D&D 5E (2024) WotC Should Make 5.5E Specific Setting

[Parmandur]

Well, put it this way.

If you knew the CEO and CFO of a hundred different companies, and they were all white, would you assume that there are non-white CEO's and CFO's? Because that's far closer to what we have for Forgotten Realms. Hundreds and hundreds of named NPC's. And zero (or close to zero) named NPC's who are Dragonborn. Heck, I have more DROW named NPC's in Waterdeep than Dragonborn. And nobody is suggesting that Drow are commonly found in Forgotten Realms.

It's like saying you know the CEO and CFOnare old white dudes and assuming there cannot be any young African-American female employees or the company that employs 100,000 people.

What lore? That there's a Dragonborn in the Flaming Fist? Whoopee. What rank? Where does that dragonborn come from? When did he/she join the Flaming Fist? What has he/she done for the Flaming Fist? What can you tell me about that Dragonborn? Where does he/she live? What are his/her duties? What can you tell me about that Dragonborn?

That part you get to make up, using the established bits about the Dlaming Fist and Drafonboen mercenaries.

I could just as easily have ANY species in the ranks of the Flaming Fist and it would be equally valid and leverage exactly the same amount of lore.

Yes, exactly!

 

[Hussar]

Why are we just looking at species for a connection of any kind to an NPC when background can also do the very same thing?

Because while EVERY other PC can have a connection to a NPC through a background, ONLY certain PC's can have a connection through species because only those species are actually represented in the canon of the setting.

That's what I've been arguing for all the way along. Yes, there are MANY ways you can connect to NPC's. I know that. I've acknowledged that over and over again.

But, what no one seems to want to acknowledge is that there are certain species that have not been given any sort of presentation within some settings.

Which is why I think that a PHB based setting is a very good idea.

But, I think I need to walk away from this. This is just too frustrating to discuss. I've made my point and I cannot make it any more clearly than I have. Maybe someone else can try pushing this boulder up the hill one more time, but, I'm done.

Might check back in in another ten or fifteen pages to see if folks have managed to move past this point.

 

[Parmandur]

And, whiff, there goes the point off over the horizon again.

It's not the only way. Good grief. Of course not.

But, if I choose to play a human or an elf or a drow or a dwarf or a gnome or any other PHB race, I can connect to an existing, canon NPC in the setting IF I SO CHOOSE. There is no "must" or "only" or "need". It's that the OPTION EXISTS while it DOES NOT EXIST FOR SOME RACES.

In a setting built based on the current PHB, then ALL PLAYERS WOULD HAVE AN OPTION REGARDLESS OF WHAT SPECIES THEY CHOOSE!!!!!! As it stands now, because these settings are so old and based on editions long out of print, NOT ALL PLAYERS HAVE THE SAME OPTIONS.

Is that clear enough? Yes, you can adapt. Yes you can create. Yes you can do all sorts of things. BUT YOU CANNOT LEVERAGE LORE THAT DOES NOT EXIST.

Why is this so difficult to understand?

So the sort of connection you ste looking fir is provided in 2024 books, following the example of the 2024 DMG, on the basis if Background, not Species&. The Free City of Greyhawk has hooks provided gir NPC connections for any of the *Backgrounds the PHB. WotC seems to be working to emphasize Species as much as possible, and focus on Backgrounds as the social of character connections. So the new FR books are full of Background appropriate connections on the major locations to leverage, not Species so much.

Since that is the approach on the core books, to ho back to the OP...a new 2024 specific Setting would focus more on Factions and Organizations, and leave Species pretty well alone.