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

[Clint_L]

I think they got PF2 on the mind.

Likely - the OP specifies "D&D ancestries," which isn't a thing.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

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.

Arcana Unearthed/Evolved has a strange relationship to Ptolus, in my mind, as there are a number of naming conventions that are the same -- the "quickling faen" and "loresong faen" names first showed up in Ptolus -- and the idea that there is a big kingdom of the giants in the west where they warred with dragons feels very much like the setting of AU/AE, and litorians have a presence in both places.

But then a ton of the details -- especially about the faen -- are different.

It's obviously just Monte's ideas evolving over time, but I like to pull inspiration from AE (without owning it, just from reading about it) into my version of Praemal and Ptolus as legends.

(Also, Monte, if you're reading this: Consider a fan publishing license, similar to what White Wolf, WotC and others do. There's a lot of Ptolus DMs out there with a lot of accumulated material to share. I've done a ton with the Prustan Peninsula and the borderlands of Kem, for instance.)

 

[Aldarc]

I think they got PF2 on the mind.

Not particularly. PF2 is hardly the only or even first TTRPG that uses "ancestry" as a term.

 

[Malmuria]

Give me 2e Planescape tieflings over 5e tieflings any day

 

[Micah Sweet]

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?

Are we talking official D&D settings? Because if so my preference for all the classic species is Dragonlance. Otherwise its LotR for such. I love robots, but don't care for any official D&D option for them and far prefer 3pp versions, like Level Up's constructed heritage.

 

[Micah Sweet]

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?

Again, Dragonlance. I've loved tinker gnomes since I was 10 and I always will.

 

[Micah Sweet]

For orcs, LotR or Warhammer 40k, depending on what I need them for. If they're PCs, probably Warcraft.

 

[Gradine]

Yeah, I really do think that Eberron is going to be my answer for most of these; they really put a lot of thought and care into giving each species a specific role in the world. They certainly have the best goblins, hands down. Can't really think of where they fall down until we get into the newer species that weren't thought of as much when it was created in 3.5. I had to build in my own backstories for Dragonborn and Tieflings the last time I ran it.

Haven't touched the seeing in a hot minute so I never really thought about Aasimar or Goliaths. I will say that I never considered Aasimar as a stand-in for Shulassakar, as they were always rainbow feathered Yuan-Ti in my mind, but hey, if the shoe fits.

 

[payn]

Yeah, I really do think that Eberron is going to be my answer for most of these; they really put a lot of thought and care into giving each species a specific role in the world. They certainly have the best goblins, hands down. Can't really think of where they fall down until we get into the newer species that weren't thought of as much when it was created in 3.5. I had to build in my own backstories for Dragonborn and Tieflings the last time I ran it.

Haven't touched the seeing in a hot minute so I never really thought about Aasimar or Goliaths. I will say that I never considered Aasimar as a stand-in for Shulassakar, as they were always rainbow feathered Yuan-Ti in my mind, but hey, if the shoe fits.

You know, out of all Eberron things, I dont really know anything about the goblins. Hobgoblins, sure, I know plenty about them, but not much on the gobo front itself.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

• Forest Gnomes - Eberron
• Rock Gnomes - Taladas
• Deep Gnomes - Talislanta

Talislanta also has the best elves.