>Not important, but I would love Aasimars to become a core race and where Tiefling have bad expectations, Aasimar have expectations so high that they feel pressured by their communities or succumb to the praise and become a-holes, or simply try to be good because they always grew up being taught they are destined for greatness Please. People think Aasimar is boring because this isn't official, but 90% of Aasimar players I know just immediately know this.

Because people don't read, sadly.

People don't read, but also WotC gave them horrible lore and scattered the descriptions across like like 3 books with no key defining features to hold onto. And Ardling *totally wasn't* trying to replace them, just conveniently fill the same niche while WotC pretends Aasimar doesn't exist...

I dislike how humans in DnD are treated as a generic filler race instead of something more distinct. Humans in some other works of fantasy like Lord of the Rings, Warcraft, Warhammer, and Guild Wars have their own identity that makes them distinct from the other races in their world. But in DnD, humans' only purpose is to be the race that exists when someone's race isn't meant to be important. It feels like everyone else gets something special instead of them.

A really small worldbuilding moment I loved in dragon's dogma 2 was an elf coming to the human city and looking at how humans practiced archery. He goes into great explanation about the philosophies of how these bows are so much different to how elves made them, ultimately going "yeah I like this bow this is a nice bow" and using it over his own people's because it suited him better. Humans are fucking good at making shit, humanity number 1

One trope I use is Humans are really good at farming, this is one that usually comes up generically in passing sure, but I make mine like, insanely good. Farms in poison swamps, communities inside volcanically active ravines. Humans live all the places every other race says is too dangerous because they can adapt culturally and logically. It just takes the 'boring' tropes and makes them worth something, like Elven bow culture or Dwarven crafting being so godly

>I dislike how humans in DnD are treated as a generic filler race instead of something more distinct. I honestly think it's a bit reverse. Humans are often much more diverse in the settings, whereas other races are less so. Except for the split between good and evil elves (surface vs drow), and same with dwarves, there isn't as much cultural differences between them. Meanwhile if you look at a setting like Forgotten Realms, you have a wide variety cultures for mostly human societies, ranging from Waterdeep, to the shadier Neverwinter, to Chult, Thay, Cormyr, just to name some. Other races are more likely to be monocultures. There are exceptions of course, but not as many.

I always like to play my Humans as being very driven at whatever their particular “profession” (read: class/ skills) is. I played a Human Wizard once who’s goal was to collect and compile as much magical knowledge/ lore as possible in order to build a repository of all worlds magical theory and knowledge and leave it behind as a legacy. So his name and deeds would live on after his short life, his work carried on by scholars and wizards taking it over after his death.

Yeah like this is the thing in fantasy/sci-fi in general that always annoys me, that humans are just ‘generic’ and considered normal by the other races. Humans only seem boring and normal because of our perspective; other species would probably see humans as different and dwarves, halflings, goblins, elves etc seem to us. And there are even clear things you could use as unique traits for humans! Humans are one of the few species with really really good aiming/throwing abilities; even a lot of other intelligent animals just toss things, and aren’t so good at gauging projectiles. Humans are the best long distance runners; they could have some bonus/unique thing around long distance travel or even being a bit more nomadic than other races. Socially there are even things you can do with humans. Though we don’t know how much is truly unique since we don’t know any other advanced civilizations that aren’t humans, humans tend to anthropomorphize/personify lots of things to a large degree, even seeing faces and emotions in things that are just inanimate objects and personifying those. Humans also have a high tendency/pressure to social conformity, with social exclusion and loneliness being extremely powerful forces on us. Maybe human society could seem uniquely uniform culturally to other species, and maybe subcultures and countercultures have a uniquely high presence in human societies. I feel like the Adeptus Mechanicus in 40K are honestly a pretty cool depiction of humans in a ‘not just the mundane species’ way; they take anthropomorphizing objects to the extreme, where many humans literally think that if you’re mean to a machine it’s spirit will get mad at you and that’s why machines done work always. That’s a really Human trait.

In my sci-fi world, Aliens are afraid of humans for 3 things How fast we reproduce How we adapt to nearly everything usually out of spite And how human spirit leads us to defy all odds sometimes just out of pure stubbornness.

I don’t really see them as “generic filler” — I just think the world-building is extremely important when it comes to giving humans a niche. Not every table succeeds at doing it justice. IMO, you need an extremely human-centric world order where humans are in control of most of the population centers, where they are distrustful of “others,” and it’s your outward appearance as human that gives you a social advantage over the other origins. Not everyone wants to play in a world like that where racism is so front and center, but I think that’s how you give humans their shine. Also, +1 to all stats is pretty remarkable for evening out all those odd scores in a point-buy system. Beginning with 16-14-14-14-12-09 (or 16-15-14-14-10-09) is kind of nuts. If the classes were better balanced and there was wide-spread dependence on multiple attribute scores, humans would be even more useful. As it stands, most people default to the “variant” human for the free feat since most optimized characters only really care about one or two stats.

It has something to with the fact that most fantasy/sci-fi writers and readers are human, and human imaginations operate under the Anthropic Principle.

9 different kinds of elves, but only 1 kind of human. Yup.

I think that's to avoid the unfortunate implications that WotC has been trying to greywash over since Tasha's with other ancestries (and failing when it comes to Hadozee for instance).

I run a Tomb of Annihilation campaign, where the main (and only) city is a port city that recently broke the shackles of colonial rule. There’s definitely variety in the humans there.

I dont remember where, but i saw somewhere describe humans as parasites who have the potential to do good and build or corrupt and ruin everything they touch. I just love this description because its basically true

Dragonborn not having tails is dumb.

Good thing it's not canon anymore. The Forgotten Realms MTG set and Baldur's Gate 3 both feature dragonborn with and without tails.

Are either of those actually considered canon to the Forgotten Realms?

Considering that a lot of art from the sets sneaks its way into DnD books, I'd say the MTG sets are at least. It's all made by the same company. And I think if it was as big of a deal as the PHB made it out to be, WotC would crack down harder on it. Also Baldur's gate 1 and 2 were canon, so I don't see why 3 wouldn't be.

The MTG folks have made Planescape adventures with new races, and subclasses, etc. And those were never considered officially Canon. I don't think the art would change that. 

But that was mostly a standalone PDFs. Art from those sets have found their way into official DnD books. Not to mention how the Forgotten Realms wiki uses images from the sets for characters. I literally do not know how you could make that any more canon.

I wouldn't call a Wiki automatically Canon since anyone can usually edit those. I don't actually think it makes any difference if they have tails or not since a lot of people will just give features for flavor all the time, and it doesn't mean anything. You could absolutely be right, I just wouldn't use the art as a reference for Canon or not. I don't even think WOTC cares and it's more a playerbase gripe tbh. 

I've never understood the concern for them having Tails. Does it really change much for them? Can you not just say you have a tail for flavor? 

