Why are tieflings so popular? How did they manage to outcompete all the other wacky races to win their place in mainstream D&D?

[Azzy]

Everyone loves Hellboy?

You gotta admit, he's better than Raymond.

 

[CleverNickName]

You do some great Venn diagram work.

Thanks! This is still the best one I've ever seen...someday, my skill will match this genius example:

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I blame Haer Dalis from Baldur's Gate II.

And Neeshka from NWN2 for why tieflings are so widely disliked...

 

[Goblyn]

Hellboy
Nightcrawler
Anti-heroes are cool

Mebbe add Draenei from WoW to that list. I know they don't share that demonic heritage, but they are aesthetically similar I think. Also I imagine they are a big reason many people assume/decide tieflings have hooves.

 

[Maxperson]

2E planescape, migrated to 3.0 FRCS, into 4E core. Gotta appeal to edgelords. Not sure if them, Drow or Kender are the biggest problem races as they tend to appeal to special types of players.

2e Planescape saw the 1st and final edition where I liked tieflings. They were ruined after that for me. I've also seen very few of them played compared to all of the other races. Tieflings, gnomes and Dragonborn are the bottom three races in the groups that I've played in and run.

 

[Staffan]

Mebbe add Draenei from WoW to that list. I know they don't share that demonic heritage, but they are aesthetically similar I think. Also I imagine they are a big reason many people assume/decide tieflings have hooves.

Well, in WoW it's the other way around. The Draenei are what remains of the Eredar after most of them decided that this Sargeras fella sounded like a swell guy and became demons.

 

[Maxperson]

Thanks! This is still the best one I've ever seen...someday, my skill will match this genius example:

This one is pretty good, too.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

2e Planescape saw the 1st and final edition where I liked tieflings. They were ruined after that for me. I've also seen very few of them played compared to all of the other races. Tieflings, gnomes and Dragonborn are the bottom three races in the groups that I've played in and run.

I have to agree, I've seen far more tieflings in CRPGs than in PnP games. Actually, I have seen zero tiefling (or dragonborn) player characters in PnP games. I have seen the odd gnome though.

 

[Azzy]

I have to agree, I've seen far more tieflings in CRPGs than in PnP games. Actually, I have seen zero tiefling (or dragonborn) player characters in PnP games. I have seen the odd gnome though.

My group is on its 4th 5e campaign right now, so far we've had 5 humans (one was a DMPC-cum-PC), 3 elves (2 high, 1 shadar-kai), 3 half elves, 2 gnomes (both forest), 2 genasi (1 fire, 1 air DMPC), 1 dragonborn (copper), 1 aasimar (DMG variant), 1 tiefling (standard—I played that one), 1 half-orc.

 

[Tallifer]

Coz the devil has all the cool tunes.