>Wouldn't this be a bit conspicuous and probably dangerous?
Depends on the setting. Either way, RPGs are about entering dangerous situations for fun, so this isn't a problem unless you have a passive aggressive DM trying to punish the players for picking the wrong race instead of banning it at character creation.
There is a strong correlation between how inclusive a thing is and how shit a thing is. I run games in which humans are the only playable race, and anyone who b***hes about it has filtered themselves right out of any game I'm running, but I wish them a fun time with whatever DnD improv-theater group picks them up.
Yes anon, a party with a dorf and an elf, along with two random humans and [insert random fifth character] is immensely worse than just 5 human fighters that have "human" and "fighter" written as their character backstory
I fricking wish the average TTRPG player group made parties like this. Dwarfs, elves, halflings... all classic and based.
Rainbow sparkle bird-people, sulfur-shit tieflings, anime monster girls, and sexual robot-constucts, miss me with that shit. The moder TTRPG playerbase is beyond salvaging. Saying "Humans only" is a great way to filter our zoomers like (you) though.
I fricking wish the average TTRPG player group made parties like this. Dwarfs, elves, halflings... all classic and based.
Rainbow sparkle bird-people, sulfur-shit tieflings, anime monster girls, and sexual robot-constucts, miss me with that shit. The moder TTRPG playerbase is beyond salvaging. Saying "Humans only" is a great way to filter our zoomers like (you) though.
>"based" "trad" HFY gay >it's a tranime fan
As expected lol
Yes anon, a party with a dorf and an elf, along with two random humans and [insert random fifth character] is immensely worse than just 5 human fighters that have "human" and "fighter" written as their character backstory
Brown cope, my group of affluent white males have run human only games for the better part of 15 years and people constantly ask to join our tabletop nights.
Fighters are freakshit. A realistic man-at-arms at the time wouldn't be able to do superhero maneuvers and have several horses worth of HP. Much better to play a commoner and cap your level at 3 or so.
what about battle wheelchair?
This. The combat wheelchair is paramount to any good D&D build.
This is a zoomer take, nice to as a grognard.
The correct take is to limit to classic fantasy races only. Human/Dwarf/Elf/Halfling, with consideration for Gnome and halfbreeds. That’s it. Maybe after 20 sessions if someone wants to play something else introduced in the story that makes sense, if it fits, it can be discussed.
Human only is a cope by zoomers who want to pretend they were playing in 80s.
I fricking wish the average TTRPG player group made parties like this. Dwarfs, elves, halflings... all classic and based.
Rainbow sparkle bird-people, sulfur-shit tieflings, anime monster girls, and sexual robot-constucts, miss me with that shit. The moder TTRPG playerbase is beyond salvaging. Saying "Humans only" is a great way to filter our zoomers like (you) though.
Classic races are fine, and even the occasional odd race if it fits a theme. A homogenous party of bros is always best though. It puts the strangeness and mystery on the world, rather than a player.
>How diverse do you like your adventuring party?
Diverse in what way?
If in terms of being actual characters, with different ways to think and with different motivations, then as diverse as possible.
If in terms of superficial attributes (muh skin color, muh tentacles, muh monsterness) or mechanics (muh class, muh roles, muh DPS/Tank/Healbot), I genuinely do not give a single shit.
Authentically represent what your character is and have them suffer the consequences of their actions and their being, and we're good.
Based if true.
I'll figure that out when I'm done balancing the races.
Ah, right. I forgot that balance is a trigger word for our resident theater kids.
Here's something you might not know: some people here want an actual game, and in the spirit of making an actual game where the goal is to accrue resources, explore areas, and eliminate threats, every option available to the protagonistic forces needs to have considerable viability. While the numbers won't match exactly, and the functions/requirements may vary, every fighting style, weapon, and magic is valid to a significant degree; because otherwise, there's no reason to put it in the fricking book. It's a waste of time to write, and a waste of time to read, worthless character options in a game.
Someone coming from D&D, PbtA, or some freeform bullshit couldn't possibly understand these things, though, as those products put in intentionally redundant and worthless elements to pad their page count for the books "you don't even need".
