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Limiting races?

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
mycroftb
Feb 21, 2009 10:04:07 I'm working on my very first campaign world. Previously I've just run games in a generic world, but now I want to get down to some memorable specifics. I'm shamelessly stealing direct from one part of an early MMO called Dark Age of Camelot (just the flavor, no mechanics), which itself was loosely based on Norse Mythology.

On the surface, I'm having a little difficulty explaining some of the PHB races, specifically the half-elves and dragonborn. (I've tweaked and reflavored other races, including the tieflings as fire-dwarves, hahaha!) I'm planning on including a new race or two as well, to sorta make up for it.

My concern is, should I worry about not including PHB races? Are they that big a deal? For the full experience of D&D, should I strive for a way to include all the PHB options? Or would it be reasonable to ask my players to sacrifice a little to fit my vision?
#2
waegmund
Feb 21, 2009 10:48:10 You're the GM - if you like it and your players like it, you're doing it right. I've played in plenty of games where the choice of races is restricted to "human" and that's that, and I've run plenty of games with the same proviso.

So yeah, it doesn't much matter whether you allow people to play all the races from the PHB - tweak the races to fit your gameworld.
#3
disciple_of_juiblex
Feb 21, 2009 11:01:26 Limiting the players handbook might not be the best idea in my opinion. This is the source of where most players will get their information for starting. i hated as a player in 3.5 getting an idea, only to be shot down by the dm becuse it dident fit his world.

Do you have elves in you setting, if so then half elves might not be so hard to justify. If you dont perhaps they half evels are a type of human whos home was distroyed. now they are like gypsies of sorts, hardy travelers without a homeland trying to get by.

And as for the dragonborn well, i dont know much about dark age of C. but in norse mythology loki spawned several monsterous children. What if the dragon born where a decendent of one of his children who turned away from loki and embraced odin or thor, to explain their honor codes.

You could end up limiting the players, its not completly unreasonable to sacrifice a race or two for a setting, just make it clear to your players. Also be open to their ideas if they want to be something you hadent considered "what if my character is litteraly a half-dragon, then could i be a dragonborn?" or some such argument.
#4
palomon
Feb 21, 2009 15:17:27 The best answer for your question that I can think of is compromise with your players. You may have a group who doesn't mind that you got rid of some races, which is great. But the most important thing is to create a world that makes sense, even if it's imaginary. If you can't think of a backstory for a race, leave it out. Then, if one or more players wants to use that race, inform them that in order to do that they (and not you) have to come up with a suggestion of a good backstory for that race. You as the DM can always veto the backstory if you think it doesn't fit with your world. This way, you encourage creativity amongst your players, and you allow them to connect to the game world.
#5
angorath
Feb 21, 2009 15:42:50 If a player really wants to be one of the PHB races that you would rather not have, they could just be an individual, rather than one of many. So you could have one half-elf only in the world (the PC). This half-elf doesn't have to be biologically half-elf. Perhaps it's a human raised by elves (or vice versa), so it's been able to take on some elven/human attributes. Or it could be a human who was blessed by elves at birth, so it now has a longer lifespan, part-elven features and so on.
#6
GelatinousOctahedron
Feb 21, 2009 16:04:16 Talk with your players about it and be flexible.

In my group we usually restrict racial choices becuase the other two people who DM think it makes a lot more sense to the story and setting. In our current campaign were allowed to chose from halfings (who could be about half of all classes) genesai (who could be the other half), or humans (who could be any class). In our other campaign that we are doing we could pick from elves, dragonborn and about 4 races from the monster manual (minotaur, gnome, gnoll, and shifter) and be any class.

For several of our 3.5 campaigns everyone but one person had to be one race. We had a party of elves where I had just played an elf in the previous campaign so I got to be the half-giant. We played a party of humans where one person was a goblin.

