I have no idea what races to use

Not OP here. I get what people are going for with this point, that they want players to have characters that are 'people' too, but I often find that it is just one form of escapism. Sometimes players just want a character, and thus the cosmetics of that character (race, costume etc.) become more important, than the inner worknings of that character's personality. I mean, sometimes you want to play as awesome and shallow as James Bond or Indianna Jones, because you want the awe and punch that they can provide.

>qt3.14 giant race
My nigga

the only valid reason to play as [non human race] is gameplay mechanics, since a background/ appearance alone can not replace proper roleplay.

Humans are the only race but each tribe has a totem animal from which they derive their innate powers.

>Tiger totem
- Have marks like tiger stripes on their bodies.
- +2 Str and 60ft Darkvision.

>Wolf totem
- Wolf-like ears instead of human ears.
- +2 Wis
- + 10 ft land movement speed

>Horse totem
- mane-like hair in a mohawk style
- + 2 Con
- Dissease Resistance and advantage on rolls against being poisoned

Etc.

What about a setting that only has playable humans and half-humans. Humans, Half-Elves, Half-Orcs, Tieflings, Aasimar, and Genasi.

Robots.

>not having human as the only race

I am so sick of these fucking niggers who think they are allowed to play whatever they want in my campaigns. No, your shitty tengu is not allowed. No, your ratfolk is not allowed. No, your catfolk is not allowed. No, your tiefling is not allowed: that is a literal fucking demonspawn. Why the fuck would that be allowed in any campaign, let alone this one? No, you cannot play a drow. You will be shot on sight on the surface. Half these fuckers don't even read Drizz't so they have no excuse for wanting to play a drow, besides "lol it's different." Fuck different. Here's the thing: your race is the most boring fucking part of your character. Unless you do something interesting with it (which 90% of these stupid cunts don't do), then you are just weighing down the game. When you have a thri-keen, some homebrew furry shit, a tiefling and some fuck who wants to play kender, you know what? Fuck this. I made a setting that actually feels somewhat like the real world because it doesn't have 90 different races running around like it's motherfucking Mos Eisley cantina. It's not my fault that YOU are a bad roleplayer who can't be satisfied playing something out of the core book. Create an interesting character, and you can play as a human for the rest of your RPG career. I had groups that were entirely human yet they had personalities that seemed like real people. But no, no one wants to lump in 30 homebrew races plus 60 official wizards of the coast crapshit races they pump out like chocolate because they know it will keep people entertained and requires zero effort on their part. No DM worth shit wants to spend hours and hours putting that in his world. Play. A. Fucking. Human. You need to EARN the privilege of playing another race, by proving you can competently play a normal character first. You don't get the big boy toys until your prove you can be responsible for them

What sort of world do you want to run? There's plenty of different races in D&D, so it's all a matter of what you want to do for a setting and whether or not you want to play around with "iconic" racial portrayals.

Don't forget, before Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms, Mystara had shapeshifting spider sorcerers who just wanted to be left in peace, faux-French swashbuckling wolf-people, raccoon-monkey-flying-squirrel people, Chaotic Good refugees from the Land of Nightmares who looked like purple devils, flying minotaurs, and peaceful psionic tree-frog people. And that's just off the top of my head.

#53439414
>Copypasta

this
cute fluffers are the way to go

Make your players choose between all the various D&D elf subraces, six new elf subraces you made up yourself that fill increasingly weird socio-ecological niches, Kender Paladin, a Drow analogue for each of the elf subraces that already exist in the setting, lizardfolk, and Svirfneblin.

lol look at this fucking ultra-nerd. I bet you don't even have a gaming group, because no one would want to play with a whiny faggot like you.

To accommodate this kind of approach, there should be a race generator a la The Esoteric Monster Gen, don't ya thunk it?

Theres only two choices:

>Humans Only
>Tons of fantasy races

Just take the best fantasy races from other settings.
So
>Dunmer
>Iksar
>Orks
>Shai Hulud
>Thri Kreen
>Myr
>Broken Lords
>Chaos Dwarfs
>Bangaa

And then take some cool iconic class options and there you go.