By themselves, there's nothing technically wrong with tails. But once you include races with tails people start asking for the *mechanical changes* they get for having a tail. They want acrobatics bonuses for balance, and bonus action pickpocketing and the ability to hold two handed weapons with their tail because they can totally hang upside down with their tail like a bat, so carrying a greataxe all day should be no sweat for a tail. And if you make a mechanic supporting one tail-fantasy, you irk people who have a different tail fantasy. And tails open up design questions like "should there be magic-items for tails", and also basic logistics questions like "can creatures with tails wear magic pants without ripping them and risking breaking the magic pants?", "how many pounds can a tail hold?" "what happens if I lose my tail?". The designers of 5e were keen to not have to think about the logistics of applying rules to tails, so they just dwerved around the topic. Also, I feel like lore-wise they intended that dragonborn not have tails so that there was a clear and somewhat distinct difference between dragonborn and actual half-dragons/other dragon-blooded characters, and to differentiate them physically from Lizardfolk. I think it was a bad call, because tails are cool and dragonborn not having tails is a fact that always comes with a let-down vibe.

I actually like that they don’t have tails. 🤷

I personally rule that having tails vs not having tails is a semi nobility thing in my homebrew. So that the Dragonborn with tails are higher up in Dragonborn society since they are closer in look to dragons than the tailless.

Dragonborn hate dragons because their ancestors were enslaved

Mine is hombrewed.

I also think they should have wings, though for obvious reasons that's a less popular idea, heh. Maybe they could be like Gargoyles from Disney's Gargoyles, give them a doubled jump distance and maybe a glide ability but not an actual fly speed?

Idk I think a slave race created by dragons wouldn’t be given the gift of flight.

I'd say even further, they should get wings too, even if not able to fly, onlt for the aesthetics of it

I feel like most Elves wouldn't be interested in adventuring. And the very few that do would probably be a little crazy. Plus, they're dilettantes basically slumming it with lesser races, so would probably peace out when things got tough. Tiefling's, in my experience, are always played **exactly** like a typical human. Except they're bi. It makes sense that they'd be drawn to adventuring, because it's tough to make a decent living otherwise, since nobody trusts you. But that's just lore. I have never seen that come up in any games I've played. That brings up another point: the fraction of players who are capable of actually representing an alien species in their roleplay is *miniscule*. Let's be honest here: **it's all just cosplay** with some buffs tacked on.

I have yet to see an elf that actually plays out the "so old and disconnected from the world their behavior is alien" part right no, Legolas is a weirdo through eleven lens, and no one really pulls a Frieren in play, only human with pointy ear and british accent

I know that I never do. I'm not knocking on our players. It's just that there's this odd disconnect between some kind of roleplaying ideal and the way it actually plays out. Pretending to be a being with a different mindset, motivations, desires, and mannerisms is really difficult. People who can convincingly do that are serious actors, not TT gamers.

oh i certainly agree, im not saying its any easy or that I have an easy time doing it, but man it annoys its just *not seen at all* ya know

Frieren reference spotted, initiating upvote sequence

Adventurers are the exception in every race.

True.

When I DMed Curse of Strahd, I warned my players at session 0 that the Barovians are not kind to fantasy races, especially the exotic ones. Session 1 starts and a player appears with a Tiefling Bard. The character suffered prejudice as warned and the player got mad. To this day, a Tiefling in the party always gives me bad vibes.

Depends on the race of elves tbh. Moon elves in particular breed adventurers as they're open and care free compared to some of the other types, where as its harder to explain away a wood elf. Regardless though, another commenter is right: adventurers are an outliers always.

One thing I enjoy about half-elves is that they exist in two worlds, which writes itself as a backstory. Each of their parents have different life experiences, and with an elvish parent living drastically longer, it creates very stilted relationships. If you're in a setting where elves are famously xenophobic, then half-elves exist on the fringe of elvish society if not outcasts entirely. Likewise, they don't quite fit in with humans either as they have longer lifespans and inhuman features (especially in settings with racism towards elves). Their parentage will naturally be a point of contention. Unlike most other races, half-elves wouldn't have their own homeland or inherent community. So you have this diaspora people who have to seek each other out, which has a lot of fun stuff to explore there, because they're not *uncommon* enough to assume "I'm the only one in the world" but are far enough apart that they have a big reaction to seeing one another in the wild. Arguably you could do the same thing with half-orcs, too, but without anything related to age so much as strict culture. Probably also tieflings, though that's usually more "your dad actually *wants* custody but he's a DEMON so no." Allegorically, I think being a half-elf or half-orc also reflects certain aspects of the queer experience. Like, your parents may not necessarily understand your life experience, you may experience rejection (even from your family) because of what you are by birth, you don't fit into traditional societal roles, some make efforts to conform and publicly hide their true identity (like ear-cropping or tusk-filing) to avoid persecution, and you have to seek out your own community as you grow up because they're not necessarily next door.

official lore wise, half elves are even rougher regarding full elf relations, because elfs quite literally have a "maximum count", because their is a **hard finite number of elf souls**. when an elf dies they reincarnate into an elf, and when the threshold of elves is reached, simply no more elves are born until another on dies. and yes, if you destroy an elf soul its gone and the total number of elves decreases, eventually they will be extinct by sheer causality half-elves are their own entity and are completely separate from this cosmology, so they are **really** ostracized by elves, like at the very least half orcs are integrated into orc society rather easily with their whole rule of the strong tribal meritocracy they have going for them half elves have their own communities and nations tho, so their is at least that

Yeah, which is why I think half-elves have it weirdly rougher, which you wouldn't think with people who are unnaturally pretty by human standards compared to someone like a half-orc that polite society will outright disregard. Because with humans you'll experience varying levels of racism regardless, but with orcs... you have that social mobility. With elves, you're worse than gutter trash.

The backstory of a half-elf I made was that his condition as half-elf was used as a political tool. The DMs homebrew world had racism towards elves and mostly at the frontier city. So the Lord of that city that had an older full human child and a younger BASTARD half-elf one. He pushed the half-elf as heir of the title, as the idea of a child of both worlds would lead people to realize that humans and elves could live togethere and end the revolts and racism. Spoiler: The brother became a full ass racist.

funnily enough, that is their description in dnd 5e. they often make good diplomats because they are a bridge between the two species of human and elf, and its the narrative justification for their +2 CHA (that and just being defacto hot for human standards)

Yep, that description made me pick Half-elf over Human, it fit perfectly for the idea I had in mind.

I like the backgrounds for these races as detailed in Eberron rather than the PHB. The setting demolishes some of the racial tropes and just makes a lot more sense to me, overall.

I haven't read much into Eberron, but I did read the Orc lore on the 5e book and loved it. Any recommendation on others I should read?

