D&D 5E What is the appeal of the weird fantasy races?

[Snarf Zagyg]

Heh, actually Star Trek was my other thought for how the most popular nonhuman races are the boneable ones.

I know.

Personally I'm offended by those people who keep saying that humans can't be the freaks.

To paraphrase Rick James, Captain Kirk was a superfreak, superfreak, he got superfreaky.

 

[oreofox]

Where do they fall on the Captain Kirk scale?

Harkness Test might be a better judge.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Can you give an example of how a group could force the DM to do anything? I mean, they could leave HIS game and he would be alone with HIS game, but if they stayed how could they force him to do what they want?

One obvious example was the Dungeon of Despair. The DM had spent hours constructing the thing and tended to like killer traps. The players noped out and chose to go in the other direction and run schemes of their own. Certainly vetoing the DM's choice for the next adventure.

It's also about being relatable to humans. The 1e/2e core races are much more relatable to humans, appearing mostly human with some minor physical differences. The more exotic races are far more different physically than those core PHB races, so a lot of people have a hard time relating to them.

Once again I say halflings. I find a dragonborn, a tiefling, or even a tabaxi, any of whom have more or less human physical limits whatever their skin is made of easier to relate to being one of than I do to a toddler-sized adult navigating round spaces intended for human sized creatures when the act of doing so is not meant to be a core focus of the game.

There is a reason why, despite the Tolkien influence and despite how long halflings have been part of core D&D Dragonborn and Tieflings are more popular.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Let's be honest, the real measure of a race's popularity is whether or not it would be weird if a human and the race in question did the horizontal tango. There's a reason half-elves have been in game so long, and it's not just Elrond.

Let's be honest. Humans will do the horizontal tango with just about anything that stands still long enough and are quite capable of normalising most things. As long as they either (a) have the right anatomy or even (b) hands and a mouth and are intelligent and willing and (c) aren't e.g. made of acid, have skin as poisonous as a tree-frog, and have some softness then it will be fine with many. And knowing humans I wouldn't put it past us to try to work things out with the tree-frog.

Which more or less means that shardminds are the only D&D race I can think of that are truly weird rather than merely kinky on this scale.

 

[TwoSix]

Let's be honest. Humans will do the horizontal tango with just about anything that stands still long enough and are quite capable of normalising most things. As long as they either (a) have the right anatomy or even (b) hands and a mouth and are intelligent and willing and (c) aren't e.g. made of acid, have skin as poisonous as a tree-frog, and have some softness then it will be fine with many. And knowing humans I wouldn't put it past us to try to work things out with the tree-frog.

Which more or less means that shardminds are the only D&D race I can think of that are truly weird rather than merely kinky on this scale.

Obviously, the only rule more important for D&D than Rule Zero is Rule 34.

 

[MGibster]

As long as they either (a) have the right anatomy or even (b) hands and a mouth and are intelligent and willing and (c) aren't e.g. made of acid, have skin as poisonous as a tree-frog, and have some softness then it will be fine with many. And knowing humans I wouldn't put it past us to try to work things out with the tree-frog.

What's wrong with poison and acid? I like the tingling sensation.

 

[Dausuul]

While I am firmly on the side of "curated setting where the DM picks a limited list of races," I am just as firmly on the side of "elves and dwarves and halflings deserve no special treatment." And in fact, I look a bit askance at a DM whose curated list of races is those three plus humans. Not that I would refuse to play in that game, but I'm much less likely to assume there has been careful thought put into the race options.

Official D&D will forever be chained to Tolkien's rotting corpse, and I have grudgingly accepted that, but I don't have to like it.

 

[MGibster]

Official D&D will forever be chained to Tolkien's rotting corpse, and I have grudgingly accepted that, but I don't have to like it.

You just won the award for most vivid description in a post award of the day.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

While I am firmly on the side of "curated setting where the DM picks a limited list of races," I am just as firmly on the side of "elves and dwarves and halflings deserve no special treatment." And in fact, I look a bit askance at a DM whose curated list of races is those three plus humans. Not that I would refuse to play in that game, but I'm much less likely to assume there has been careful thought put into the race options.

Official D&D will forever be chained to Tolkien's rotting corpse, and I have grudgingly accepted that, but I don't have to like it.

Well, yeah. Isn't it universally acknowledged that elves are terrible?

I mean, there's like, 5000 versions of them too. They're like cockroaches. I swear, it's like, "Oh, we just went into the slightly damp marshes. I guess there has to be a Slightly Damp Marsh Elf, eh?"

 

[TwoSix]

Well, yeah. Isn't it universally acknowledged that elves are terrible?

I've known too many elfophiles to believe it's close to universal.

Hell, 4 of my last 5 characters have been either elves or half-elves; I blame the joy that is the Elven Accuracy feat.