Can you at least phrase the bait differently next time?

Humans only. Never seen a person do a beast race well, it goes hand in hand with that guy wanting to be special.

Just use humans, needing to use other races just means you lack imagination.

Anything but humans

Roll a random race.

I want to play as sophisticated noble wolf warrior but everyone would assume I want to fuck everything that moves.

>Bangaa

My man.

While true, this is like saying if you can't make a portrait with only one color, you can't make a portrait at all.
Using the other colors is still fine.

I do this constantly. I'll also jump at the chance to make one or two of the player character races actually quite rare and dying out.

I find that having fewer different factions/groups really helps you get to a satisfying amount of depth as a GM, instead of trying to do the bare minimum amount of justice to over a dozen different ones or more.

Orcs, Elves, Dwarves & Humans.
One race for each of the four elements, though there will be endless in-game and out-of-game elements about which is which.

No interbreeding: Orcs are lizards, Elves are descended from insects, and Dwarves are rumored to be shaved badgers.

>stale pasta

Ugh.

Mexicans.

Rat dudes and bug dudes

>not having elf as the only race

I am so sick of these fucking drow who think they are allowed to play whatever they want in my campaigns. No, your shitty tengu is not allowed. No, your ratfolk is not allowed. No, your catfolk is not allowed. No, your tiefling is not allowed: that is a literal fucking demonspawn. Why the fuck would that be allowed in any campaign, let alone this one? No, you cannot play a nigger. You will be shot on sight on the surface. Half these fuckers don't even read Frederick Douglass so they have no excuse for wanting to play a nigger, besides "lol it's different." Fuck different. Here's the thing: your race is the most boring fucking part of your character. Unless you do something interesting with it (which 90% of these stupid cunts don't do), then you are just weighing down the game. When you have a thri-keen, some homebrew furry shit, a tiefling and some fuck who wants to play kender, you know what? Fuck this. I made a setting that actually feels somewhat like the real world because it doesn't have 90 different races running around like it's motherfucking Mos Eisley cantina. It's not my fault that YOU are a bad roleplayer who can't be satisfied playing something out of the core book. Create an interesting character, and you can play as a elf for the rest of your RPG career. I had groups that were entirely elven yet they had personalities that seemed like real people. But no, no one wants to lump in 30 homebrew races plus 60 official wizards of the coast crapshit races they pump out like chocolate because they know it will keep people entertained and requires zero effort on their part. No DM worth shit wants to spend hours and hours putting that in his world. Play. A. Fucking. Elf. You need to EARN the privilege of playing another race, by proving you can competently play a normal character first. You don't get the big boy toys until your prove you can be responsible for them

Alternatively chose a single fantasy race and everybody play that (say, dwarfs). It forces the players to create more interesting and nuanced characters since they can't fall back on "I'm the token elf/dwarf/were-zebra" personality that plagues games with many PC-race options. Unless the players are utter dullards then you shoud have fun as you explore all sorts of dwarfy concepts beyond "Axebeard McBeardaxe the goblin kicker" and produce a variety of characters that while all being dwarfs are also indivduals. It's also way easier to dangle plot hooks that appeal to everyone and keep the party together if they have a strong shared background rather than being a bunch of snowflakes who all went into the freelance hero trade yesterday on a whim.

Humans-only is one way to escape people playing cardboard cutouts of non-humans instead of characters, but it is not the only way.

Here's how I decide what races I'll use in my campaigns:

- First I decide what kind of themes I want the campaign to have. What kind of story I'm trying to tell.

- Then I find a system and setting that fits with those themes. Sure, you could build your own setting, but that's rarely worth the effort involved.

- Now I just use the races that come with that system/setting. I've yet to be in a position where adding extra races, or removing included ones, adds anything significant to the campaign.

Tell your players to decide on a (non-OP) race and roll with whatever they come to the table with.

Red, white, black, yellow.