I live to oppress you with my goodrightfun 4-races, 4-classes, Basic 5e D&D. Oppression! (In Imagination Land, no less? :eek: )

FWIW, I had fun coming up with non-rogue halflings -- so as to fight against the tall-ocracy! :mad: -- when that 538 poll on D&D PC demographics came out. Pushed me out of the lazy "race as mere stat & bennies" build mentality that was creeping in from visiting the Giantitp forum. (That's right, I called you lazy, you filthy, badwrongfun heathen! :mad: ) It brings back happy PC memories.

Quote from: Baulderstone;1066787Gygax would weep to see the carefully constructed ecology of the world presented is his original Monster Manual turning into a mish-mash of influences. Next they will be tossing in crashed spaceships, crossing it over with tonally different works like those of Lewis Carroll, or allowing people to play balrogs.

Perish the thought!

Quote from: Kyle Aaron;1067833Gygax was soft. He should have slapped Mike M down the moment he gave voice to that stupid idea. Melt the snowflakes with the fire of righteous DM fury! The hobby would have been better for it. Start as you mean to go on.

Oh, and real gamers don't twitter.

I have never had a twitter account or Facebook for that matter. Here is the breakdown of random murderhobos in my 5E campaign (we just played session 52 last week)

Lightfoot halfling (mostly) rogue

Human fighter (battle master)

Svirvneblin rogue/wizard

Wood elf druid

Human fighter (eldritch knight)

Goliath Paladin

LIzardfolk druid

My group has a mix of player ages. One is a millennial, one is even younger-age 15, and the others are all older players, a couple are older than me (49). Everyone is enjoying the character that they are playing so all is well.

Quote from: Exploderwizard;1068033 Perish the thought!



I have never had a twitter account or Facebook for that matter. Here is the breakdown of random murderhobos in my 5E campaign (we just played session 52 last week)

Lightfoot halfling (mostly) rogue

Human fighter (battle master)

Svirvneblin rogue/wizard

Wood elf druid

Human fighter (eldritch knight)

Goliath Paladin

LIzardfolk druid

My group has a mix of player ages. One is a millennial, one is even younger-age 15, and the others are all older players, a couple are older than me (49). Everyone is enjoying the character that they are playing so all is well.

Notice how D&D and the rpg community as a whole is still intact. Apparently you and I are doing something wrong and mentally handicapped and so are your players for daring to play something other than core D&D races. Why no good reason really. Some play core only and some do not. One does not have to like it either position. Neither should one call anyone "retarded" or some other insult simply for not having the proper rebuttal on hand. Soem games depending on my mood are core only. Some I allow non-core races. Both are good nether is bad.

I also don't get the aboslute fear on this forum and others let alone the anti-tech phobia of using tablets and being online while doing gaming. Real gamers or should I say those who live in the present will use whatever tools needed to run, play and find players. Whether they be Twitter, Facebook and social media. I hate to tell some here but your coming across exactly Palladium books when they insisted for years that PDFs were a passing fad. Social media as a whole is not a passing fad. I recently sold off almost all my print rpgs. Beyond keeping only what is not in PDF or a few core books. From now on I'm showing up to a table with a tablet. Purchasing legal PDF as second hand sellers are insane with their prices. I'm not going to spend 40+ dollars on a 1E or 2E D&D players handbook when I can get both for 20$ or less if the PDF is on sale on their site. Either the visiting table provides a print copy for me to us or accepts my use of the tablet or I do not game.

As or the subject of gatekeeping it's less that and being more an grognard. Which is not a badge of honor imo. No one can stop anyone acting like one. Don't also be a hypocrite by being offended when you act like one and then people call you out for being one.

Quote from: sureshot;1068035I also don't get the aboslute fear on this forum and others let alone the anti-tech phobia of using tablets and being online while doing gaming. Real gamers or should I say those who live in the present will use whatever tools needed to run, play and find players. Whether they be Twitter, Facebook and social media. I hate to tell some here but your coming across exactly Palladium books when they insisted for years that PDFs were a passing fad. Social media as a whole is not a passing fad. I recently sold off almost all my print rpgs. Beyond keeping only what is not in PDF or a few core books. From now on I'm showing up to a table with a tablet. Purchasing legal PDF as second hand sellers are insane with their prices. I'm not going to spend 40+ dollars on a 1E or 2E D&D players handbook when I can get both for 20$ or less if the PDF is on sale on their site. Either the visiting table provides a print copy for me to us or accepts my use of the tablet or I do not game.

