Generic, “adaptable” Humans in TTRPG settings, especially fantasy settings, is a sign that the writer of same doesn’t actually understand how diverse groups in the world work, or how to examine a presumed default thoughtfully. As such, they make me deeply, ragingly angry. I may be at the point where I refuse to play or run a setting that does this. If the rules set it up that way, I will hack them before engaging.
— Rabbit (@caudelac) November 24, 2019
So as a for instance, in 5e if all humans were essentially variant, but with feats and skills that represent their regional culture, would that fit more with what you’d want to see?
— Dan Dillon 👥 (@Dan_Dillon_1) November 24, 2019
In my game, everything is variant. Each race/ancestry gets A Thing, including humans, who in my game, have limited stats too (+1 con, and +1 to either int or wis), and get to pick 1 feat. There is also a version of each that has more “traditional”/additional features.But the base approach, which I've seen a lot here, is almost accidentally more not-okay, because it dives deeper on only humans get to have individuality and unique cultures, and everyone else is a lumpen monolith, which is a whole other part of the problem.
— Rabbit (@caudelac) November 24, 2019
I’m pretty sure that Waterdhavian elves, humans, dwarves, halflings, et al have way more in common than they do with anyone of their own nominal group in Rashemen, for example. I get you. Was just using existing 5e human mechanics as an example of a different way to do racial stats in general.
— Dan Dillon 👥 (@Dan_Dillon_1) November 24, 2019
I would be hesitant to give cultures bonuses but that is largely so people can run games in their own world rather than in the cultures for the world I cooked up. I am fine with divorcing bonuses from specific races tho At first glance that approach is kind of a design nightmare.
It’s very difficult not to create a tiny number of “best” options and all the rest are traps.
— Dan Dillon 👥 (@Dan_Dillon_1) November 24, 2019
It also creates a ton of DM work if they want to use that approach in any other setting.
Note: I’m thinking through the approach and it’s challenges, not discounting it as a viable one.
— Dan Dillon 👥 (@Dan_Dillon_1) November 24, 2019
I’d say that the present design approach in D&D has resulted in a bunch of super samey settings, because the default is unquestioned, and the racial bonuses carry a bunch of setting weight. I see the value of customized racial bonuses and traits that differentiate cultures.
I’m just thinking through how to approach it but also make it generally useful, without just being a melange of traits everyone picks out of, that are either ribbons or a system mastery puzzle.
— Dan Dillon 👥 (@Dan_Dillon_1) November 24, 2019
One of my favorite parts of the Al-Qadim setting is the shift in meaningful difference between city-dweller vs nomad, rather than between races.
Elf and dwarf al-hadar have more in common with each other than with al-badia of the same race. That said, there was no mechanical difference between them, it was all down to roleplay and flavor.
Even the different cities/city-states of Zakhara are pretty different from one another. We used “background feats” in 3e to model that.
— Dan Dillon 👥 (@Dan_Dillon_1) November 24, 2019
That said, there was no mechanical difference between them, it was all down to roleplay and flavor.
Even the different cities/city-states of Zakhara are pretty different from one another. We used “background feats” in 3e to model that.
— Dan Dillon 👥 (@Dan_Dillon_1) November 24, 2019
Or you could just play pathfinder 1st edition that has all of the above.
I recommend looking at how Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay does it’s large variety of human cultures. You have a base human package with differing skill packages depending on not only nation, but also province.
DnD races are a lot like real races. Here’s how it works: Every single person on planet Earth is a human. If we had Orcs on planet Earth, they would be Orcs. Elves would be Elves. Etc., Etc. Now a human from a lineage of humans that have developed for millennia in conditions not like those on planet Earth may not be your average human, like if they were from Mars. Lower gravity, more solar radiation, entirely alien flora and fauna to eat, they might be considered completely different from the average. They would be a variant human race, Martian. Imagining that a person of one continental decent is totally removed from a person of another continental decent and would have some special variant applied to them it’s asinine. Humans as we know them are all the same race, and this reflects the way DnD treats them. Nearly identical biology equals nearly identical racial features. Now, a DM wanting to apply special characteristics to whatever race of creature in their Homebrew world based on where they are from is still within the spirit of the game, and can create a more varied and explorative world. Treating races in DnD like we treat cultural differences in the real world is not. That’s what backstory and backgrounds are for.
So is the problem that they did away with sub races? I use sub races in my campain and if you choose not to pick one you can go generic and just receive the base bonus and more work on background to do as a player, I tend to do a lot of old school stay like sub races of elves being wood elf, high elf, ECT… They may be named something else as Eldari and such dependent on the setting… Sometimes I allow Kender. Sometimes I don’t. A lot depends on my players and their play style. I try to stay adaptive to accommodate them, if I have a lot of Jack and slash players that’s cool I do a lot of dungeons and battles with a little rp mixed in.. if I have a few rp heavy players I build a deeper storyline. It’s easy once you learn to gm in an adaptive style you can get a base idea of a campaign but need to let it flow where it may, be rdy to play off the cuff, if you spent a week in a dungeon and they walk by the entrance, make a situation that brings them back their again and again until they delve into it.
The solution is to play Pathfinder, the best RPG system out there.
1, magic. In d&d, nothing evolved. everything is intelligent design, and hard determination. Elves are elves, dwarves are dwarves, because they were created by gods to be what and how they are by magic.
2, perspective. The reason non human races have static advantages and cultures is because they are, in a very real way, defined entirely by the ways that they are different from humans.
3, xenos. Races in d&d are not like races in humanity. Fantasy races are basicly aliens that share a planet. Some can cross breed, some cant, but while an asian person and a aboriginal austrailian have basicly identical brains, d&d races are going to have their own individual neural anatomy. We humans, most of us, arent even really equipped to relate with people of another gender. Imagine trying to understand why dwarves do what they do?
Its just not feasable for a human to assume to know why all elves know how to use longswords and bows. It is simply so.
If you give Humans different cultures with different stats, you’d need to do it for every race; elves, dwarves, halflings etc. Sounds like a lot of work and I would not want to be in that person’s shoes, but if someone is willing to do the legwork… why not?