1y ago

What dnd races are required?

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.

37 comments

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.
- this is honestly just solid #DMAdvice. But also bad phrasing on my part. My actual motivation for asking the internet was to see if there was going to be a surprisingly large chunk of people that would be turned off if [insert species here] wasn't included by default.

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.

You are legally required to have dragonborn WITH TAILS. Sorry, I don't make the rules.
- But why have them at all? They don't seem to do anything thematically that dwarves or orcs can't do better
  
  It covers the very common case of new players who want to be dragons. You point them at dragonborn and tell them to go to town.

Nothing is required. It's your world. I restrict mine to "no furry races" like Tabaxi or other anthropomorphic races. I do allow avian races because they're harder to play, dragonborn, as well as Firbolg.

Honestly I make all the tolkien races, them if players want other races I invent cultures as we go.

In my home setting, I'm very particular about what races players can pick. None of the furry races, and generally just a handful of the fantasy races.
However, I told them up front that the mechanics of every WOTC-made race were on the table. So if a player wanted the mechanics of a Tabaxi, that's fine. You're just a really fast human/elf. We would reflavour the race to for in my setting. Because flavour is free and players like to have options. If the player and I can't think of a reflavour, they can't play the race.
- Is the furry ban caused by an over enthusiastic bard?
  
  Nah, I just don't like the genre of fantasy they evoke

I only build what is currently necessary. It is not necessary to know the origin of the race I am playing to have fun with it. A lot of the time, less is more.
- This. You might be tempted to have a whole cosmology and long history of your world, and honestly that's fine if you have the time and energy to write it all down and keep track. But if it's just for a campaign, usually it's better to have a bare bones idea of what the race's place in the world is. Sometimes players want to be able to fill in their own gaps, and sometimes that can lead to the best ideas.

None, that said my opinion doesn't matter.
Talk to your players. Explain your thought process. Ask them what they would miss. Come to a compromise.

Basically all the races in lord of the rings would be ideal. Don't forget about the giant spiders and treeants.
Personally, I'm rather fond of fairies and drow too.
Would love to see Inklings in d&d as well.

Humans, always, unless you're doing a very specific setting to exclude them.
Elves, and dwarves are so intrinsic to the idea of fantasy role play, them not being there would flummox most players, even if they didn't want to play one.
Halflings are almost as entrenched. But you could likely get away without them and not screw with expectations as much.
Now, me personally I'm essentially forever DM. So I tend to want either a big, strong human fighter I can just go ham with, or I want to play obscure shit that never actually gets used in most groups. But even I would expect the three "core" races to be available by default in a fantasy ttrpg. Well, as playable races. I'd expect others to fight :)
In other words, you've already got a good list, so there's no need to add more

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.

- @ThisIsAManWhoKnowsHowToGling but I'm a #furry
- Why shouldn’t furries have something to play as?
  
  As stated elsewhere: Delete the furries.
- My feelings as well. No furry races.
  Edit: guys, you're downvoting me for a policy at my table. Not everyone else's. I have a worldview for my creation. Furry characters don't fit into the lore.

37 comments