What dnd races are required?

@dnd

I’m making a new #homebrew #dnd setting. The mistake I felt I made last time was trying to devise an orgin from whole cloth for each playable race, which wasted a TON of time and energy while also confusing my players. So, herein I wish to ask: What playable races would you miss, if you joined my table and noticed their absence?

Humans, dwarves, halflings, orcs, goblinoids, and elves will all stay, but I am not sure about all the others.

  • XM34@feddit.de
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    10 months ago

    As others have already said, you’re not required to allow any race in your homebrew setting. Heck, half my settings only allow humans and that’s it (not DnD though).

    That being said, if you go for high fantasy, I think elementals (aka genasi) always add quite a bit to the lore and I would add at least one scaly race. Be it Dragonborn, Lizardmen or Naga and maybe a beast race if it fits your world.

    But it really depends on the kind of world you want.

  • Naboo_calls_for_aid@sopuli.xyz
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    5 months ago

    Not what you’re asking, but relevant: I’ve mostly played in homebrew worlds and exclusively DMd homebrew, and what ive found is actually having the different races have some representation means more than their historical heritage in the world. If it comes up, maybe in prep detail it out a little. If there’s only one Tabaxi in the world, it’s origin is more suspicious (needs explanation) than if players encounter them occasionally.

    Wanting my players to be open to trying less common races I recently made a d100 including every race I could find so that the NPCs can be anything instead of whatever pops in my head in a rush to describe the shopkeep.

  • bogdugg@sh.itjust.works
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    10 months ago

    I would just write the world in a way that is interesting to you, and add to it as players show interest. “Hey, I want to play a Tabaxi” -> “oh okay, let me think about what that means and I’ll get back to you.” This also gives you more latitude for using their ideas to inform the world. “I want to play a Tabaxi Wizard” -> “oh interesting, maybe there’s a clan of them that…”

    You’ll be able to focus on what you care about, which will make the world more interesting, and allow players to incorporate things they care about if they wish, which will make it more fun for them too. Framing it in terms of “up for deletion” implies you need to answer everything about the world from the start, which is not only inefficient but an impossible standard. Just because you haven’t considered something doesn’t mean it can’t exist.

        • Xilabar the Dice Goblin@dice.campOP
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          10 months ago

          It’s really not as busted as it sounds, especially since this is likely a dragon with 1d8 hit points and a 15 in its highest stat

          Personally, I think the best way to nerf a Dragon PC is strict timekeeping. Each year they get slightly bigger, each week their claws grow just enough to keep them from permanently silvering their claws, etc

          • TheOneCurly@lemmy.theonecurly.page
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            10 months ago

            All I meant by this is that there is a common fantasy that the dragonborn race option fulfills that is not thematically fulfilled by dwarves and orcs. If you think a different or custom race would fulfill that fantasy better then that’s great too.