I prefer not having any racial or class restrictions, but as long as there are some choice and variety from campaign to campaign it does not bother me much. If someone really wants to be a particular race then try to accomidate them. The key is that we decided that this was ok as a group.
#7
LordMorbien
Feb 21, 2009 16:07:28 I for one do not believe that all races belong in all settings; if some of the core races don't fit in your concept for your world design, don't feel bad about not including them, or reflavoring them to fit. I love Warforged, but I don't think they belong in Greyhawk, for example, any more than Gully Dwarves belong in Eberron. But if Warforged and Teiflings work with your setting, have fun. As long as you're up front with your players about what is or is not available as a PC race/class, then there should be little room for complaint.
#8
Aryxbez
Feb 21, 2009 17:28:27 Well since my campaign was from a 3.5, to a 4th edition one, not including certain races in my case was inevitable. I don't use the Dragonborn, Eladrin, nor the Tiefling races. However, the "dragonborn" could exist, just wouldn't be a race.

As after all, just because of a new edition, don't mean there's going to be a bunch of new races coming out of nowhere. As for eladrin, they could easily just be elves, just the more magically inclined of course.

For the most part, my group doesn't really have a problem with certain races not being used. Except for one of my Warlock players, which most Warlock feats are for Tieflings. Which in itself, is quite janked if ye ask me.

Anyways, if a DM don't wanna use a race, they don't have to, shouldn't be forced to. If somehow, it hurts the game's balance, then I say, said game didn't have that grand of balance to begin with. However, yes, if a player wants to be a race, they can come up with a compelling enough reason to convince the DM otherwise. However, usually it's not a problem, so long as others have said, have it be a unique sort of thing. That is, it's not a widely existing race with it's own culture, society and so forth.
#9
dirtyfrank
Feb 22, 2009 13:57:20 I personally would try to add in another race for each that I took out from the PHB.