>muh theater kids
No, the opposite, you absolute fricking troglodyte. Didn't read the rest, because it's obviously inapplicable if you stumble on the first sentence.
>actual characters, with different ways to think and with different motivations
This is a theater kid sentiment. >[in regards to mechanics] I genuinely do not give a single shit
This is a theater kid sentiment. >Authentically represent what your character is
This is a theater kid sentiment.
So, excuse me for mistaking a post filled with theater kid sentimentality as being written by a theater kid.
Your concession is accepted.
Someone coming from the market that itself tells you their product isn't needed for the purpose it's intended to be used for doesn't understand game design, yes.
>How diverse do you like your adventuring party?
As diverse as possible while still being believable in the setting. Different backgrounds and roles clashing makes the party interactions more entertaining.
Pretty much this. I prefer my parties to have a little more variation in class and race, but I want the characters to have great interactions and clashing viewpoints. Makes for a lot of fun at the table in my opinion.
All the same race, all the same class, all with the same outfit, and all with the same weapons.
Last game was all Gnome Barbarians dual wielding hand axes while wearing corgi skins for armor whose main goal was to kill all gnolls and breed all the larger ladies.
It was a blast honestly.
>Everyone has the same class >Backgrounds are randomly generated >Race is player's choice
Theme parties are the best parties. Plus with the different backgrounds and races, you end up with all sorts of bullshit builds trying to one up each other. It's basically all the fun of PvP without the risk that a PC shanks another one.
Problem is players are far too attached to specific concepts they want to play. That's why one-shots always have a place at my table so you try out ideas you wouldn't dedicate an entire campaign playing as.
One time 2 of my 5 players showed up with white human male(straight) fighters with blonde and red hair, instead of brown hair, and we had to have a talk about it.
They rolled for it.
Red haired had to go with the standard brown hair(but he rolled well enough that he could've opted for black hair as well).
Blonde haired character rolled well enough to keep it.
Took some getting used to, but we managed to keep this going for a couple of months with 4 brown haired white human male(straight) fighters, and 1 blonde haired white human male(straight) fighter.
I like them really diverse.
Current group I think is a pretty good example
Human Female Martial Artist, comes from a background of farmers, was found to have the touch of magic, so she was taken in by a wizard. Unfortunately her talents turned out to be for the magic of the self, basically like a D&D monk. She has mostly used her abilities to help with her job as a courier, since she never really had the ambition to do more than that before the campaign started.
Human Male Paladin(?), he always lived pretty well, though he never met his father, doesn't know he's a noble bastard. He had a strong sense of duty and justice, and as such joined the local guard until he was poached to work as security for a noble lady. He felt he was doing his duty to protect important people of his home city and that he should be proud of that. The first adventure has pushed him to be more of a knight, and recently a holy weapon reacted well to him.
Human Male Thief, came from a shit upbringing, both parents died, blagged his way into being an assistant in a library where he learned to read, then blagged his way into becoming a scholar's assistant, expecting an easy job for good pay, ended up doing A LOT of archaeology work for the old man. When the man died tragically in an accident the thief took over the man's house/museum (no heirs), and has basically just maintained it while looking for other jobs that could make use of his knowledge/skillset. Ended up being the party thief after their first set of challenges.
Human Female Psychic, she came from the south with gypsies, though she was too young to remember much about it. Has always been a bit of an outsider due to both her appearance and the fact people suggest strange things happened around her. Later learned to disguise her abilities as hexes and magic, but that doesn't change the fact she needs to feed off of emotions every so often. Was only recently forced to push her kinetic manipulations for combat effect.
It's something that's completely irrelevant to me unless it impacts the setting or is defined by it in turn. In a sense, expect the world to react to what you're playing as.
Freakshit is a forced meme only used on /tg/ by autistic shitposters. It addressed a real type of problem player, but has become hilariously overblown by nogames on the board.
This looks cool, is it a game?
I dont think i'd attack strangers unprovoked, but i wouldn't harbour these foul creatures under my clan's roof, i'd send them to another clan.
