I don't really understand why people would want to play a non-core race. I've been perfectly happy playing mostly humans and the odd dwarf or elf myself, but I know other people feel differently and would hate being restricted to core - but I'd hate being the only standard race in a party of races that I don't even know the name of, let alone understand what they are.
Is there a way the needs of all players can be satisfied without making the whole game unsatisfying for any member of the group?
I'm the same OP
I hate when the only human and everyone else in my party is some fucking talking animal
There's a joke in my group that I must always play the token human, who rolls incredibly average stats for everything.
When you've seen the same humans, elves, dwarves, etc hundreds of times, and often are given no choice outside of them for so long, it's sometimes too tempting to just try something different because you're bored to tears of the same thing over and over.
>Is there a way the needs of all players can be satisfied without making the whole game unsatisfying for any member of the group?
Pick and choose who you play with.
There is nothing wrong with playing non-humans, there is also nothing wrong with playing humans, it all depends on the execution. I prefer playing humans because playing as a Paladin or a Cleric just feels more right when you're doing it as a human for me (and also because playing as a wolfgirl is both not an option and kind of weird)
I can get wanting to play humans all the time. However, what separates the core nonhuman races from noncore nonhuman races? Also, what about noncore human races?
Not everyone has that luxury.
I unironically love playing as human peasants.
It's normal to feel that way, but maybe not for the reasons you've listed. I don't think it's a problem of having noncore races, but that someone failed to communicate and your expectations of the game were betrayed. Work out the setting with everyone together before the campaign begins. Maybe the races everyone picked become the standard races in this setting, and it's great to mix things up a bit every once in a while, and if that happens it's everyone's duty to make sure everyone is on the same page. Even then, this might still not be your kind of game, which is okay, everyone has different tastes, but now you know to sit this one out before investing too much.
Well, when you play a game like DND your character creation bold down to only two significant choices. This tends to make all viable builds in the system really boring, a specially when a character can be described in two words most of the time... When one of those words is functionally limited to 3-5 choices in the core book, people want more options.
Now, if you want to try a different rpg, one that I feel strikes a good balance between too many random nonhuman and just enough is Agone. It's classless and uses a point buy system that is balanced between your attributes, skills, advantages, and spells, and it's has 12 playable nonhuman races, all with a clearly defined place in the world, and significant distinctions making most high fantasy character you can think of a viable build. If you play this game, you will very quickly learn the vagueries necessary to understand each of the races, because they are cosmological organized into 4 distinct groups (they are mostly just absorbed into human society, and don't really have their own civilizations anymore, with a few small exceptions).
>However, what separates the core nonhuman races from noncore nonhuman races?
Our overlords. If WotC doesn’t explicitly allow a race in the first printing of the Player’s Handbook of my preferred edition, it’s not core. So the only thing allowed at my tables is Tolkien-approved humanoids, though you can have them in any genderfluid orientation you want.
I don't think it's a game-to-game problem though. Most people express preferences for certain races even when not in a specific game, and will prefer those for making characters or whatever even outside a game proper.
How about more racially themed campaigns?
You are all Svirfneblin ninja defending your hidden underdark village.
A cabal of Kenku mages trying to get magic words to mimic?
Sea elf slaves trapped in an oasis plantation?
It would eliminate the odd (normal) one out factor.
All the races I play should be core.
>sea elf nigga's trying to escape the plantation
this unironically sounds like a ton of fun with the right group
I play token Orc/Drow/Wood elf as often as I can
I definitely understand non-core races, but I never got why so many fucking fags exist who want to play talking animals with weird names
>I don't really understand why people would want to play a non-core race.
The inability to understand differences in taste and preference is a clinical sign of autism, or worse, disassociation
The inability to understand that op didn't literally mean that he doesn't understand that people have different tastes and it's just an expression is probably also a sign of autism
My time on this board has led me to the conclusion that most OPs are indeed autistic and that retarded/empathically stunted. Otherwise they wouldn't be making shit threads all the time
There are different reasons someone would like to play a non-core race. The most common, in my opinion, are the next. To make a well built (mechanically speaking) character, since some races start with better stuff that suit a certain class better. The second one would be that they have a character idea that they like and it needs to use that non core race (for example, Alucard from castlevania in a Pathfinder campaign would be a dhampir something (dont know about his class)) The third option would be new and interesting roleplaying experience, if done well (for example roleplaying a tiefling or a aasimar will be different from roleplaying a elf, dwarf or human)
In my campaigns normally the players are allowed only a number of selectable races that make sense for the setting or region. Using the adventure paths as example, almost anything that has to do in Varisia, then almost any race is allowed, while a campaign in Cheliax will have a more limited number of playable races, because some make sense and others dont. For example, my brother wants to play a Goblin investigator in the War for the crown adventure path, but I keep telling him no because it doesnt make sense for the campaign and region.
"Standard" or "core" doesn't really mean anything outside "this race happened to be in this book." I can understand not wanting to play in a setting with a huge array of different intelligent races all running around- I, for one, don't like the worldbuilding burden that causes. The simple way of having a limited selection of races and still allowing players to pick what they want is just to ask players what races they want to play and then just make those the "standard" races of the setting For instance, if someone wants to play a gnoll and nobody wants to play an orc, it's easy enough to say "Okay, this setting just has gnolls instead of orcs."
I don't think the whole "not understanding what the other races are" thing is actually a problem. It's easy enough for someone to say "I'm playing a Goliath, they're basically these tribal half-giants who are really into athleticism." You can figure out the deeper intricacies about the race as the DM fleshes out the world and the player fleshes out his character. If it's really that big of an issue for you, you can always write stuff down.
>but I know other people feel differently and would hate being restricted