If a player want to be a half-elf you could always make that player the first half-elf in existence. This would be a chance for great role-playing for such a character. They would be lost in the world trying to find their niche. Many would see the half-elf as an abomination and others would see it as a blessing.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 mycroftb Feb 21, 2009 10:04:07	I'm working on my very first campaign world. Previously I've just run games in a generic world, but now I want to get down to some memorable specifics. I'm shamelessly stealing direct from one part of an early MMO called Dark Age of Camelot (just the flavor, no mechanics), which itself was loosely based on Norse Mythology. On the surface, I'm having a little difficulty explaining some of the PHB races, specifically the half-elves and dragonborn. (I've tweaked and reflavored other races, including the tieflings as fire-dwarves, hahaha!) I'm planning on including a new race or two as well, to sorta make up for it. My concern is, should I worry about not including PHB races? Are they that big a deal? For the full experience of D&D, should I strive for a way to include all the PHB options? Or would it be reasonable to ask my players to sacrifice a little to fit my vision?
#2 waegmund Feb 21, 2009 10:48:10	You're the GM - if you like it and your players like it, you're doing it right. I've played in plenty of games where the choice of races is restricted to "human" and that's that, and I've run plenty of games with the same proviso. So yeah, it doesn't much matter whether you allow people to play all the races from the PHB - tweak the races to fit your gameworld.
#3 disciple_of_juiblex Feb 21, 2009 11:01:26	Limiting the players handbook might not be the best idea in my opinion. This is the source of where most players will get their information for starting. i hated as a player in 3.5 getting an idea, only to be shot down by the dm becuse it dident fit his world. Do you have elves in you setting, if so then half elves might not be so hard to justify. If you dont perhaps they half evels are a type of human whos home was distroyed. now they are like gypsies of sorts, hardy travelers without a homeland trying to get by. And as for the dragonborn well, i dont know much about dark age of C. but in norse mythology loki spawned several monsterous children. What if the dragon born where a decendent of one of his children who turned away from loki and embraced odin or thor, to explain their honor codes. You could end up limiting the players, its not completly unreasonable to sacrifice a race or two for a setting, just make it clear to your players. Also be open to their ideas if they want to be something you hadent considered "what if my character is litteraly a half-dragon, then could i be a dragonborn?" or some such argument.
#4 palomon Feb 21, 2009 15:17:27	The best answer for your question that I can think of is compromise with your players. You may have a group who doesn't mind that you got rid of some races, which is great. But the most important thing is to create a world that makes sense, even if it's imaginary. If you can't think of a backstory for a race, leave it out. Then, if one or more players wants to use that race, inform them that in order to do that they (and not you) have to come up with a suggestion of a good backstory for that race. You as the DM can always veto the backstory if you think it doesn't fit with your world. This way, you encourage creativity amongst your players, and you allow them to connect to the game world.
#5 angorath Feb 21, 2009 15:42:50	If a player really wants to be one of the PHB races that you would rather not have, they could just be an individual, rather than one of many. So you could have one half-elf only in the world (the PC). This half-elf doesn't have to be biologically half-elf. Perhaps it's a human raised by elves (or vice versa), so it's been able to take on some elven/human attributes. Or it could be a human who was blessed by elves at birth, so it now has a longer lifespan, part-elven features and so on.
#6 GelatinousOctahedron Feb 21, 2009 16:04:16	Talk with your players about it and be flexible. In my group we usually restrict racial choices becuase the other two people who DM think it makes a lot more sense to the story and setting. In our current campaign were allowed to chose from halfings (who could be about half of all classes) genesai (who could be the other half), or humans (who could be any class). In our other campaign that we are doing we could pick from elves, dragonborn and about 4 races from the monster manual (minotaur, gnome, gnoll, and shifter) and be any class. For several of our 3.5 campaigns everyone but one person had to be one race. We had a party of elves where I had just played an elf in the previous campaign so I got to be the half-giant. We played a party of humans where one person was a goblin. I prefer not having any racial or class restrictions, but as long as there are some choice and variety from campaign to campaign it does not bother me much. If someone really wants to be a particular race then try to accomidate them. The key is that we decided that this was ok as a group.
#7 LordMorbien Feb 21, 2009 16:07:28	I for one do not believe that all races belong in all settings; if some of the core races don't fit in your concept for your world design, don't feel bad about not including them, or reflavoring them to fit. I love Warforged, but I don't think they belong in Greyhawk, for example, any more than Gully Dwarves belong in Eberron. But if Warforged and Teiflings work with your setting, have fun. As long as you're up front with your players about what is or is not available as a PC race/class, then there should be little room for complaint.
#8 Aryxbez Feb 21, 2009 17:28:27	Well since my campaign was from a 3.5, to a 4th edition one, not including certain races in my case was inevitable. I don't use the Dragonborn, Eladrin, nor the Tiefling races. However, the "dragonborn" could exist, just wouldn't be a race. As after all, just because of a new edition, don't mean there's going to be a bunch of new races coming out of nowhere. As for eladrin, they could easily just be elves, just the more magically inclined of course. For the most part, my group doesn't really have a problem with certain races not being used. Except for one of my Warlock players, which most Warlock feats are for Tieflings. Which in itself, is quite janked if ye ask me. Anyways, if a DM don't wanna use a race, they don't have to, shouldn't be forced to. If somehow, it hurts the game's balance, then I say, said game didn't have that grand of balance to begin with. However, yes, if a player wants to be a race, they can come up with a compelling enough reason to convince the DM otherwise. However, usually it's not a problem, so long as others have said, have it be a unique sort of thing. That is, it's not a widely existing race with it's own culture, society and so forth.
#9 dirtyfrank Feb 22, 2009 13:57:20	I personally would try to add in another race for each that I took out from the PHB. If a player want to be a half-elf you could always make that player the first half-elf in existence. This would be a chance for great role-playing for such a character. They would be lost in the world trying to find their niche. Many would see the half-elf as an abomination and others would see it as a blessing.