Human only parties bore me. It's all you ever see in other mediums justified by technical and cost limitations and the goal of playing it safe ansd appealing to the masses so I have no interest in seeing that in tabletop. Even if I'm the one playing the human I still prefer to bounce off of weird characters and situations.
This unless everyone agrees to some kind of theme
Like one game I had with the boys was a bunch of beastmen. I was a catfolk, dude was a loxadon (elephant), another was a lizard, another a minotaur
We called ourselves "The Animal Crackers"
Shift the ratios a little and I'll concur
You can have as little as 30% human if you still have enough near-humans to keep the oddballs in the minority
FF12 did it pretty well, and imo is a good model to follow - in a party of 6 you've got 3 people from the main country of the setting, 1 person from the enemy country, 1 person who immigrated from the enemy country to the main country, and 1 complete foreigner of a different race.
And across that you've got a large range of socio-economic statuses as well - from the lower class, to soldiers, to (ex-noble) pirates, to a member of royalty.
They're all connected to the setting in ways that make sense, and because of the diversity in background you have a diversity in thought amongst them as well.
People - here and elsewhere - get way too fricking hung up on a character's race+gender being the only ways for diversity to exist. Appearance mostly doesn't fricking matter. Thought and culture are much more important but they tend to be waylaid in exchange for screaming about black people.
And of course a lot of that is culture war bullshit, but really people should be thinking more on what makes for a better story. Consider the scope of the campaign and work within that to make sure that most characters have connections and viewpoints that reflect the setting, unless of course the whole point is that the party are complete outsiders - which still needs consideration beforehand as to what outside views they're bringing in.
What? that did it fricking awful imo. I fricking hated 12's party so much because it presented so many interesting non-humans in the setting and then saddled us with an entire two humans too much, both who were utterly worthless and uninteresting characters.
Honestly, the only member of FF12's party that didn't pull their weigh narratively was Penelo. Ashe is the real main character, Basch and Baltheir and Fran all have significant plot connection or connection to zones you spend a lot of time in, and Vaan is a perfectly servicable pov character that brings a ground level view to these huge sweeping events everyone else is embroiled in. Penelo, by contrast, is just kinda... there.
I do agree that we should have had a Bangaa party member, though. I understand not giving us a Seeq, but a Banga or a Gariff should have been on the table. Not even necessarily in replacement of Penelo, just in addition to her.
>3
Human, Human, Human or Elf >4
Human, Human, Human or Elf, Dwarf or Other >5
Human, Human, Human or Elf, Dwarf, Other >6
Human, Human, Elf, Dwarf, Other, Other
Depending on party composition One of the Humans can be Halfling.
the big thing is that having two human characters serves as an grounding for any shenanigans or wacky racial bullshit, Elves also are quite versatile but its really best to have just the one. Dwarves are similar where one is good but more than one on a long term basis can shift the center of gravity in the part to that one all Dwarf party meme.
The other slot can be anything from a small mascot type like kobold or goblin to a hulking berserker as an orc.
However this is all just my preference and stuff like all one race parties or evil race parties can also work, it just really becomes a drag when most of the party is wacky and trying to pull attention with their racial choice.
If you can't have a grounded concept that doesn't fall back on your race choice for 90% of its identity, that is your shortcoming as a player.
If you cannot empathize with exotic cultures and ignore massive swathes of the wider world to indulge your ill-fitting mudcore or hamfisted Christian religion fantasies, or cannot delve into their personalities without making it about your fetishes or snatching attention from the party, that is also your shortcoming as a player.
The patricians can do both, knowing which settings best accommodate either concept.
Depends on the game. Space fantasy? Yeah go wild, we can even make up new, weirder races. Something about a small band of post-apocalyptic survivors rebuilding society? Human only.
Could be a neat game too. So long as the races available fit whatever tone the game has. Hell, I've got ideas for a simple campaign based on Kipo and the Wonderbeasts as my daughter gets old enough to pay attention through a tabletop game, so Humans and Mutes for that one.
Even in a human only games making the party more diverse makes it more interesting. Most disaster, zombie, or apocalypse stories have a pretty odd mix of people who otherwise wouldn't give each other the time of day because it lets them have an fun array of skillsets and leads to tension.