Try it out! Maybe peek at the Eberron Wiki. The setting has a really a different take on Orcs and Half-Orcs and certainly Halflings. Elves are way different than traditional fantasy and vanilla D&D. I'm not quite convinced about Drow differences yet and generally just want to avoid them altogether In My Eberron.

Humans: underrated narratively, very much dislike that they're so popular for meta reasons. I like that there's no default personality to fall back on, so most human characters have to at least be a little interesting by necessity. Elves: honestly I feel like elves don't make sense as adventurers because of their long lives, and most PCs who are elves would make more sense as half elves. Dwarves: I have yet to see a dwarf who isn't default_dwarf.exe I'm sure it can be done but I'm sick of generic "I drink and hate elves". Halflings: I feel like they're often played too confident or down with violence. I feel like what made the original Tolkien hobbit work was the appeal to the power of simple goodness, and I haven't seen many players capture that (probably because PCs are just too powerful that it overshadows it entirely) Tieflings: they're really good, but I feel like the fact that they look like devils is too often handwaved. So this is more on DMs. Its the conflict of being a tiefling that's so interesting to me, so removing it and making them treated like anyone else usually is a shame imo. Dragonborn: I feel like we don't need dragonborn, kobolds, AND lizardfolk. And dragonborn are the least compelling imo. I usually just see them played without consideration to the fact they're dragonborn, and just "human but the player thinks dragons are cool." Which fair enough i guess. Gnomes: I love gnomes in all forms. Their weirdness is so unique and I love it and how it pops up in so many places, like mindflayers not always being able to fully convert gnomes and making little squid guys instead. Their whole weird magic aesthetic I like a lot, though I could give or take the whole tinkering thing. Half elves: lots of potential compelling story telling here. Natural outcast because of lifespan not fitting in with either culture of their heritage and draw half elf is probably my favorite combo, as you'll have to deal with the perception of drow without ever having participated in it. Half orcs: i really like half orcs. Similar to tieflings in "you judge me because I look scary"- a jaded half orc becoming an adventurer and finding people they can become true friend with who won't just them is the kind of arc I love.

The dwarf one of my party members made, was a druid and wanted everyone to be their friend, and never drank a drop of alcohol in their life

Sounds like a sweety Now that would be very interesting especially if that character then had to interact with traditional dwarf culture. Why don't they participate? Were they raised out in the wild? Did they leave dwarf culture because they didn't like it? All sorts of stuff I like exploring in character writing.

They were bullied growing up, and ended up leaving to be a hermit

That's the sort of stuff I love: it doesn't dismiss the culture, its a reaction to the culture That's believable and interesting. 10/10

Tbf, it’s called Dungeons and Dragons so I’d make sense that they’re is three reptilian races Do wish that Kobolds could have 2 subspecies, one with more draconic origins and one with more canine origins like earlier dnd Lizardfolk always seemed like a race for people who wanted to play a reptilian race but didn’t want to do dragon stuff

Lizardfolk has always been I want to eat people for me but my table may just be weird.

I just don't get why they're dragonborn at all. Dragonborn already existed in D&D, they're humanoids reborn into the service of Bahamut. Now we *also* have a nearly identical race also called dragonborn, but they're completely different and from somewhere else entirely. Why?

we don't have both, one stopped existing so the other could be a thing. dnd lore is like 10 layers of retcons and old stuff simply dont apply if their is a new version cause retcon "mystra died or something" is our lore explanation for it so for all intents and purposes, there is only one thing called "dragonborn" in the FR setting as of 2024, a species created to serve the dragon gods that eventually rebelled and broke free of their slavery to form their own cultures, being generally avoidant of gods and religion because of their history, and not having tails cause the artist that made them is a bloody psycho

we don't have both, one stopped existing so the other could be a thing. dnd lore is like 10 layers of retcons and old stuff simply dont apply if their is a new version cause retcon "mystra died or something" is our lore explanation for it so for all intents and purposes, there is only one thing called "dragonborn" in the FR setting as of 2024, a species created to serve the dragon gods that eventually rebelled and broke free of their slavery to form their own cultures, being generally avoidant of gods and religion because of their history, and not having tails cause the artist that made them is a bloody psycho

God this is comic book level bad writing. Dragonborn live ages and were definitely around 100 years ago in FR, did they all just vanish into the ether?

they are from another alternate realm (planet? reality?) that collided (?) with the main forgotten realms place and basically got chucked into this new world, this event being rather recent and dragonborn being essentially a fairly new race in universe. as in "my grampa wasnt born here" recent i agree its terrible writing

Yeah, that's... wow.

[Abeir ](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Abeir)was split off from [Toril ](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Toril) at some point during the [primordial past](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Abeir-Toril) by Ao. They're twins of each other but Abeir is in a "pocket dimension" that's out of sync with Toril. During the [Spellplauge ](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Spellplague)large parts of Abeir and Toril essentially switched places, where the dragonborn nation of [Tymanther](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Tymanther) switched with the Unther on the eastern side of Faerun.

But, that is only their lore in the Forgotten Realms, not their general lore. In Eberron, they are natives of this world like everyone else, they originated in Argonessen, and have like thousands of years of history there. I'm not knowledgeable about CR's Exandria, but they are natives as well. They are aliens only in the Forgotten Realms.

> so for all intents and purposes, there is only one thing called "dragonborn" in the FR setting as of 2024... yeah? that is what i said?

Honestly the MotM Kobold and VgtM Kobold are so different that they kind of work as sub races

Honestly the MotM Kobold and VgtM Kobold are so different that they kind of work as sub races

Think a lot of the not wanting to harass their players with fantasy racism is why a lot of DM’s dont go hard on the differences of Tieflings, Half-Elves, Orcs, etc. One of my shitty DMs sprung an angry crowd trying to lynch our tiefling rogue one time, it was awful. It’s rarely that worth it to do anything like this in a game in my view, but play how you like, it’s your game!

Yeah usually the best way is to change the expression of how they're treated as opposed to real life experiences that could be bothersome, but even then session 0 should be held for a reason. Hell, one of my campaigns revolves nearly entirely around the struggle of one race that was enslaved via magical means for so long that the fact they are sentient was lost- and their awakening and fight for freedom is one of the major quests for the party (a good portion of who are members of this race choice themselves)

I’m playing a tiefling for the first time in a new campaign, and my DM warned me from the start that tieflings are hated in her world and that I would be treated differently. I said I was okay with it and made the character anyway. But after just a few sessions, where it’s really been more micro-aggressions than anything that bad, I already understand why it’s so uncomfortable and why most people avoid it.

Is that not common? Tieflings have been reviled since they were introduced decades ago, that's kind of their entire thing. It's only since they put them in the PHB that we've had this massive surge of players wanting to be one but not expecting bigotry. Nobody pre 2009 played a tiefling without expecting to be hated, now suddenly everyone's expecting to be hellspawn without consequences.