I don't care about the presence of screens at the table if someone wants to use that instead of paper but connection to the internet during a game is is a big NO. Game time is precious unconnected time. Someone who wants to keep checking their FB feed at the table can fuck off and play somewhere else.

Quote from: Exploderwizard;1068038I don't care about the presence of screens at the table if someone wants to use that instead of paper but connection to the internet during a game is is a big NO. Game time is precious unconnected time. Someone who wants to keep checking their FB feed at the table can fuck off and play somewhere else.

Obviously the tablet is there to be used as reference. Either to look at the character sheet or reference the PHB. Nothing else for me at least. As much as I prefer print. It's too expensive to buy older editions of D&D and the sourcebooks for those editions in print. As well as being heavy to carry and take up too much shelf space.

Quote from: sureshot;1068022Don't waste your time and do not feed the troll. Whatever point he was trying to make was lost once he compared those who have a different play style as retards. Poster get push back and everyone else who thinks differently is a retard, nazi etc. Don't post on forums if one is not going to like the response he or she is going to get.

This sounds like gatekeeping!!

I think it would be neat if someone made a game where the races / species differences were really enforced, so that rather than being better humans (immortal, low-light vision, magical), they were literally different creatures with radically different psychologies that were enforced manually. For example

Elves - must roll or 50% won't bother to help or assist anyone who is not immortal (why do their lives matter?), must roll or 50% of the time won't stop what they're doing to do something else.
Dwarves - must try to kill or scheme against someone who has betrayed them each game.

Bison and Sharks are very different creatures, but for some reason in kitchen-sink D&D type games the non-humans are just better humans.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1067831Does it? Because for starters D&D Beyond is not necessarily where the new-wave players are mostly hanging out

Except it is. I have no clue how you'd conclude otherwise. The Grognards are not using the new fangled pay-service which simply duplicates the stuff in their hardcopy books...that would be the new kids who like the online access stuff more than their books.

QuoteAnd yet, even with all that, there's still 31.94% of players on there making non-conventional races

The overwhelming majority are playing standard races. Less than 1/3 are not. And you're whining about that minority not playing your preferred races? Weak. Even weaker is claiming it was "Apparently no one in 5e plays humans, dwarves, elves or halflings anymore," for attention. You own the fucking board Pundy, you don't need to attention whore with intentionally deceptive thread titles to get attention. People will read and respond to your opinion even if you don't exaggerate the topic like the National Enquirer.

Quote from: Mistwell;1068066Except it is. I have no clue how you'd conclude otherwise. The Grognards are not using the new fangled pay-service which simply duplicates the stuff in their hardcopy books...that would be the new kids who like the online access stuff more than their books.

The overwhelming majority are playing standard races. Less than 1/3 are not. And you're whining about that minority not playing your preferred races? Weak. Even weaker is claiming it was "Apparently no one in 5e plays humans, dwarves, elves or halflings anymore," for attention. You own the fucking board Pundy, you don't need to attention whore with intentionally deceptive thread titles to get attention. People will read and respond to your opinion even if you don't exaggerate the topic like the National Enquirer.

I don't agree with Mistwell often, but in this case?  100%.

Quote from: PencilBoy99;1068049I think it would be neat if someone made a game where the races / species differences were really enforced, so that rather than being better humans (immortal, low-light vision, magical), they were literally different creatures with radically different psychologies that were enforced manually. For example

Elves - must roll or 50% won't bother to help or assist anyone who is not immortal (why do their lives matter?), must roll or 50% of the time won't stop what they're doing to do something else.
Dwarves - must try to kill or scheme against someone who has betrayed them each game.

Bison and Sharks are very different creatures, but for some reason in kitchen-sink D&D type games the non-humans are just better humans.

Greetings!

