to The Elder Scroll’s Bosmer and Dunmer, they’re my favorite representations of Wood and Dark Elves in a fantasy setting.)

Gnomes: Spelljammer’s Tinker Gnomes. Which is weird because I hate Dragonlance’s Tinker Gnomes. But steampunk spaceships that are powered by Giant Space Hamsters running on wheels and manned by artificial clockwork gnomes is inspired. Gnomes are ridiculous, Spelljammer is ridiculous, so it makes sense that the would shine in that setting. Eberron’s KGB gnomes are a close second, though.

Goliaths: They’re too new of a race. There aren’t really alternate versions of them in different settings the way there are in other settings. They’re always tribal mountain Spartans. I guess 4e Dark Sun’s Goliaths win by default, but that kind of feels like cheating, given that the older Half-Giant race were forced to become Goliaths.

Halflings: Dark Sun’s cannibal Halflings.

Half-Elves: Eberron’s Khorovar. They have something going for them, which is more than I can say for Half-Elves in most other settings.

Half-Orcs: Eberron’s Tharashk Half-Orcs. They’re a Dragonmarked House that has a monopoly on bounty hunting and prospecting.

Humans: Probably Eberron again. Humans tend to be boring in every setting, but there are some unique stuff for humans in Eberron, and the human-founded countries are pretty interesting.

Orc: Eberron’s Ghaash’kala Orcs protect the world from demonic invasion and worship the Silver Flame.

Tieflings: I like the base Tiefling lore well enough and there’s not really any setting that has an interesting different version of them that I’m aware of. So probably whatever setting that came from. Planescape?

 

[zakael19]

His Majesty The Worm’s gnomes. They’re human children who ran away with the elves (who must otherwise die and pass their souls on to a child), strange little creatures that are too suffused by magic and immortality to be human, like wrinkled children with minds wiser (or at least more packed with knowledge) then any sage.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Ptolus was created, in part, to be Monte Cook's 3E test bed, and every 3E core race has a spot there, sometimes with tweaked backgrounds (elves, halflings and gnomes are all theoretically split off the same family tree, for instance).

With an "everything fits in somewhere" ethos to the setting, I've found it pretty easy to slot in 5E stuff as well. Tieflings and aasimar especially have a place in Ptolus, where actual demons and angels can be found, for good setting-based reasons.

The rest of the world is hazily sketched in, but in a very "this is the world of the Monster Manual and Player Handbook" ethos, so goliaths can come from the giant-ruled lands off the western edge of the map, genasi and tabaxi can come from the fantasy Arabia on the southern continent, etc.

 

[Aldarc]

Ptolus was created, in part, to be Monte Cook's 3E test bed, and every 3E core race has a spot there, sometimes with tweaked backgrounds (elves, halflings and gnomes are all theoretically split off the same family tree, for instance).

With an "everything fits in somewhere" ethos to the setting, I've found it pretty easy to slot in 5E stuff as well. Tieflings and aasimar especially have a place in Ptolus, where actual demons and angels can be found, for good setting-based reasons.

The rest of the world is hazily sketched in, but in a very "this is the world of the Monster Manual and Player Handbook" ethos, so goliaths can come from the giant-ruled lands off the western edge of the map, genasi and tabaxi can come from the fantasy Arabia on the southern continent, etc.

Let me put the premise of this thread in terms that you will better understand: Which TTRPG setting has the best or your favorite gnomes?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Let me put the premise of this thread in terms that you will better understand: Which TTRPG setting has the best or your favorite gnomes?

Still Ptolus.

By the book, most people can't tell gnomes or halflings apart (they're extremely close on the elf family tree) and both as a player and DM, I've had a great deal of fun with this since 2006.

They're two distinct peoples and members of each group will get very insulted if you get them confused, but others use this to their advantage all the time.

One of the easiest ways for a gnome or halfling to disappear in Ptolus is to just hide out in the other ethnic conclave with a change of name and clothes.

 

[Aldarc]

Still Ptolus.

By the book, most people can't tell gnomes or halflings apart (they're extremely close on the elf family tree) and both as a player and DM, I've had a great deal of fun with this since 2006.

They're two distinct peoples and members of each group will get very insulted if you get them confused, but others use this to their advantage all the time.

One of the easiest ways for a gnome or halfling to disappear in Ptolus is to just hide out in the other ethnic conclave with a change of name and clothes.

I would be lying if I said that I didn't have you and gnomes in mind when I created this thread.

Cook continues that trend in Arcana Evolved, where he has the Quickling Faen (halflings) and Loresong Faen (gnomes). I really liked the latter there, particularly since I thought that faen/gnomes had a much better niche in a setting otherwise bereft of elves and dwarves. So much so that I sometimes think that the answer to the common question about how to make better gnomes is simply to combine elves, halflings, and dwarves into the gnome.

 

[Clint_L]

Ancestry, not species? Are we trying to make fetch happen?

Anyway:

Humans: Greyhawk. Int's a very human-centric setting, and does a great job of capturing the political chaos of humanity in a way that appeals to my fantasy sensibilities.

Elves: Exandria has a nice interpretation of Tolkien-esque elves who see themselves as superior, but toned down and less mystical.

Halflings: I think hlafling's are the quintessentially Tokien species, and that's how I like them. Faerun's halfings fit that mold best, IMO.

Orcs: Exandria's orcs are people, too.

Goliaths: Eh. Exandria, I guess, just because it has the most story about them, and Grog Strongjaw is the iconic goliath.

Gnomes: Eberron is the perfect gnomish setting - for me gnomes and goblins are steampunk species.

Goblins: see gnomes.

Dwarves: Exandria, again. My taste in fantasy settings is basically "traditional, but modernized," and Mercer seems to share a similar preference. So you have settings like Kraghammer that very much have that more traditional, xenophobic dwarf vide, but then also a place like Uthodurn which is a blended dwarf and elf culture.

Dragonborn: Exandria, which an interesting history that divides them into castes according to their tails or lack thereof, with plenty of repercussions.

Tieflings: Faerun has the most lore around Tieflings of the settings that I am familiar with.

 

[payn]

Ancestry, not species? Are we trying to make fetch happen?

I think they got PF2 on the mind.