Absolutely, but I'd say there's a fair difference between two humans from vastly different backgrounds and two completely different species, and it can be fun to swap between exploring them in different campaigns.
Diversity is conductive to a fun dynamic, but that applies to background and personality being diverse first, after that comes gameplay niche diversity (which may include your racial choice if you are playing a game where races dont just give night vision and minor ability modifiers)
Minimum 10 players and I have an auction system so that once one race has been chosen for a character, no other player can use that race. No humans. If players run out of ideas they like from splatbooks, I have a collection of my own custom races (all furry and sexual of course ;^)
In D&D/PF or other similar high Fantasy settings, ideally party choice is restricted to the core/traditional races, plus animal races, with possible exceptions depending on those exceptions. The reason for this is simple: People instinctively know how to play them. They know Dwarves are grumpy subterranean Scottish people, they know Elves are namby-pamby treehuggers, and with the animal races they can default to stereotypes about the animal. Cats are lazy, wolves run in packs, etc. My problem with more esoteric races has been that people just play them as humans with extra abilities, and consequently it's easy as a DM to forget they're supposed to be different.
Depends on the game/setting tbh.
Shadowrun? Traveller? Fine, give me a random as frick mixbag of ethnicities, races, species, whatever.
DnD? If there's a major presence of the race the player wants in the area (Dwarf Nation to the North, Elves in the Great Forest to the East, whatever) then sure, fine. If you want to play the one member of a random-ass race for a thousand miles in any direction? Frick off.
I think people should be able to play whatever they want as long as there is room for players to bend on their desires and work with each other. My brother used to play this incredibly anti social mantis man druid in a game for over a year and it was great but the party was mostly "normal" beyond that and I was the blonde boy lawful good human fighter to anchor everything. In another game I've played a chaotic wall running dhampir barbarian woman that got lost in the feywild for the majority of her life before joining the group but it's fine cuz we have a human paladin and a human ranger calling the shots; and most importantly nobody i play with is so committed to playing some weird niche freak character that throws off the plot at every turn.
if a player is like >yeah I kinda wanna play an 8CHA minotaur this game and just be the party's wrecking ball but I also have this idea for a weird old warlock man if we need a caster
vs >this is my half tiefling half aasimar I try to bring to every single table and if all eyes aren't on me I'm gonna freak out
and the table just balances shit out to have a good dynamic I think that's better than a party of all humans or something. Of course I also treat 5e as more of a high fantasy game because I don't think current D&D does grounded low fantasy and stuff well in any way whatsoever, is practically a superhero game. In a low or no magic setting with a different system then it's a different conversation.
There are exactly 3 more races in the world than there are races in the party. The world is as diverse as the party wants it to be. >party consists of two humans, an elf, and a dwarf >halflings, beast folk, and Porcs are the remaining races
>party consists of three dwarves, a goblin, and a tiefling >humans, halflings, and elves are the remaining races.
Every other race either doesn't exist or are monsters. Your race is nothing special and I'll bleach it until it matches the setting.
>party consists of a dhampir, fire genasi, a duergar, a dragonborn, and a bugbear >remaining races are human, halfling, and elves are the remaining races
>dhampir
offshoot of humanity that are their own race and are more closely related to humans than they are top vampires >fire genasi
humans from the plane of fire. >a duergar
all the other dwarves are dead because of a massive extintion event so only dueregar are left so the races just treat you as dwarves >dragonborn
lizardfolk, but capable of civil discussion. >bugbear
fairy werewolf
Pretty diverse. I like to have a couple of Fighters, a Wizard, a Rogue, and a Priest. Maybe an Elf, a Dwarf, or a Girl can fill one or two of those spots for a double diversity score.
Well typically I don't have much choice in this, it's up to the other players. If I'm Dming I might ban races that don't exist or I just don't want to deal with (Warforged, Bird frickers, aasimar etc). But typically so long as players follow my general outline for races in the setting i'm fine. If you want to be a hot half-orc lady that's good but they just have to understand that that race carries with it certain stereotypes and assumptions that they either they'd need to lean into or defy in a way that fits their and the worlds rp. As a player I always liked the outcast monster groups. Orcs, Goblins, Ogres etc.