Hey PencilBoy99! I agree that the different races should be distinct. As for the other main tangents of the thread, I wouldn't be so dramatic--or dogmatic--that anyone that wants to play a non-human must be a retarded idiot. In fact, in my own campaigns, when I have a player that wants to roll some kind of non-human, it's never an issue. It's actually cool, because they seek to do like what you're saying--they seek to play race X as being different, and experiencing the campaign through *that* person's eyes--both the good and the bad. That kind of player that actually wants to bring the race X alive within the context of the campaign world is, I think, generally a good thing.

What I think some folks are missing isn't that, per se. Like someone else mentioned, I think, they said context matters. Exactly. Instead, what I have often experienced is so many younger players especially, picking crazy, off the wall races to play--so they can show off their special uber powers--and generally act like selfish special snowflakes--all the while not giving a damn about the campaign context and miliue at all, and of course wanting and expecting everyone around them to treat them just like they were human--or even better so, because they are so special and so on. Such play-styles, and racial choices tends to corrode and *detract* from the campaign, as opposed to actually contributing something meaningful with their character.

I think that dynamic is what frustrates me about players playing all of these crazy races. Have a crazy race played well by a cool, mature, thoughtful player? That's good. But the dynamic I have seen--and I think others are reacting as well, much as yourself too, to the increased sense of more people playing with such crazy races and styles. Whether it's an actual majority on some online thing, *shrug*--I don't care. Maybe humans are more popular with gamers in Texas, for example, and that swings the numbers. I know here, where I play, for the last year, 75% or more players are playing crazy races. Humans and elves, dwarves and halflings are a distinct minority, and in several groups I've seen over the last year, hardly appear at all.

Crazy races plus selfish, snowflake creates a dynamic that is frustrating for many.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Quote from: Exploderwizard;1068033Here is the breakdown of random murderhobos in my 5E campaign (we just played session 52 last week)

You're soft, too. I am disappoint.

Quote from: PencilBoy99;1068049I think it would be neat if someone made a game where the races / species differences were really enforced, so that rather than being better humans (immortal, low-light vision, magical), they were literally different creatures with radically different psychologies that were enforced manually. For example

Elves - must roll or 50% won't bother to help or assist anyone who is not immortal (why do their lives matter?), must roll or 50% of the time won't stop what they're doing to do something else.
Dwarves - must try to kill or scheme against someone who has betrayed them each game.

Bison and Sharks are very different creatures, but for some reason in kitchen-sink D&D type games the non-humans are just better humans.

The ideas of races being different is a fine concept but any racially enforced behavior that encourages players to behave like dicks is asking for trouble. Players don't need any additional encouragement in that area.

Quote from: Kyle Aaron;1068070You're soft, too. I am disappoint.

Perhaps, but I run AD&D for the same group of people and I am much more of a hardass there.

Quote from: Opaopajr;1068031I live to oppress you with my goodrightfun 4-races, 4-classes, Basic 5e D&D. Oppression! (In Imagination Land, no less? :eek: ) \

4x4 4ever!

Currently running some adhoc adventures for our neighbours
The party is made up as follows:
Gnomish Druid
Stout Halfling, Monk
Human Cleric
Tiefling Warlock

So one Tiefling and the rest pretty standard races.
Age ranges from 16 to 50s


I run sessions at an Open table club too. Age ranges from 16 to 30+
The last table I ran a session for there I had the following party:
Human Warrior (Eldritch Knight)
Wood Elven Ranger
Tiefling Warrior (Champion) (although I believe his character was originally a DragonBorn, but was reincarnated (via the spell) as Tiefling)
Human Warrior
Halfling Rogue

So seems mostly core races, with a sprinkling of exotic races.

My son (18) plays DnD with his friends and they play mostly the Exotic races, such as Aasimar, Dragonborn, Tieflings and so on.
They are mostly 18 to 25 in the age range. They like to use as many extra books as possible and experiment with all sorts of race/class combinations.

Quote from: danskmacabre;1068078Stout, Halfling Monk

Playing one of those too. No human's kneecaps are safe from the two feet of death! (Height and weaponry, both.)