There's humans, fair enough. Some people just want to play as themselves.
Then there's thin humans with pointy ears. They seem superfluous.
Then there's short, heavyset humans with beards. They also seem superfluous.
Then there's even shorter humans.
Then there's similarly short humans with a penchant for being annoying and causing explosions.
Then there's ugly humans with greenish skin.
Why not have the choice be between humans and races that are more distinct?
Look at this picture right there and answer me why shouldn't people who play gnomes be treated as subhuman
As a general rule, humans are terrible at roleplaying things that are too far removed from the human condition.
In practice, when playing a weird race, what you'll end up with is playing a weirdly shaped human, whom the GM will occasionally have to remind of whatever limitations were dreamed up for the race.
Because nobody plays gnomes, so the category would be meaningless.
Because you've seen them before. The traditional roster is in almost every fantasy setting, so you're exposed to it a lot more than something more exotic, therefore it becomes boring.
Races ought to be diverse. When someone thinks about that race, you dont want their first thought to be the stereotype. For example when i think dwarves i think of gruff mining dudes who like to fight. Orcs are primitive warriors. Elves are haughty and know lots of magic.
Besides that, a race ought to exist in a much different way than humans, so that it isnt just a copy. Some main factor about their being must be completely different, but still allow for a level of same-ness. Recognizable.
Khajiit and Devils from K6BD are the only fantasy races i can think of off the top of my head that i like
How do you feel about reptilian races? E.g. lizardfolk, yuan-ti
Yuan-Ti are my favourite vaguely orientalist demihuman race
You get to do the Yellow Peril guilt free, because they're totally snakemen
This. In truth, the only way we can conceive sapiency is by looking at ourselves. This is why the cultural approach to roleplaying is more interesting than the racial approach. Say what you want about The Elder Scrolls, but I think it's really cool to make even Humans different from each other according to their region and cultural, local traits.
I disagree. If you're using dwarves, elves or orcs or whatever, you want to make use of the stereotypes.
When you present your world to the player, you could either go "That guy's a Ker'chak, his race are long lived, with pointy ears and they are good at magic" or you can go "That guy's an elf" and convey the same amount of information to just about anyone familiar with fantasy cliches. GMing is all about painting pictures with your words, and using shortcuts like that helps a lot by using what your player already knows. Standard races are good precisely because they allow you to convey a certain image with one word.
If you make your elves, dwarves or whatever too different, you're condemning your players to have to remind themselves each time you bring them up that "Oh right, these dvarwes are different, they breather underwater." Similarly, if you make a lot of unique races, your players will have to remember each and every one of that and what's so different about them, and that can take them out of the game.
If I'm having non-human races in a game, I usually limit unique races to 1, if at all, and I instead focus on having well defined cultures for any other races I choose to include.
In the end, I think including something just because it's unique is a recipe for disaster. Good execution matters a lot more than originality. I'll take a well done dwarf over a shitty squid-man (or whatever) any day.
Agreed. So have a bunch of differet humans with super distinct cultures a la Hyboria, and/or have strange races like mantis people
...
well i definitely don't jump to any stereotypes, but i also don't have much experience with lizard races to begin with.
i realize i also forgot to explain what i meant by there being a main factor of the race that's different
with the examples i used earlier, i like khajiit because of their totally bonkers birth cycles thing. for k6bd devils, its the changing of colors and the concept of their masks in general.
both races you can look at and relate to. neither of them are completely alien. but they just have completely different rules to their lives than humans do.
elves WOULD be interesting if people actually played with the immortality more. (not saying it's not done, just not in any of the media i've seen)
half elf is sexiest
This - it been what 40 plus years of this set
>plebs pandering to plebs
With a lazy-ass negative attitude like that you won't be able to do it, certainly.
Because you can't discern complex emotions from creatures who have no human facial expressions or mannerisms.
Dumbass.
You won't be able to do it either. You'll certainly try and suffer for it.
I speak not from negativity, but from experience.
It's because everyone knows there are differences between the races in real life, but it's fallen out of vogue to talk about them, so we project it onto our fantasy games.
>waah I wanna play gnolls/lizardmen/dragons/birdpeople
you're all the same, the only thing you do is focus on one aspect of your chosen not!-animal race and then play some generic character.
There should be some kind of trope for these guys who just want to play beastfolk.
If I told you about a race of bug-beetle men, you'd just say they were 'humans with hard exoskeletons'.
Either they're all humans or none of them are, faggot. Stop making these shitty threads.
>Boring
to each his own I guess, I prefer the simple standard fantasy races.
I find PC who pick special snowflake races to be boring.
