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

[Charlaquin]

It's certainly a justified trope from the perspective of verisimilitude... the problem is  genre. It makes the setting less relatable and reduces immersion for the people playing in it.

Verisimilitude… reduces immersion…? That’s a first.

Weird only gets to be weird if there's a normal to keep it at arm's length. Otherwise, what you have is  surrealism which pretty much detracts from any game unless it's the point of the game.

I don’t agree that an adventuring party full of outlandish characters within an otherwise more grounded world is in any way surreal. The rest of the setting provides the normal to keep the PCs’ weirdness “at arm’s length.”

 

[Scribe]

If it was Planescape I was running as a DM, I'd insist that the majority of PCs be Planetouched (Tiefling, Aasimar, Genasi, and other more obscure types like Chaonds, Mechantrix or whatever) from Sigil or the other planes of existence or a planar species like Githzerai, Githyanki or Bariaur before being anything else. Though anything else would fit, I think they'd should only be 1 member of the party.

Sure, why not.

 

[Incenjucar]

They're all just people. It's only remarkable to us because all the other people in our world went extinct before we could hang out with them. The vast majority are exactly as normal as humans, with the occasional person who is a sentient moo or something.

If the real world had people with horns, people with scales, people with metal skin, etc., we'd all be playing at the same gaming tables, so why not in the game?

 

[Sulicius]

In my most recent campaign, I limited player options and wrote some species specific lore for each in a campaign handout. It has worked great!

 

[Hussar]

I dont know if thats true, rather it would seem the DM has not been clear enough in defining the limits of their setting. I know its hard to say No but that is something that needs to be addressed in session zero.
Ive done curated lineage list with anything else having to be justified with a good backstory (that becomes a campaign adpect) and I've said things like "there are no Elfs in this campaign, Half-elfs are all considered fey-touched humans. Tieflings are hunted as demonspawn."

Yeah, I've tried that.

And then every player comes forward and wants to play a "secret" elf or a Tiefling. The second I try to put any limitations, that's EXACTLY what people want to play.

Next campaign, I'm banning fighters just to see what the players do.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

I have always felt it a little jarring when I am in a party that has characters ranging from a talking bird to a centaur with nary a traditional humanoid or human in between. It really feels like a circus troupe rather than a party of adventurers. I find that to be especially the case when none (or hardly any) of the Player Characters are native to the region or are even completely unique beings. I can't specifically say that it's because I prefer a human-centric approach because I would have no problem with a majority Dwarf party, Elf party, or Gnoll party.

The gnoll inclusion there is quite interesting. It might be helpful to iterate on that. That is, consider a party of 5 where three of them are all the same thing, e.g.:

• Dragonborn
• Tiefling
• Genasi
• Goliath
• etc.

And consider which, if any, cause this effect for you. That could be used to figure out where your subconscious boundaries lie. It'll be hard to figure out how to advise without knowing more. As you say, it's not human-centric, but it isn't even strictly humanoid centric, if you're cool with gnolls.

Does anyone else have this problem or is it just me? How can I move past it? Are there ways I can frame things in my mind to make it easier to get on with?

I do not personally have this problem, but I have always had a pretty ecumenical attitude regarding player characters, so that might not mean very much.

Yeah, I've tried that.

And then every player comes forward and wants to play a "secret" elf or a Tiefling. The second I try to put any limitations, that's EXACTLY what people want to play.

Next campaign, I'm banning fighters just to see what the players do.

I'd feel bad for Greg, if I'm being honest!

 

[Jahydin]

Does anyone else have this problem or is it just me? How can I move past it? Are there ways I can frame things in my mind to make it easier to get on with?

For me, it's not the variance of the party that bothers, but the "happy family" vibe that seems out of place. I prefer fiction where everyone is on edge and distressful of each other as the default, especially when there's historic tension in the lore, so I look for systems that accommodate that.

That said, it's pretty cool when a diverse party is put together with a common goal in mind and have to work thought their differences. Ran a campaign where the cleric refused to heal a party member of opposing alignment and always made it a point to chastise their behavior. By Level 4 though, they fought enough battles and made enough sacrifices along the way it was no longer an issue. Neat experience to see happen organically over time and thankful for friends close enough to RP it without any negative feelings.

 

[Distracted DM]

They're all just people. It's only remarkable to us because all the other people in our world went extinct before we could hang out with them. The vast majority are exactly as normal as humans, with the occasional person who is a sentient moo or something.

If the real world had people with horns, people with scales, people with metal skin, etc., we'd all be playing at the same gaming tables, so why not in the game?

This is definitely just a matter of opinion, yours is perfectly valid, to me this reads as very reductionist. Apologies if I misunderstand, but this reads as saying a dwarf is the same as a human is the same as an elf is the same as a dragonborn etc. just with sharp ears, scales, etc, that they all think and behave the same.
Again, fine for your game. I just prefer to think of them as distinctively different. The difference between a Vulcan and a human, for example.

 

[TiQuinn]

I’ve gone back and forth on this one but every campaign where I’ve let go of the concern that I have for what I like to call the menagerie of PCs usually ends up being inconsequential unless it involves an ancestry like aaracokra that has an early flying ability, and even then, it’s more just a way I have to adjust adventures that don’t account for that ability. It didn’t matter for us when we were playing 2e and suddenly no one was a human because everyone wanted to play a multiclass PC so everyone ended up being an elf, dwarf or halfling. Conversely, we played Odyssey of the Dragonlords where everyone was human - but the difference there was every PC had a unique heroic path that gave them special abilities and a character arc. For players I’ve gamed with, it’s usually about the mechanics that come with different ancestries as opposed to the aesthetics in terms of what’s important.

Just my two cents.

 

[saviirkad]

When I think of a circus troupe, it's a collection of individuals who are bright, colorful, eccentric in their movements and behavior, and generally each member fits that description while still being very unique to each other (the acrobat being unique to the strongman to the clown, etc.). But what makes it jarring isn't that alone, it's the fact that it's not the norm everywhere else. To the point where if I saw someone from a circus troupe outside of the circus, it's a safe assumption that they would not be in that get-up nor putting on a show with their circus troupe eccentrics.

Which is why, for me personally, the most equivalent experience I can think of within D&D would be coming across monoculturism writ large. Some backwater town, sure, but any community of sufficient size is probably going to be mostly circus troupe. I mean I'm not opposed to playing an all-elf party visiting a huge all-dwarf metropolis, it's just that this is when I would get that "circus troupe" feeling more than I would if we were a party of an aarakocra, genasi, warforged and a changeling in a Waterdeep like city with a dozen different species that qualify as having a significant population there.