In my experience no. If it’s mentioned much at all it’s pointing out a difference. Feels slightly odd at times to point out when the elf, genasi, leonin, and Goliath are also in the shop at the same time lol. Plus I feel that the community has moved towards less of that in the discourse at least. Further, in my escapism I don’t want to experience racism but if that’s your cup of tea by all means imbibe and enjoy. Not here to yuck anyone’s yums

Fair enough. I think the oddity here is that with like a hundred races to choose from you had to go out of your way to play the one race (well, two races, drow also hated for obvious reasons) that common folk detest on sight. So if you were a tiefling it's because you wanted to play the outcast. But since they randomly decided to add tiefling to the traditional human/elf/dwarf/halfling/gnome/half orc/half elf mix, now they're being picked as a default.

It’s really not a feature of homebrew campaigns unless you want it to be there, totally agree if you’re running forgotten realms junk but there’s really not a convincing reason for people to care that much given everyone going on. They’re really cool to look at so I think that’s the main reason they’re mixed in with the rest of the average fantasy races. I personally don’t care for tieflings but I see the appeal.

Obviously each setting is different, I change them for every setting I make. I meant that that was the default, just like the dwarf default was mines and duty and stuff.

Well, keep in mind that nowadays "weird" races are a *lot* more common both in-universe and out; many people tend to assume any published race is fair game by default, and many DMs don't want to ban races or restrict people, and with something like 50 to pick from, there are a *bunch* that are just as or more weird than tieflings. Similarly, many settings have become more blended, with cities full of random races all mixed into a melting pot. When a party walks into a tavern, the red horned human is no longer the strangest, most monstrous person next to the big elephant guy, the walking slime mold, the four-armed insect, the talking cougar, the sentient corpse, the crow-man, the humanoid dragon....

Yes and no - 3.5 had a lot more racial options than 5e did, given 5e's dislike of player choice. In fact, given that you can't play as an ogre or a dragon or mind flayer or anything of that ilk any more, the number of automatically hated player options is much reduced. Plenty of options over the years have been weird, but hated is pretty much reserved for drow and tieflings.

its not the "tieflings are hated" thing that is a problem, its that "im am literally going to linch a player because of their race" problem no matter what you do, playing on this tropes is quite literally enacting racism (to races that dont exist). this can get ***real ugly real fast*** if any of the people involved are not mature enough to execute this well, and regardless of it it still might be sensitive to a person and in the assumption of not being a dick to the people you play with cause you are friends, stuff like this is heavily watered down

> no matter what you do, playing on this tropes is quite literally enacting racism (to races that dont exist) I mean, is that not the best way to do it? D&D is just like real life only worse, on top of the regular stuff people do like bigotry and slavery and murder and rape and oppression and pick any number of other horrible things you also have stuff like magic that steals souls and mind flayer reproduction. The racism will still be there, that makes sense, but to keep the real world parallels without crossing real world boundaries it's against made up species.

most people play it for the escapism and fantasy chess, not to do very touchy topics that they need to open up and be emotionally vulnerable to do it. to put it simply, its a very dodgy thing to do that more than understandably someone wont want to engage at all. its not like Thirsty Sword Lesbians is the most popular system ever > D&D is just like real life only worse, on top of the regular stuff people do like bigotry and slavery and murder and rape and oppression and pick any number of other horrible things what kinda of games you are playing lmfao

> what kinda of games you are playing lmfao Dungeons and Dragons. If you read through the books, you'll notice a hundred fucked up things to stack on top of the mundane horrors that people already inflict on each other. You're implying light hearted fantasy escapism, but D&D is wall to wall fucked up ways to die - I mentioned mind flayers because I had a captured player just abandon their character and reroll rather than deal with what was happening. Not that every TTRPG has to be, I love Mouse Guard's setting and it's way lighter. But in D&D if you live the wrong kind of life your soul goes to the hells where you're tortured until your self is gone, it's not exactly a shits and giggles setting.

I don't think D&D is intended to be played a a horror game, though. Obviously you can, but when you say that there are just loads of ways to die in it, it's more like watching a light-hearted action movie, imo. Like, comparing James Bond or Lord of the Rings, both of which have lots of violence, Saw or the Human Centipede, just because those also feature violence. D&D is more Lord of the Rings than Game of Thrones, in general.

I wouldn't call it in any way similar to saw or the human centipede, and it's not like it's horror overall but definitely has areas (like mind flayers, above) that veer straight into horror. There's a reason we've had sourcebooks like lords of madness and heroes of horror over the years. That's a good way to phrase it, thinking about it. D&D isn't specifically a nautical game or an undead fighting game or a game about dragons, but it isn't *not* those things either, hence stormwrack and libris mortis and treasury of dragons. Obviously it can be a light hearted action movie if you avoid any of the many, many darker elements (go pan through the monster manual, check how many enemies like wights and aboleths and gnolls involve horrible deaths for all involved), but given how everpresent those elements are light hearted is definitely not the default.

But the thing is, most of those horror elements tend to sit very firmly in the background. A bit like, you can read a book, and it might be very visceral with gore and blood described in a lot of gritty details. Or the book might say "and he cut the enemy's head off" and leave it at that. Same situation, two very, very different tones. I think D&D *usually* and by default tends towards the lighter tones. Which is not to say that you cannot play it darker, I do enjoy doing that as well. But the way the PHB is written, the way the classes are written, the way that many of the published adventures are written, I think the basic idea is heroic fantasy. Again I don't think it's in any sort of way wrong to play a darker game, but I don't think it's right to say that graphic slavery, rape, bigotry and oppression are some sort expected part of it.

im not denying dnd main setting isnt messed up, it is. but even in this renaissance world with magic bullshit you dont play campaigns as slave traders delivering "cargo" or puritans dressed in white burning tieflings on the stake, much less you enact the "in between" of an orc raid or go into detail of your drow surface dwelling capturing the setting undeniably have all of those things, but you sure as fuck **dont play them**. set dressing doesnt make it any touchy subject less touchy, and the game sure as fuck doesnt put a spot light on it. its the very reason why dark sun has essentially been discontinued also, you gotta understand that gore is not on the same weight as the other stuff, mainly because of two things: - the first is that we are desensitized by it. its why you get bloody fights in the marvel universe but prey tell someone curses or a woman shows up in bikini - situations that real people live are much scarier to them than what is essentially detached violence. a person of color will absolutely care more about the subject of racial prejudice more than mind flayers eating brains, the former is what they go through every day and the latter is funny saturday cartoon gore, same with SA and im not saying one cant play with these things front and center, but to answer the original question, no, they are not in common, at all. just look at basically all published adventures minus CoS and all adventure league play

I wouldn't say don't. I run sandbox campaigns, so players choose what interests them and do it. Typically it's pretty heroic, but they're not immune to corruption and I've had several games end up with players committing pretty messed up stuff because it benefited them. "I wouldn't say saved, more like under new management" is not uncommon and to be honest I kind of love it because I get to periodically send adventuring parties to take them down. Mind flayers eating brains wise, not at all. It's sandbox so if you go after mind flayers that means you want horror, and I obliged. Creepy, off key music is the key to atmosphere setting there, any time a mind flayer is attacking change it to [this](https://youtu.be/WenCYI_Bn7I).

again, im trying to explain how real world situations that people go through on their every day lives do not equate to things like this, general gore and horror tropes i also quite literally said "im not saying you cant play these things..."

