D&D General Wildly Diverse "Circus Troupe" Adventuring Parties

[TwoSix]

So. coming in way late:

The circus troupe happens because if you have a menu with 20 items on it and 5 people ordering you're unlikely to see multiple people pick the same item (unless it's particularly tasty) and there's just going to be menu items people don't pick.

D&D has over 70 options.

It's just a matter of math. If there were 9 options, total, you'd see more humans. But with every new species added across every new book the odds of that shrink ever further as people try new menu items.

And really, the only thing that prevents those newer races from being picked even more is simply that the race options are spread among several different books, and aren't bundled into a nice neat list (outside of D&D Beyond).

In Daggerheart, where the dozens of races (ancestries) are presented on cards, with art and all the mechanics printed in one place, I've only seen one human in 12 characters that have been rolled up.

 

[Belen]

My game on Friday features a human, a goblin, an earth genasi, a harengon, and a plasmoid.

My game this weekend has an elf, a dragonborn, a changeling, an owlin, a tiefling, a human, an aasimar, and a warforged.

Anecdotal data is ultimately anecdotal. In my experience, parties with a wide variety of races ARE the norm, and have been all throughout 5e, even more so in the past 5 years as more and more options have been added.

I wouldn't begin to know how to verify if "circus troupe" parties are the norm or outliers across the entire player base.

I just go on the dnd beyond data that shows the stats on characters created where humans, elves, and half-elves dominate.

 

[Remathilis]

The main point is that “circus troupe” parties remain uncommon. I played a Wemic and a Flind in 2e yet the majority of my characters Have been human or half-elf.

I gave 20+ options in my current games and 1 party is human, wood elf, half-wood elf, and dwarf. The other is human, dwarf, high elf, aasimar, and gnome.

The second party is most diverse I have seen in years.

This may be changing but I think most people still prefer to hew closer to human-like species.

My last game was Ravenloft, but I had two humans, a dhampir, a hexblood, a reborn, and a (homebrew) awakened cat. My Eberron game before that was a shifter, changeling, gnome, warforged, and half-elf. The last game I played in was Spelljammer and we had a giff, thri-kreen, hadozee, githyanki, drow, half-elf and astral elf (me). All my anecdotal research shows people will play the new options a setting provides when the setting provides it.

 

[Remathilis]

I just go on the dnd beyond data that shows the stats on characters created where humans, elves, and half-elves dominate.

Does Beyond account for the fact that species not in the SRD are paywalled? How many of those humans elves and half-elves were created by free accounts who didn't buy anything, maybe not even the PHB?

It reminds me of the people who comment on how the most popular fighter subclass on Beyond was champion. No duh, it's the free one. The next most popular was Mercer's Gunslinger because it too was free, not because more people played gunfighters rather than Eldritch knights...

 

[Chaltab]

And really, the only thing that prevents those newer races from being picked even more is simply that the race options are spread among several different books, and aren't bundled into a nice neat list (outside of D&D Beyond).

Honestly it's hard to make generalizations based on anecdotes. My current game I put 60 options on the table for base species, and 3 of the 6 players picked options from the 2024 PHB (Aasimar, Human, and Tiefling). Another picked a 2014 Wyrd Gnome.

We're playing online so the options being spread through many books isn't an issue.

...granted, one player didn't read the character creation document and picked a species not on the list, but I allowed it with one significant nerf.

 

[TwoSix]

I just go on the dnd beyond data that shows the stats on characters created where humans, elves, and half-elves dominate.

So I'm looking at that data (released in early 2024, for end of 2023 stats). Summing up the values on the chart, I'm seeing just under 50% of characters as human/elf/half-elf. 750k human, 575k elf, 250k half-elf, and about 1.6M everything else. (Making rough estimates based on the bar graph.)

So just about 50-50, half of which are "hehes" (human/elf/half-elf), and the other half not. Which means, just based on a 50-50 distribution that's purely random for a 4-member party, we'd expect to see 1/16 all hehe parties, 1/16 no-hehes, 1/4 with one hehe, 1/4 with three hehes, and 3/8 with two.

But of course, it isn't truly random, since many of the choices are guided by personal preference and social contract. But it does suggest there's large pockets of every kind of distribution out there, which accounts as for why some people see "circus troupes" all the time and others hardly ever see those kinds of composition.

 

[Clint_L]

I think a lot of settings could benefit from just a short sidebar about what a 1st, 3rd, 5th, etc. level character means in that setting.

It really depends on the DM.

I think a high level adventurer could be mean just about anything - pop culture is full of heroes who choose to live anonymous, quiet lives. Just because someone is Level 20 on their character class sheet doesn't mean they are a big deal in that world.

Season 3 Buffy is the Slayer who has saved the world multiple times, but to most people she's just a nobody from a small town who still gets detention and in trouble with her mom. In season 6 one story arc involves her job at a fast food restaurant.

 

[Scribe]

hehes is now a thing.

 

[TwoSix]

Honestly it's hard to make generalizations based on anecdotes. My current game I put 60 options on the table for base species, and 3 of the 6 players picked options from the 2024 PHB (Aasimar, Human, and Tiefling). Another picked a 2014 Wyrd Gnome.

We're playing online so the options being spread through many books isn't an issue.

...granted, one player didn't read the character creation document and picked a species not on the list, but I allowed it with one significant nerf.

Yea, I wouldn't try and generalize. All I would say is that the presentation and options within the books carry moderate weight towards making people more willing to play nonhumans over time. TSR editions wanted the game to be human-dominated both textually and mechanically. 3e moved away from that assumption textually, but the power and simplicity of human mechanics still made them a top-tier choice. Only with 4e and 5e has the game leaned more towards heterogeneity being the norm.

There's also possibly a generational change towards playing nonhumans more frequently, but it's hard to judge whether that's because of cultural and different fantasy inspirations, or just a function of being younger.

 

[TwoSix]

hehes is now a thing.

I was sure trying.