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

[Micah Sweet]

It often does not get to that level of specificity but it gets mentioned that centaurs have difficulty in underground settings when you get PC stats and a decent discussion of them as a race. Specifics have often been left for a DM ruling.

Basic D&D's PC 1 Creature Crucible Tall Tales of the Wee Folk:

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2e Complete Book of Humanoids under Special Disadvantages:

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In 3.0 Savage Species does not mention it in their column of PC class stats or the two paragraphs of racial discussion.

In 3.5 the Monster Manual does not mention it either in their centaurs as PCs section of their stat block.

My understanding is that in 5e, as referenced in a post above, when they get PC stats (in Theros?) they are made medium and can climb but have penalties when doing so. There was a long thread about it at the time. This seems to allow centaurs to act in typical adventures similar to other PCs in ways that purely narratively you might not expect them to be able to while still having a little mechanical impact.

Right. It is yet another gamist conceit.

 

[Reynard]

Right. It is yet another gamist conceit.

Didn't you just spend the last couple days in this thread arguing for the inclusion of gamist elements for races?

 

[Micah Sweet]

Didn't you just spend the last couple days in this thread arguing for the inclusion of gamist elements for races?

No. I am arguing for mechanical simulation elements, to represent things that exist in the setting. The centaur thing is designed to simplify play, it doesn't simulate anything in the world.

 

[Voadam]

No. I am arguing for mechanical simulation elements, to represent things that exist in the setting. The centaur thing is designed to simplify play, it doesn't simulate anything in the world.

Good explanation of your position.

For the 5e centaur thing though I would say it is a compromise position, allowing them to climb but slowly allows the difficulty of scaling stuff with a horse lower body to be partially simulated in the world with a mechanical impact without causing significant problems for the group play aspects.

 

[Baron Opal II]

I could be misreading some folks, but this thread sure makes it seem like most posters do not care about their characters beyond the mechanics. they aren't interested in the lore surrounding their choice of race, or how it impacts play beyond when they get bonuses or penalties. I am legitimately surprised.

Once more for the cheap seats: I was showing games that have extremely limited mechanics as a counterpoint to the notion that races need a robust set of mechanics to gamify all the things that make them dwarfy or whatever.

How different? Norse people are generally different than southeast Asian people. Should they have mechanical differences?

The Empire of Thule has been enjoying a calm after 30 years of hard battle and conquest. Through tactical excellence, strong esprit de corps, and strange good fortune, they have conquered the lands surrounding the Bolor Sea. Their emperor, Tavus the Blue Lion, is currently eyeing surrounding lands debating furthering his holdings after a time of peace. Excellent shipwrights, their merchants sail through the Dogged Channel past the Broken Lands, a collection of islands that are rumored to be but the tops of mountains of a sunken kingdom. The famous good fortune of these people is shown by the Northern Lions, a section of Imperial culture that has the remit to travel freely through and out of Thule. They often take risks that others find foolhardy and yet survive to tell the tale. Their presence in the lands of the Six Kingdoms is worrisome; are they scouts for the Blue Lion or simply meddlesome adventurers?

The Sunaya dwell south of the Ring of Fire, the barrier of scorched deserts and steamy seas that ring the globe. Rarely are they seen in the lands of the Six Kingdoms as they must go through the high passes of the Roof of the World mountain range. There the air is thin yet cool. This alone prevents many Sunaya with wanderlust from travelling northeastward as they are more accustomed to severe heat and humidity of the jungles south of the Ring. Curiously, much of their metalwork is based in brass rather than iron. The clime attacks iron viciously causing items to rust quickly. Brass resists the corrosion to a much higher degree. Often, a typical sword would be worthless in a month without constant care and maintenance. Many of those who do make the trek over the mountain passes are from the Golden Mantel clan. Their clan specializes in the many alloys of brass, bronze, and copper. Their warriors are usually armored with shining coats of brazen mail burnished to golden gleam. When encountered they seem quite gregarious, some presenting gifts of brass bells, flowers, or other baubles. The local smiths have some concern, however, as conversations drift towards questioning on their secrets of ironwork.