>look at me, I'm a celestial otherworld crystaline catfolk!
Not OP, but I would actually prefer just humans with a detailed culture/background system rather than a bunch of same-y generic races.
That's a terrible fucking argument from the laziest of hacks. There's examples in every single medium of entertainment that have weird non-human characters and find ways to make the audience care about them.
And fuck if games aren't the EASIEST fucking way to do it since the player has an inherent connection to the character they play.
Well ok, it does generally make looting and equipment easier when most races can share their stuff.
Yeah...this and other things are why I had to give up on swtor, years before it came out.
4 starting classes, and they couldn't be arsed to come up with more than two per side that weren't Jedi/sith. Then on top of that they just shoved them into caster/melee roles via their shitty EU lore.
>find ways to make the audience care about them.
These ways usually involve making them essentially funny looking humans. We make humans care about non-human characters by projecting human emotions and characteristics on them.
I'm pretty sure in rpg's its up to the players and the dm to expand on the background. If you're playing generic stuff with no depth that's entirely on you for being an unimaginative hack.
That's fine if it's humans. Personally I'm just sick of playing with people who insist on playing a character like
>Ok guys I'm a level 3 Dark Suli/tiefling mix demon-kin banished from the 9th plane of hell - fighter, Nice to meet you guys!
Gnome players should be sent to death camps. Same goes for goblins, pixies, etc.
This guy is pretty much right.
Khajiit have been mentioned a couple times in this thread as an interesting race. But really they're just the same as the elves and humans in the setting, except they come in wider variety of exotic covers. Literally.
What about someone playing, I dunno, an Aarakocra with a backstory they've put significant effort into?
Yeah, but most games dont provide mechanical bonuses for background to support that kind of creativity. I try my best to support my players, but an elf who was raised by orcs is just as elf-y on paper as one raised by elves. Its a flaw inherent in D&D. Thanks for taking the absolute worst interpretation of what I wrote and running with it.
What does being an Aarakocra add?
The ability to fly
>elves taller than humans
>orcs taller than humans
>gnomes taller than halflings
This is how you identify shitty art.
Non-human races are supposed to be like humans. They're supposed to make us think of aspects of humanity.
I suppose that's too much effort for many people.
To the character. What does it add to the character?
most of the settings I've cooked up that keep the traditional fantasy races I usually put a fair amount of effort in making the differences between Humans and the Demi-Human races very obvious, enough that it'd be almost impossible to mistake a midget human for a Dwarf or Halfling
It would depend on the backstory
If it doesn't fit the setting or campaign you can go ahead and make a new character or just go home. That's my rule.
People asking me if they can be uncommon races in a setting where they are virtually non-existent and super goddamn rare.
Give me an example of a story you can tell with an Aarakocra that you cant tell with a human.
Having the eggs of your young smashed by an evil wizard before they could hatch, making you swear vengeance and a ban on omelettes within the party
>suffer for it
Worst case: non-human comes of as too human or as a cliche version of his race. Oh my god, how can we endure such unbearable suffering? Clearly we must refrain, because one more flat character would break us forever.
Seriously there is not more on the line than for any other character concept one might be inexperienced at.
Than make them yourself. You're just whining about your lack of creativity. Oh this elf was raised by orcs? Then you're going to have negatives applied to your charisma and intelligence because orc tribes don't care about hygiene and orcs aren't really known for their intelligence. Unless you were taken in by the clans shaman or wise orc, though you sill probably won't be a genius. You've also probably lived a pretty active lifestyle up to know so you'll get bonuses to strength and endurance. etcetera
Was that so fucking hard?
Surely without omelettes we shall never defeat his evil. The quest is doomed without the protein.
The sorrow of loosing natural flight.
Because diversity meme and race isn't real.
Other races aren't weird enough if they all get along and are bffs.
The ability to just casually pick Dwarfish as a language means meeting a Dwarf isn't important.
What if they were inscrutable underground dwellers, you never see their face and they refuse to look upon the surface. Randomly they will burst through a basement and just murder everyone inside for completely unknown reasons.
What if Elves hunted humans for sport because they viewed them as animals.
Basically by enabling player choice you've necessarily diluted any difference.
Delicious mice and other rodents shall give the party all the protein it requires!
Being able to see in ultraviolet? The pain of not being able to smile? Having to deal with talons and molting feathers?
It's a combination of a few factors.
Many of those are relatively classic (as in, Tolkein did them), so they're considered standard.
The standard race options any given game is going to have in the core book are typically going to be fairly bland, so that the basic options are covered (and if you want something really weird there's splatbooks).
