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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tonguez" data-source="post: 7930165" data-attributes="member: 1125">Race is a biologically correct term referring to distinct populations within a single species for instance Scotch Collies are a Race within the Dog Subspecies (Species Lupus), in as much as it is a naturally adapted Breed whereas a true Breed (like Border Collie) is selective bred by humans.The determination of whether Elfs, Humans and Orcs are the same species or not though is a fun mind exercise but possibly too complicated for the standard game, especially when issues of magic and divine intervention came in to play (are Elfs just fey-touched Hominids?)Personally I blame Tolkien and his successors who decided that it would be cool to change Elfs from mysterious Fae to a forest archer and allowed half-orcs to become the ‘defacto’ - monster/savage. It turns the fantasy of those creatures into mundane caricatures within a literal ‘melting pot‘ of humanoids-cum-cultural facade.Instead races should be limited to a distinct setting palette and given strong archetypes and cultural mores that make sense for what they represent and how they fit in the story. The fantasy of truely eldritch Seelie Elfs and elemental Gnomes needs to be revived.Well the mythic Minotaur was ‘genetic’ in as much as Olympians appear to be able to bred with humans and result in a humanoid with bulllike features, and in a bit of fun I decided that Owlbears were naturally occuring animal in the same genus as Gryphons.yrmv</blockquote>

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