* * * * *

Is that enough to generate interest just on lore? What kind of characters would you make? What differentiation would you expect in play if you chose one over the other? What mechanical differences would you need to make them sufficiently different from one another? (For those other than Reynard)

 

[CreamCloud0]

The Empire of Thule has been enjoying a calm after 30 years of hard battle and conquest. Through tactical excellence, strong esprit de corps, and strange good fortune, they have conquered the lands surrounding the Bolor Sea. Their emperor, Tavus the Blue Lion, is currently eyeing surrounding lands debating furthering his holdings after a time of peace. Excellent shipwrights, their merchants sail through the Dogged Channel past the Broken Lands, a collection of islands that are rumored to be but the tops of mountains of a sunken kingdom. The famous good fortune of these people is shown by the Northern Lions, a section of Imperial culture that has the remit to travel freely through and out of Thule. They often take risks that others find foolhardy and yet survive to tell the tale. Their presence in the lands of the Six Kingdoms is worrisome; are they scouts for the Blue Lion or simply meddlesome adventurers?

The Sunaya dwell south of the Ring of Fire, the barrier of scorched deserts and steamy seas that ring the globe. Rarely are they seen in the lands of the Six Kingdoms as they must go through the high passes of the Roof of the World mountain range. There the air is thin yet cool. This alone prevents many Sunaya with wanderlust from travelling northeastward as they are more accustomed to severe heat and humidity of the jungles south of the Ring. Curiously, much of their metalwork is based in brass rather than iron. The clime attacks iron viciously causing items to rust quickly. Brass resists the corrosion to a much higher degree. Often, a typical sword would be worthless in a month without constant care and maintenance. Many of those who do make the trek over the mountain passes are from the Golden Mantel clan. Their clan specializes in the many alloys of brass, bronze, and copper. Their warriors are usually armored with shining coats of brazen mail burnished to golden gleam. When encountered they seem quite gregarious, some presenting gifts of brass bells, flowers, or other baubles. The local smiths have some concern, however, as conversations drift towards questioning on their secrets of ironwork.

* * * * *

Is that enough to generate interest just on lore? What kind of characters would you make? What differentiation would you expect in play if you chose one over the other? What mechanical differences would you need to make them sufficiently different from one another? (For those other than Reynard)

this is lore, but what does it have to do with their species? i could slap this on any of em interchangably.

 

[Cergorach]

Kind of depends on what I would want to play... If everything functions as a human mechanically anyway, you could play anything. A Kitsune? A Minotaur? A Centaur. Or just one of the classic Elf/Dwarf/Gnome/Human? What would I be in the mood for?

These days I often play something human adjacent, because it's simple to (role)play when you don't play too often and just don't have the time to (keep) investing in something more exotic. When we started the current campaign, if we played 10x year it was a lot, these days we play once every two weeks (or less), but even then 2+ weeks of work and other stuff leaves very little bandwidth for playing something complex.

It also depends on how the DM brings it, if brought like the OP brought it, I might be contrary and play a Giff or suggest we all play Tortles...

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

a dwarf Druid, living in the space between mountains and desert who fights iagainst the Mantel clan as that clan pilfers and destroys the dwarven ancestral lands for their minerals.

 

[Baron Opal II]

this is lore, but what does it have to do with their species? i could slap this on any of em interchangably.

One are orcs and the other are halflings.
One are humans and the other are gnomes.
One are water genasi and the other are fire genasi.
Both are humans.

You tell me.

 

[CreamCloud0]

One are orcs and the other are halflings.
One are humans and the other are gnomes.
One are water genasi and the other are fire genasi.
Both are humans.

You tell me.

so you mean, your entire block of text was irrelevant to a discussion on species lore? because it's not about the lore of the species themselves.