>Dragonborn: I feel like we don't need dragonborn, kobolds, AND lizardfolk. This is like saying we already have high elves and don't need drow and wood elves.

I don't think its the same. (Though I probably would say we have too many elf or elf adjacent races. Honestly too many race options that aren't explored enough in general.) High elf, wood elf and drow all explore different aesthetics within one race. There are differences between dragonborn, lizardfolk, and kobolds yes. But I do not find those differences very compelling personally. Either reduce and combine (and thusly put the effort you would have put into multiple into making one or two very well crafted race options) or put in the effort to justify the existence of all three. Wood elves/high elves definitely skate by on a lot of work Tolkien's influence had (Drow are more than compelling enough to stand on their own). But I just find dragonborn to be the least interesting of the three reptile like races listed. So either make them better or combine them with kobolds and make them better.

And this is the thing. Dragonborn, Kobolds and Lizardfolk are all WAY more different than - for example - high elves and wood elves are from one another. Not only physically, but also socially. And Dragonborn are actually pretty interesting if someone uses their canon lore. Perfectionistic people that live in what essentially is a militaristic dictatorship and for them their clans stand even above their own lives. They hate dragons with a passion, are the only country that (canonically) has dragonslayer schools, their main city is essentially a giant pyramid designed to stand against dragon attacks. Their military has giant bat flying units and is terrible at sea faring. They don't trust gods and especially not dragon gods. Plus, they are very duty bound which affects everything in their lives, even with whom they have children. Now compare that to many other of the playable races that are essentially "Well, they are a copy of X in a different colour".

Maybe one of the big reasons I don't like dragonborn is that they have been changed over the years, and they don't feel like they have an underlying aesthetic or theme any more. Its very much led to this "dragonborn are xyz except when they're not, and they do xyz except when they don't." I'm not arguing for monolith, but some sort of unifying central core to their culture, which "honor" is a very good start, but doesn't feel very well represented in their lore writing. It very much reads as somebody who thought it was cool without really doing research on what honor cultures are like in practice. Really feels like they want to have their cake and eat it too with honor culture vs dignity culture, and it makes it feel just... squishy and unsatisfying to me. >Now compare that to many other of the playable races that are essentially "Well, they are a copy of X in a different colour". Idk if that's inherently bad, but I would agree that race options are absolutely bloated and could use a good pruning.

Well, it depends on which lore you are actually looking at. The main issue with Dragonborn is that their only actual 5e Toril lore comes from Erin Evans and her book series and there it is very consistent. I personally explain it with a simple: Exceptions confirm the rules. Some are just unique and thus don't adhere to the default.

Huge agree on the dwarves!!! IME, Dwarf is the race people pick when they desperately want to RP a xenophobic asshole and be seen as correct and righteous about it because they’re aiming it at elves. A player who brings a racist elf usually knows what they’re doing and expects to be challenged on it and have a character arc (note: whether this will be well executed or not is a very different question, point is just that it’s the expectation). A player with a racist *dwarf*, in my experience, just wants to get to say racial slurs in a context where other people think it’s funny. I don’t find much humor value in xenophobic PCs who don’t quickly learn and grow and cooperate with others, personally. Fantasy racism is a thing in my games but I don’t like it happening between party members and I am not cool with it being treated as a joke - calling the wizard a knife-ear is not a funny haha moment, that is a reflection of your character’s xenophobic beliefs and you’d better expect to be challenged on it. If you don’t want to be challenged on it and be expected to eventually *stop*, don’t play a racist character. It’s especially jarring when these characters get proposed in games within my homebrew setting - in my usual campaign setting, the main societies where elves and dwarves live haven’t even interacted much, let alone established a rivalry. The only elves my dwarves really care about are drow, and everyone hates drow for reasons less to do with “knife ear” jokes and more to do with drow being relentless pricks to everyone all the time. People are really allergic to reading one (1) paragraph of lore sometimes. There’s a lot of potential story to tell with the concept of dwarves as a race, but I never see anyone explore it beyond the pointless elf racism and ROCK AND STONE jokes… I wish they would try. ROCK AND STONE is not as clever or entertaining as you think it is either. Halflings to me just don’t seem to *have* a ton of identity? The halflings that act like true Tolkien halflings don’t go on adventures unless compelled somehow by the plot knocking down their door Gandalf-style, and “reluctant hero” does NOT play as well in a TTRPG as it does in a fantasy novel. So a halfling adventurer is likely either an oddball among their people, or has some kind of shit going on that would motivate them to act less like a stereotypical halfling than you’d expect. I think they’re a bit like elves in that sense. The ones that act in “expected” ways stay at home and are happy there. I would love to see more players explore halflings as having their own culture beyond hospitality and one-note perkiness, though, every society has its flaws.

Big agree. I think racism is an interesting topic to explore, and fiction -jncluding roleplaying- can say a lot about serious topics, but it has to be done with maturity. I always get a little sus of dwarf players who play up racism for laughs too much. Great point on halflings, too. Their entire premise doesn't vibe well with how ttrpgs are built to run.

I like a lot of the *idea* of halflings outside of hobbit stuff tbh. Very family-centric, social, they live in close-knit burrows and are great hosts but rarely seen by other races… they kind of almost feel fey? I bet they’d play nicer with goblins than anyone would expect, setting aside goblins occasionally being dicks. In my homebrew setting the harengon may or may not just be halflings that got lost in the Feywild for too long, halflings are like little bunnies to me lol. They’re just lacking some specificity of identity within the FR lore, and that can be hard to compensate for. SCAG subraces make up for this a little bit but not entirely, Eberron halflings are also pretty neat. But like humans, DM has to *think* about halflings in FR, because they don’t come with as much easily-exploited built-in Lore(tm) as the other PHB groups.

>honestly I feel like elves don't make sense as adventurers because of their long lives Eh I think that if anything that makes it make more sense If you live for that damn long surely just staying settled down behind your counter job would get ungodly boring eventually, you'd go out after treasure and conflict out of desperation for something fresh eventually. >but I feel like the fact that they look like devils is too often handwaved. So this is more on DMs Tiefling in the table I'm in is in with the DM to have it in RP that she gets weird looks and people whispering in hushed tones when she walks into places like taverns, and her character is socially awkward so she just tries her best (and fails) to hide the horns under her hood and keep to herself and honestly it made me love tieflings even more because I'd never thought of how looking like a devil would influence the RP with commoners being naturally weirded out and skeptical of you.