They're used in a lot of stuff, so you're used to seeing them and there's no novelty factor like the less common ones have.
And, of course, lots of people play them simply as "regular humans but with some stat differences and a few stereotypes," which makes them much less interesting than they should be.
There may be a few other factors, but those seem like the big ones.
Picking exotic races is just a crutch for bad roleplayers.
So it is a crutch, but those are just humans with rubber masks that add nothing and those who play them fail at it anyway?
SOME OF US LIKE EXPLORING EXOTIC MINDS MR. FUNPOLICE.
I like playing reptilians because I too hate cold weather and don't move much in it
So, I'm working on a homebrew system. The palyable races are Humans, Dragons, Nephs (Dragon/non-dragon crossbreeds that are hideous abominations and crimes against nature. They have stone-like skin, few if any orifices, and few internal organs) constructs (basically magic robots) and hairless cat people that sunburn easy but have magic ears and magic tails. They're rather wrinkly too.
What do you think?
but how "exotic" is exotic? it feels very setting-dependent; if you're going full sword-and-sorcery then even playing an elf could seem suspect; but if you're going high-magic only the most esoteric of races could truly count as such.
Sounds good to me
What sort of dragons are they? Eastern? Western? Wyverns?
>Randomly they will burst through a basement and just murder everyone inside for completely unknown reasons.
>What if Elves hunted humans for sport because they viewed them as animals.
Jesus christ, you're the most fucking creatively bankrupt person on earth.
Careful with robots and golem likes, be warry of anything that removes natural needs. You sacrifice drive and roleplaying potential.
Of course I was channeling obvious references.
The point is there are no functional differences between the races in say 5e.
I agree, a big part of my games is the players making sure their characters have enough ass-wiping material for when nature calls.
You are both right. Playing non-humans is a crutch 90% of the time. The best settings dont have playable non-humans.
>personally
>Believe that Dwarves are by far the most bullshit race because of how lazy it is - drunk muscled midgets haha lol how randumb xDD
>Elves are semi bullshit - Look like humans, but have different enough features for them to not be human because lol magic
>Half-Orcs/Orcs are needed but are also bullshit because you needed a non-specific savage race.
>Halflings and Gnomes are literally just children
So what you're saying is that we can't pick non-traditional races because they'd end up being "too human", but according to the Biodrivel in that you agree with things like dwarves and elves are alright because they're "too human" and thus relatable?
I really don't understand the hangups with allowing unusual races to just be "humans with hats/costumes". Just let the damn player play what they want. Not everyone starts out as some Shakespearean actor who can improve a completely foreign entity. If you're so wrapped up in needing the idiosyncrasies of these FICTIONAL races to be justified, you just turn into the type of curmudgeon who ends up making stale copypasta everyone pokes fun at like .
Western, but smaller, about 7 foot at the shoulder. Most breathe fire when they reach maturity. There are several sub-breeds, just like how humans and dogs have sub-breeds, some with longer bodies, larger wings, etc.
The constructs require fuel. They can turn some living things into fuel but not everything. Nephs I haven't thought that through. I know they need to eat and sleep, but I have no idea what. Maybe have them use the same fuel as the constructs?
thanks!
D-do you have pocket dragons?
No ,but that sounds like a fun idea for a subspecies. I might use it. Would probably be weaker than regular dragons but with s shitload more Agility.
Maybe you could have doggo-sized dragons too
i'm this guyAnd I'm fine with exotic races, and I'm fine with them being played human like. What I'm saying is that's what happens most of the time so don't whine about elves and dwarves for being to human like and boring.
Because they've been done to death. Elfs and dwarfs have been a staple of folklore since forever, and the "modern" Fantasy literature image of them has been around since least the 50s.
That's how it is in DnD cringelord, go back to tolkien cuck
People can easily pick and believe in non-human races in scifi worlds, something about it makes it more plausible and accepted.
>That's how it is in DnD cringelord
Wrong. Elves have been traditionally shorter to equal height with humans in D&D.
you always complain about the roster but the only races made to replace them are furries.
That's largely because the only people who complain about the standard fantasy race roster are furries who want to get off by playing an animalperson
I would happily fuck a gnome, though. Shortstacks are my fetish.
...
Because 90% of humans can't relate to something completely different than humans.
Imagine Star Wars with Luke being a Hutt. You think it would ever become popular?
Or Avatar with with intelligent giant ants instead of Navi.
There is no conspiracy to make traditional games politically correct. Characters in fiction and gaming communities simply change with respect to the latest cultural values. But you fedora-tipping cancerous fucks always blame imaginary SocJus boogeymen when people start hating you for the shit that you do. As long as you continue to refuse act like decent human beings, people will keep noticing.
