Generic, “adaptable” Humans in TTRPG settings, especially fantasy settings, is a sign that the writer of same doesn’t actually understand how diverse groups in the world work, or how to examine a presumed default thoughtfully. As such, they make me deeply, ragingly angry. I may be at the point where I refuse to play or run a setting that does this. If the rules set it up that way, I will hack them before engaging.
— Rabbit (@caudelac) November 24, 2019
So as a for instance, in 5e if all humans were essentially variant, but with feats and skills that represent their regional culture, would that fit more with what you’d want to see?
— Dan Dillon 👥 (@Dan_Dillon_1) November 24, 2019
In my game, everything is variant. Each race/ancestry gets A Thing, including humans, who in my game, have limited stats too (+1 con, and +1 to either int or wis), and get to pick 1 feat. There is also a version of each that has more “traditional”/additional features.But the base approach, which I've seen a lot here, is almost accidentally more not-okay, because it dives deeper on only humans get to have individuality and unique cultures, and everyone else is a lumpen monolith, which is a whole other part of the problem.
— Rabbit (@caudelac) November 24, 2019
I’m pretty sure that Waterdhavian elves, humans, dwarves, halflings, et al have way more in common than they do with anyone of their own nominal group in Rashemen, for example. I get you. Was just using existing 5e human mechanics as an example of a different way to do racial stats in general.
— Dan Dillon 👥 (@Dan_Dillon_1) November 24, 2019
I would be hesitant to give cultures bonuses but that is largely so people can run games in their own world rather than in the cultures for the world I cooked up. I am fine with divorcing bonuses from specific races tho At first glance that approach is kind of a design nightmare.
It’s very difficult not to create a tiny number of “best” options and all the rest are traps.
— Dan Dillon 👥 (@Dan_Dillon_1) November 24, 2019
It also creates a ton of DM work if they want to use that approach in any other setting.
Note: I’m thinking through the approach and it’s challenges, not discounting it as a viable one.
— Dan Dillon 👥 (@Dan_Dillon_1) November 24, 2019
I’d say that the present design approach in D&D has resulted in a bunch of super samey settings, because the default is unquestioned, and the racial bonuses carry a bunch of setting weight. I see the value of customized racial bonuses and traits that differentiate cultures.
I’m just thinking through how to approach it but also make it generally useful, without just being a melange of traits everyone picks out of, that are either ribbons or a system mastery puzzle.
— Dan Dillon 👥 (@Dan_Dillon_1) November 24, 2019
One of my favorite parts of the Al-Qadim setting is the shift in meaningful difference between city-dweller vs nomad, rather than between races.
Elf and dwarf al-hadar have more in common with each other than with al-badia of the same race. That said, there was no mechanical difference between them, it was all down to roleplay and flavor.
Even the different cities/city-states of Zakhara are pretty different from one another. We used “background feats” in 3e to model that.
— Dan Dillon 👥 (@Dan_Dillon_1) November 24, 2019
That said, there was no mechanical difference between them, it was all down to roleplay and flavor.
Even the different cities/city-states of Zakhara are pretty different from one another. We used “background feats” in 3e to model that.
— Dan Dillon 👥 (@Dan_Dillon_1) November 24, 2019
One way to do this is a skill pack. I dont use DnD muxh these days but have started tweaking how I run some games. Instead handing out a feat have them get like 2-3 skills that represent cultural touchstones.
I agreed for the most part but weirdly enough there are real life races that have more similarities to each other than their neighbors of a different race. For example, African American Vernacular English is a dialect determined by race and ethnicity rather than region because the shared history of Americans with African descent created a new form of language that often isn’t shared with Americans of other races. So in that regard I think that how distinct your races are from other members in different regions can say a lot about the relations between races in your world. maybe monstrous races that are often discriminated against tend to fall back on the shared culture they have while races like dwarves or elves who are more accepted in wider society take on the characteristics of their region more than the far-off characteristics of a supposed unified race that doesn’t actually exist.
The flavor behind the diversity and adaptability of the human races in fantasy settings is largely based off lifespan differences between humans and the much longer living dwarves and elves. Due to the long lifespan of the fantasy races there cultures tend to be more sedentary because they have all the time in world with life spans in the hundreds of years. Where as humans have a mere 80-100 years, depending on setting, to achieve there dreams. So their adaptability is supposed to reflect a cultural drive that other races lack.
Disagree totally. RPG’s are about imagination not creating barriers. Why make things rules heavy ? If your players can’t roleplay it without rules then it’s time to find a new group.
The problem with this line of thinking (e.g. people from this region are more intelligent or more charismatic) is that is the definition of racism.
Yes we have our different stats as individuals, but putting that line of thinking towards regions or nationalities is biased and prejudiced.
I have never had an issue with this system at all, and have always percieved it to be exactly as it was described above: Humans are unique in their many cultures, whereas other races share most of their culture across geographical borders. However, for someone who wanted to play otherwise, it seems the best fix is to use culture in place of race (Waterdhavian would give you benefits instead of Dwarf) and use race as a sub culture of sorts that would give one stat bonus, a lifespan, and maybe some other ability.
Let the players explain why their human, from a particular culture, has a feat or stat bonus in your world and build it from there. They get a chance to flesh out your world and take some of the burden of work off the DM.