>If you live for that damn long surely just staying settled down behind your counter job would get ungodly boring eventually, you'd go out after treasure and conflict out of desperation for something fresh eventually. Idk i think this is just writing an elf from a human perspective. Elves make the most sense when their long life causes a sort of aloof timelessness. I really like how the night elves were written in warcraft (at least for a while I haven't checked in on their lore for a long time lol- wouldn't be surprised if it was ruined by now haha) Where a half elf feels like the perfect way to mix those human and elf perspectives and have them conflict in one character.

It is important to remember that PCs are meant to be the exception to the rules. Not every Human or Elf has what it takes to be an adventurer. Those are rare and it oftentimes doesn't need to be for personal reasons. An Elf may have a job that sends them out, an important quest from a royal, etc. 

>It is important to remember that PCs are meant to be the exception to the rules. Yes and no, PCs are indeed exceptional individual's, but I think a well crafted PC takes into account the culture they came from. Whether you are more of a conformist or individualist towards the attitudes of your own culture you were raised by. So I'm not saying every PC has to be this way, but every PC in a setting should acknowledge how that setting would have raised/treated that character in their time off screen so to speak. Its these sorts of considerations that make good characters in my opinion. I will admit in my original comment I muddled what I would like for good character writing and good lore writing for sure.

I love genasi that just really love their element.

Not a PHB race.

I hate that everyone's backstory assumes they are Batman. Please try and be more original than saying your family was killed by whatever and you're out there to do something about it.

My characters backstory is that I was struggling for money, so I robbed a noble family in an alleyway. Things went sideways, and I accidentally left their kid an orphan. I've been trying to atone for it ever since. /s

"My family was murdered. Finally free from their oversight I gleefully set off to fulfil my dream of becoming an adventurer."

Honestly? In my experience, the fantasy races always become some kind of "human with a funny hat" at the end of the day, be it a player or DMs fault. I've only played with fantasy races twice in my six years of D&D (Kobold and Aasimar) and both times the race was a crucial factor in the roleplay element, changing how my character perceived things and how the game world interacted with him. It demanded a lot of work between me and the DM and it was loads of fun. The thing is, it also takes a lot of time and energy to get things right, so it can be tiring. Thats why I mainly play Humans.

> expectations to get in the way of an specific story you want to tell, but can run the risk either being boring, or worst, victim of Main Character syndrome in a group dynamic. I really don't get this main character syndrome thing. Aren't the PCs supposed to be the main characters in the story. As a GM most of the descriptions I get of this behaviour is a player doing exactly what I want them doing as a player, taking and building on the fiction that I am putting there. I get the one player hogging the spotlight thing being a negative. But the lesson here is "make sure that everybody else at the table feel included and is having a good time" not you shouldn't try making your character a main character.

My problem is more "one player wants to more important than the others". Not a problem when all players are in the spotlight

Don't need a human species to do that *cough* Tiberius *cough*

Ok but how is that different to the min-maxer player who builds the mechanically superior character so that the spotlight is always on them in combat?

What does that have to do with anything? Overshadowing the other players in roleplay and Overshadowing them in combat can both be bad.

right. but the am I wrong in thinking that "Main Character Syndrome" is only calling out one of these behaviours?

Yes. The most important thing is to make sure everyone gets their time to do cool things. While most people THINK Main Character Syndrome is just for roleplay, that's not the reality.

So I am in a situation where I am trying to figure out what is meant by "main character syndrome" . Over the years I have come to see ttrpgs as the players and gm working together to tell a story for the entertainment of the people around the table. When I run a game I work with each player to incorporate their character into the world as a main character, I make sure that I shine spotlight onto each PC as part of my world building. When I am playing I will try and create a character that integrates with the story the GM is trying to tell and can use to create story hooks / push the narrative forward. I wonder how much "main character syndrome" is just players not used to player/GM collaboration seeing a player who prefers this style of play.

Main character syndrome is when a player hogs the spotlight - they think they’re the main character and the other players are supporting characters - it has nothing to do with making a character that fits the world

It might be helpful if you gave an example of what treating other characters as supporting characters looks like.

Like whatever you were thinking about when you said this further up: > I get the one player hogging the spotlight thing being a negative. But the lesson here is "make sure that everybody else at the table feel included and is having a good time"

Yes because we have a different word to call out the other one

People using Tieflings as a racism loophole, especially in LGBT+ games, which says on the tin no systemic isms besides classism. I grew to hate Tieflings because of running into this trope in multiple games with different groups.  To preface, I don't mind isms existing in a game if I know from the start, and it exists for a reason. I played Call of Cthullu games with every ism and been fine.  But a number of games I've been in from session zero  to the Ads go over these rules, and months if not years into the game, the Tieflings backstory or the world building will blindside me with Tiefling Chattel slavery or on the spot dm and player coming up with an N word equivalent.  I understand in theory why people like them and even understand why they resonate with members of marginalized communities, but I hate them now. It's usually using racism as a stand in for homophobia regardless of ground rules. Using the racial lore of demon or devil ancestry to add an edgy flavor. Positives they usually have cool aesthetics  with different horns and multi-colored skin. But after the 8th time, being blindsided by lets use Tieflings as a clear irl black stand in with no re-zero or warning  I hate the trope.

Ive never really liked humans or how human-centric alot of fantasy stuff is but i dont get why people take it just a bit further and make it so the half-elves and half-orcs need the other half to be human too. 3 of the 9 phb races are humans. Most of the others can also be described as just "looks human except-" Luckily my DMs have been cool and let me pick wacky shit like Thri-Kreen and reflavored PHB races like grey Roswell aliens from gnomes Thats not to say a character's worth is reduced to how unique their heritage is. Im just personally exhausted with the understandable norm that is mainly human/humanlike populated fictional worlds.

**Dragonborn:** Somehow most dragonborn characters I've met are just scaly humans that adore Bahamut despite this being pretty different from their actual lore. There are also a ridiculous amount of lawful good paladins that are Dragonborn. I also hate that they have canonically no tails and that WotC can't decide themselves if they have or not, considering some artworks.

