D&D General Race Has No Mechanics. What do you play?

i think the question is meant to be would you pick them over a basic human if all three play exactly the same having no impact on play? everything is the same medium creature with no traits just a different skin.
I know. However, even without the game mechanics, no one would ever mistake a centaur for a human. The moment the GM or a player narratively describes the centaur to everyone else, they'll know that they are different. And once you note the differences, you will begin to wonder what they can and can't do.
 

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Micah Sweet

Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
The narrative is having a conversation and telling a story. Have you ever heard the expression "don't let the truth get in the way of telling a good story"? That's narrative.

Mechanics are rolling for an outcome and using modifiers. You can't send people to Mars just by talking about it....you need a whole lot of mechanics.

Narrative = words
Mechanics = numbers

THIS thread is simply asking if race/species gave you NO numbers; which one would you pick?
Everything else is just people talking about other things.

Have a great day!!!
The OP said nothing about numbers.
 

Micah Sweet

Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
Don't ask me... ask @Micah Sweet . They are the one who suggested that ancestry material was already on DMs Guild (which presumably included what you wanted, otherwise why even bother bringing it up?) You both should be speaking with each other on this, I have nothing to do with it.
Except that you made a claim and I refuted it.

@HaroldTheHobbit : on Drivethru RPG (not DMsGuild) there is a series of documents greatly expanding species options and mechanics for 5e. Searching ancestry 5e should find them, and I'm sure that's not all there is.
 

KYRON45

Hero
The OP said nothing about numbers.
So you are saying that mechanical attributes i.e. +2 con for whatever race gets that....are not about numbers?

The OP clearly asks: "Would race being cosmetic only be a turn off for you?"

What sir are you defining (so many people redefining things around here) as mechanics?
 

Micah Sweet

Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
I know. However, even without the game mechanics, no one would ever mistake a centaur for a human. The moment the GM or a player narratively describes the centaur to everyone else, they'll know that they are different. And once you note the differences, you will begin to wonder what they can and can't do.
And if the answer is, "nothing at all different from anyone else", the whole setting is going to feel very off to me.
 

Micah Sweet

Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
So you are saying that mechanical attributes i.e. +2 con for whatever race gets that....are not about numbers?

The OP clearly asks: "Would race being cosmetic only be a turn off for you?"

What sir are you defining (so many people redefining things around here) as mechanics?
Stat bonuses are not the only racial mechanics. Plenty of mechanics are about being able to do something not otherwise possible (darkvision is the most obvious example) as opposed to adding to a die roll.
 

Reynard

Legend
Supporter
And if the answer is, "nothing at all different from anyone else", the whole setting is going to feel very off to me.
Well, the thing isn't "not different" it is "without bonus or penalty." A centaur may have to climbs stairs very differently than a 2' tall gnome, but as long as they both do so without any sort of penalty it is still just cosmetic.
 


Well, the thing isn't "not different" it is "without bonus or penalty." A centaur may have to climbs stairs very differently than a 2' tall gnome, but as long as they both do so without any sort of penalty it is still just cosmetic.
For a centaur to climb the stairs, the stairs would have to be built to their standards. They might not be able to climb stairs built for bipeds.
 


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