But of course, you will keep blaming imaginary "SJWs", "poseurs" and "normies" when you the public hates you for the scum you are. And let's not even get started on how you all react to games becoming more popular and easily accessible.
Had a bad day, kid?
The traditional roster is only boring to you because you've seen it so many times. Go make something completely new and novel, instead of bitching about it.
The reason why humanoids are so popular (the human BUT) is that players (with the exception of furries, reddit users, and others of that ilk) are human themselves. It gives them something to relate to.
>most players are human with the exception of furries, reddit users, and others of that ilk
Kek
The realization aspect of portraying a traditionally recognized fantasy species is strong enough to warrant their continued inclusion in most 'mainstream' roleplay media.
There are obviously settings where outliers exist or compose the entire spectrum, but it takes a long concerted effort to shift the subconscious desire to 'belong' to some entrenched fantasy tradition.
This perception can and will change as the audience change based on their changing influences..
..so expect a Comoc-book hero-esque era in the future alongside it's counter-movement.
Did you read OP's post? What the hell are on about?
>That's how it is in DnD cringelord, go back to tolkien cuck
You actually flipped your flop, there, I think. Tolkien had elves being taller (and just generally better at absolutely everything) than humans, and orcs shorter. DND was the reverse, with bulky/strong orcs and elves being very small and slight.
>including half-elves and gnomes as core races
Because you are judging all those books by their covers.
You have humans, which are awesome. They are just like us, but us if we had to learn to survive and thrive in worlds with undead, demons and dragons.
There's near-immortal wild people who are awesome archers. Those who left the wild built crazy beautiful civilizations utilizing their long lives and really old civilizations. They have trouble relating to other races because they seem like children to the old elves, but at the same time elves are stuck in their ways and don't always see the forests for the trees.
There's the people who live in the mountains, they are small, but they are tough and heavy like boulders. They work very hard, they fight very hard, they drink very hard. They are honourable, loyal, and don't ever forget their own history, no matter how many goblins, orcs, and giants come to their doorsteps. Don't talk to a dwarf like you know the meaning of family or hard-work or adversity if you aren't one. And yet, they still survive and generally act awesomely.
There's tiny humans. Yeah, I agree these ones aren't great. They are always river gypsies, hobbit rip-offs, or basically city-slum pygmies.
...actually, on second thought, they aren't bad.
Then there's the little people with big heads who pull pranks, create amazing inventions, and love entertainment. They may not initially like you. In fact,they may initially fear you and your kind. They are a little skittish of outsiders. But if you can win them over, you have a hilarious, super-resourceful friend for the rest of your life.
Then you have the tusk-toothed, brutish people from beyond the frontiers. They are what you get when you take fearsome berzerker raiders and make them twice and strong, twice as tough, and they have monstrous, beast-like faces. And worst of all, they hate you and and see no need to keep your silly cities intact or any of your family alive.
>utilizing their long lives and really old _
histories*
>That's how it is in Pathfinder cringelord
fix'd that for you, newfriend
my favorite gotta be Iksar from everquest.
They are a reptillian race that isnt some dragon whatever, they are also not primitive.
they are very much evil but a civilized structured kind, i like that.
one mistake people make is that they think more alien equals better fantasy races.
This isnt correct, they should be relateable while not beeing human. that is the golden balance to strike in my opinion.
Playable races other than humans are dumb anyway. Will never allow that shit in any of my settings.
Just fluff them as loosely related hominids and call it a day
Because people like to roleplay as something that they can relate to. Most of the time, nobody wants to be a three-legged insectoid with a vagina for a mouth just because you want it to be different.
The real reason why it's like that is because the fantasy races look at human folklore, which half the time it's going to be a human with some special look. If you try too hard to make races that are completely distinct from mankind, you might just be giving yourself a sci-fi setting with magic and low-tech
Because the
>humans are super flexible and can do anything
-meme that makes all the other races just seem like human but X.
Were the non-human humanoid races too far off from what humans are, players would have a hard time playing them "correctly". And as far as I know, most players are not willing to study their character's racial and regional cultures just to "get it right".
To make a major distinction between the races requires information about those differences, more than just scratching the surface like for example in the 5E PHB. And even then, if the information isn't crucial rules-wise, most players wouldn't bother with it anyway.
Is this bait? I don't get it..
cus we've been doing this since the 80's
>not playing a gnome alchemist with mad scientist hair
Get your races from He-man!
We got mermen, beastmenand whiplashmen! shit, we even got cyborgs, spidermen, giants and some fucker with a skull for a face!