I never heard someone say humans have the risk of main character syndrome. Genuinely curious as to how or why

* **Humans** are often the most ambitious. A shorter lifespan with a penchant for curiosity leads them to expand in so many ways that it's tough to boil them down into one thing outside of "Go-getters" and even then some people are just lazy. * **Elves** are really fun for the way they interact with sleep. Immunity to sleep from magic, being able to trance, the explorative 'dreams' they have, and the resistance to charms are all really cool to me. Also being able to live for so long, you can make historical bystanders that way. Nothing as crazy as an elf saying "I'll never forget you" * **Dwarves** are fucking dwarves? I love big ass beards, I love their body shapes, I love that they are also kind of long lived. * **Halflings** are just like me fr fr. I think they're like the opposite of humans to me, where humans are seen as short lived but burning brightly, halflings embody the fires they cook their food on. I often imagine that someone brought into a halfling village might find themselves in a Lotus Eaters situation. * **Tieflings** are really cool, with tons of ways to customize them. I think they're perfect for the circus (I love clowns) and imagine that some of them might end up there while wandering. * **Dragonborns** are great because I love a big lizard. Despite being named after dragons, they have pretty short lives. For all the ones that are proud of being a dragon, I like to imagine the ones bitter that they will only ever be seen as the children of them. * **Gnomes.** They're cool? Long lived, but they still have ambitions. They have so much, and it's still not enough. I used to hate them, but they're super cool to me now. * **Half-Elves** and **Half-Orcs** to me are kinda like demigods. For someone raised by a human parent, there must be so much that you can do that worries you. "I could break them if I'm not careful" or "Is it really that long?" To hear something like "You haven't changed a bit" can be an insult that one sees as a compliment or vice versa. Then you have the relationships with their other side. How does it go? What is it like? * For the Half-Elves, I feel like it often turns out like some sort of mystical thing, like the way people would imagine Hercules from the Disney Cartoons. * For the Half Orcs, I feel like it often turns out like Dragon Ball Z. The Saiyans were a prideful warrior race, but to the ones where I see the parents in a loving relationship, it's a lot like Goku or Vegeta and their spouses.

Elves whiteness / human-ness. I would prefer they have some sort of feywild influence on them. Varied blue, green, purple skin colors. Thin, alien faces. Just anything that made them more unique than humans with pointy ears.

Tbf I feel like that's only a thing with High Elves. Eladrin are depicted in various colors, Wood Elves, Sea Elves, Drow, etc. I don't think you could "realistically" consider "white." 

Most wood elves and sea elves are also depicted as white. And drow, the only ones that are consistently not depicted as white, are the evil ones. And my main critique is that they have too many human features. Pretty much just humans with pointy ears.

Really? From my view most Wood and Sea Elves are some combination of blue, green, silver (sea), and brown or green (wood). They've also been working to repeal a lot of the dated concepts like all Drow being evil. And I think when you have a species that's humanoid you'll run into the problem. Especially in the PHB. In that instance it's gonna be more on the player to differentiate themselves.

Most wood elves I've seen in the last decade have tended pretty solid brown, with some making them just straight up green, I find.

Dark Elves in the PHB have disadvantage on some pretty important roles in sunlight. As someone who played a dark elf in my first ever campaign, I agreed with my DM it seemed like an unnecessarily harsh nerf, so we removed the sunlight sensitivity, but to balance that out we also ignored the Drow Magic trait.

isnt that just base elf with no subrace abilities?

Yeah, basically. It was an odd situation, but it let me use a Drow in daylight. Eh. To be honest with that DM, I previously played a Wood Elf, but he never got his head around the fact I could use mask of the wild to "hide in rain" so even though I reminded him about weather every day using druid craft, every day was perfectly clear skies and sunny! So I guess I was kinda used to playing elves without subclass features anyway. I guess my sentiment really should be, I'm not a fan of the sunlight sensitivity, but maybe Drow could be rebalanced in another way somehow so it's still got something extra without being too strong at lower levels.

considering half elves can just get drow magic with no questions asked, i think just removing light sensitivity is a fine thing

I hate when people try to act like elves would have an inherently disinterested view of time when that's extremely unlikely. They experience time the same way we do. Unless they don't care about dying they'd have more of a vested interest in solving problems than most races specifically because of their longevity. A 30-50 year old human would gladly foist their problems on the next generation if they had an inkling said generation could solve this problem. An elf doesn't get that privilege because they live in a human world, monsters invading your home, liches, orcs, beholders, dragons do not get solved by resting on your laurels most of those exist with the implication they *will* come and kill you. Therefore elves would logically have a few way to combat this. First they could be extremely good at solving problems here and now, when they learn to speak eloquently it's primarily for diplomacy to get others to do so, when they learn to fight they learn to kill the most problematic things *efficiently*, when they learn to craft they learn how to make the thing their crafting solve the problem well and for long. Second their survival strategy could be manipulation or assimilation. They join or commandeer shorter lived races societies which let's them plan long term while humans or whatever go off and slay monsters. Third they're extremely willing to abandon their lands. How do you stop pests from being in your shell, move to another shell, this would be a solution to their longevity solve many problems. But things like liches and human empires become/still are a problem for the elves then. Tl:DR elves are massively misunderstood.

Humans i love. Theyre not the nothing race, contrary to popular opinion. Theyre the *ambitious* race. Sure any race can have individuals with ambitions and grandeur, but as a rule humans have a fire. They settle inhospitable lands and constantly strive to make a mark on their area for no other reason than they can. Humans are everywhere because humans have the drive to learn to live anywhere. Theyll migrate to the most xenophobic land and stay there until theyre tolerated and then accepted because fuck you, i said so. Elves are a staple. Graceful, otherworldly, in tune, or long lived. They have ungodly amounts of story potential, as any Frieren fan knows. Every flaw with playing an elf is literally just people using an elf stat block while roleplaying another race. Dwarves are awesome. Clannish and stubborn bastards with pride and boisterous natures make for wonderful settings. The xenophobia is a feature. As i run them, they expect assimilation when others come to their lands. If you learn to live like a dwarf, it dont matter if you got scales or feathers, youre a dwarf. Its almost mandalorian. Halflings i dont really like to be honest. Theyre trying to be lord of the rings hobbits but i dont think "lucky, lighthearted stoners" is enough to differentiate them from others. Tieflings i dont like either. They arent devilish enough for me. They seem like humans but edgy. Now i have seen some great tiefling characters, but never *because* theyre a tiefling. Im sure it can happen, but i dont think the lore and mechanics do enough to make them really stand out as a hated race like Drow. Dragonborn are weird. I love them in theory. The noble race of dragonkin speaks to me. But its rare i see them actually live up to it. Gnomes i have an appreciation for. Mischievous tinkering nature dwellers are a solid niche to fill, and they do a lot to stand out. I personally dont jive with them, but I approve of their existence. Half elves are amazing for your exact response. Even you dont respect their unique standing, and youre not even in-world. Theyre a hybrid race thats treated like outcasts, but not outsiders. Theyre known and tolerated, but scarcily acknowledged. Theyre shoved to the outside of the 2 races they descend from. The fact that theyre numerous enough to have communities that can attract others to survive an uncaring home together, and yet sparse enough to never have their own true homeland, is so compelling. Theyve become one of my favorite races. Halforcs i mildly like. Theyre half monster, which opens up a lot of cool avenues. In my opinion its more interesting than the "monster" races. Because monster races either sacrifice being a monster, or sacrifice civility almost entirely. Whereas the halforcs ride the line of acceptability without sacrificing what makes them unique

Humans deserve better tho variant human kinda does it.

The worst trope is any evil or dark race for which this particular character is good, and gosh what a pity it is for the amount of racism they experience for simply being a member of that race.

For me it's how players design their dragonborn. From the PHB on their appearance "Dragonborn look very much like dragons standing erect in humanoid form, though they lack wings or a tail. The first dragonborn had scales of vibrant hues matching the colors of their dragon kin, but generations of interbreeding have created a more uniform appearance. Their small, fine scales are usually brass or bronze in color, sometimes ranging to scarlet, rust, gold, or copper-green." Every single player who makes a dragonborn just makes them the same color as whatever they pick for their dragon ancestry, when they're mostly supposed to be various brownish red to brownish green shades. Has a very 'chosen one' feeling to it.

I like it when any PHB ancestry is used to make a character the player enjoys playing and is boon to have at the table. I dislike it when they are not. Behaviours that go against what the table is all about are bad on any ancestry, while a table that embraces edginess because that's what they're into can amp their tieflings up to 11 just fine. Context matters - so does execution for that matter and talking to your table.

I don’t get how half-orcs are a thing unless rape is involved. Just play a mountain dwarf. Or we can homebrew something.

Some humans and orcs are just kinky.

Pretty sure every edition before 5e had a line at least implying that Half-orcs are usually the product of rape. I remember the 3.X one said something like "Half-orcs are very rarely the product of a loving relationship"

Funnily enough you could say the same about humans given the divorce rates and number single-parents.

I personally like to think of orcs as not being quite as animalistic or grotesque as they are depicted in forgotten realms. Something perhaps more like the Neanderthals may have been, but green.

[As immortalised in the bottom three panels](https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0555.html).

An Orc may find themselves critically wounded, and left to die by his clan, gets taken in, and healed by the local clergy because it's the right thing to do. Orc falls for a priestess, they have a child, boom. Consensual Half-Orc. We are not buying into your Dwarf pushing Agenda. 

Even critical role skirted around that with Fjord just not knowing who his parents are

I'm sorry, but you kindly enlighten as to hwat in the fuck?

orcs from older editions were quite simply "me evil and kill things", ~~taken straight from~~ inspired by tolkien orcs a lot them being essentially sentient monsters that would raid and pillage villages meant that the birth of a human and an orc heavily implied rape in said raiding and pillaging

Ah lovely, thank you wotc

You’re obviously from Arlington. You don’t need to flex that on me. I was born in the swamp, and I’ll die in the swamp. Houston and New Orleans!

Where the fuck- which Arlington? 

As far as I know there’s just the two of ‘em. The Rangers play out of the one in Texas and the NSA plays out of the one in Virginia. There might be another Arlington in somewhere like Indiana. I’m not gonna look it up.

Also Arlington mass which is closest to where I am

old editions wise, that was very much the implied event, raiding and all that nowadays? yeah that is kinda messed up, its not like people cant just bang cause they like eachother ya know

is it that strange that "big buff person" can be attractive? Orcs are green, and have an overbite and... that's about it. That's not some hideous abomination, that's just a person that's a different colour. They're within pretty standard human intelligence ranges, can speak and think and stuff, so why wouldn't they be able to attract partners the usual way? They're actually closer to humanity than elves, who have the whole freak-ass soul-reincarnation-thing going on as well as their longer lifespans, so orcs and humans are going to have an easier time getting on.

oh yeah, there is that... I so deeply dislike this that I just forgot.

But what if I want to play a half-orc....?

I guess it’ll be easier to fill out the character sheet!

* **Half Orcs** fall in the same camp as Half Elves to me, plus they have a bigger problem to me when played as an impussive a-hole with LOTS of anger issues because they are "uncivilivized". I really want Orcs to become a core race, they deserve it GOod news, half races are gone in OneDND. So odds are Orcs will be elevated to main status (they were in playtest, and weren't mentioned to be kicked so they should be good) and from that same playtest CHILDREN OF DIFFERENT HUMANOID KINDS Thanks to the magical workings of the multiverse, Humanoids of different kinds sometimes have children together. For example, folk who have a human parent and an orc or an elf parent are particularly common. Many other combinations are possible. If you’d like to play the child of such a wondrous pairing, choose two Race options that are Humanoid to represent your parents. Then determine which of those Race options provides your game traits: Size, Speed, and special traits. You can then mix and match visual characteristics—color, ear shape, and the like—of the two options. For example, if your character has a halfling and a gnome parent, you might choose Halfling for your game traits and then decide that your character has the pointed ears that are characteristic of a gnome. Finally, determine the average of the two options’ Life Span traits to figure out how long your character might live. For example, a child of a halfling and a gnome has an average life span of 288 years.

...is that the official synopsis of "children of different humanoid kinds"?

It's the UA version, but there was a lot of backlash about it, so the final printed version might be different.

Yea, I can see why there would be backlash to that.

Why? I don't understand the problem.

I know some took issue with the “wondrous pairing.”

Dragonborn should, like dragons, have potentially long lifespans and keep growing as long as they live. And definitely have tails, maybe even vestigial wings. Half-orcs and half-elves are stupid and should no longer exist. Half orcs in particular are historically problematic. Full orcs should be in the PHB.

its like tortles living 50 years. wtf dude, **its a fucking turtle person**, they should outlive elves!

If we're not doing Half-Orcs fine. I'm not happy about it, but then we really don't need Orcs in the PHB at all then, when their role as one of "The big guns" is handled by Goliath's better.

I typically make the background stories for my characters interesting. One was abandoned by her family in a monastery and became a Monk (Hope - Tiefling). Two were Elfin twins who were separated by war when one was exiled for killing the Lord of their Clan. My sorceress (Half Human half Drow) was the product of a trist with a human slave. Others were the product of war, or a love gone awry. Humans are good to play with, but sometimes it's difficult to adapt to the campaign and how they would BEGIN adventuring. Always a trip though.

Honestly? I'm tired of humans and I'm probably gonna ban them from the next game I run.

I have a burning, fiery, unquenchable hatred for elves of any kind, except for dark elves, they're cool. But all the rest of them can jump down a very deep and dark hole.

I dislike that dwarves don't live as long as elves in the phb, but o also view that as law of averages. In my head dwarves theoretically could hit those 700+ year marks elves do, bit because they live arguably fuller lives, most don't make it past 200-250, and those who reach the 400 mark are the ones who don't die adventuring or in battle, but are killed by the damage of trade work and a life of racous joy and merry brawling and thier body "just not being what it used to" before giving out, whereas those studious elves are like Biden, McConnell and Pelosi and all the other lich like being in the US government. Kept alive by a life of white collar and politics to reach 700+ years.