An all freakshit party can be great if you have the right players/adventure set up. Starting the players off as a gaggle of exotic slaves fighting their way to freedom in the area only to become a found family as they traverse the land on a grander quest is pure kino.
When the group enters town, I want EVERYONE to know these freaks are a group of adventurers.
Wouldn't this be a bit conspicuous and probably dangerous? Or are the PCs the only ones in the world with any power?
>Wouldn't this be a bit conspicuous and probably dangerous?
Depends on the setting. Either way, RPGs are about entering dangerous situations for fun, so this isn't a problem unless you have a passive aggressive DM trying to punish the players for picking the wrong race instead of banning it at character creation.
There is a strong correlation between how inclusive a thing is and how shit a thing is. I run games in which humans are the only playable race, and anyone who b***hes about it has filtered themselves right out of any game I'm running, but I wish them a fun time with whatever DnD improv-theater group picks them up.
Yes anon, a party with a dorf and an elf, along with two random humans and [insert random fifth character] is immensely worse than just 5 human fighters that have "human" and "fighter" written as their character backstory
I fricking wish the average TTRPG player group made parties like this. Dwarfs, elves, halflings... all classic and based.
Rainbow sparkle bird-people, sulfur-shit tieflings, anime monster girls, and sexual robot-constucts, miss me with that shit. The moder TTRPG playerbase is beyond salvaging. Saying "Humans only" is a great way to filter our zoomers like (you) though.
what about battle wheelchair?
sauce
Now
https://exhentai.org/g/2352995/2a7515f077/
>"based" "trad" HFY gay
>it's a tranime fan
As expected lol
newbie,go back
Based human fighter bro
Brown cope, my group of affluent white males have run human only games for the better part of 15 years and people constantly ask to join our tabletop nights.
Fighters are freakshit. A realistic man-at-arms at the time wouldn't be able to do superhero maneuvers and have several horses worth of HP. Much better to play a commoner and cap your level at 3 or so.
This. The combat wheelchair is paramount to any good D&D build.
This is a zoomer take, nice to as a grognard.
The correct take is to limit to classic fantasy races only. Human/Dwarf/Elf/Halfling, with consideration for Gnome and halfbreeds. That’s it. Maybe after 20 sessions if someone wants to play something else introduced in the story that makes sense, if it fits, it can be discussed.
Human only is a cope by zoomers who want to pretend they were playing in 80s.
Yes, it is.
This, but unironically
This but unironically. Fruit loops parties are disgusting.
I can tell how fat you are just by your posts.
Classic races are fine, and even the occasional odd race if it fits a theme. A homogenous party of bros is always best though. It puts the strangeness and mystery on the world, rather than a player.
>How diverse do you like your adventuring party?
Diverse in what way?
If in terms of being actual characters, with different ways to think and with different motivations, then as diverse as possible.
If in terms of superficial attributes (muh skin color, muh tentacles, muh monsterness) or mechanics (muh class, muh roles, muh DPS/Tank/Healbot), I genuinely do not give a single shit.
Authentically represent what your character is and have them suffer the consequences of their actions and their being, and we're good.
Based if true.
>muh balance
Utterly cringe.
Ah, right. I forgot that balance is a trigger word for our resident theater kids.
Here's something you might not know: some people here want an actual game, and in the spirit of making an actual game where the goal is to accrue resources, explore areas, and eliminate threats, every option available to the protagonistic forces needs to have considerable viability. While the numbers won't match exactly, and the functions/requirements may vary, every fighting style, weapon, and magic is valid to a significant degree; because otherwise, there's no reason to put it in the fricking book. It's a waste of time to write, and a waste of time to read, worthless character options in a game.
Someone coming from D&D, PbtA, or some freeform bullshit couldn't possibly understand these things, though, as those products put in intentionally redundant and worthless elements to pad their page count for the books "you don't even need".
>muh theater kids
No, the opposite, you absolute fricking troglodyte. Didn't read the rest, because it's obviously inapplicable if you stumble on the first sentence.
>actual characters, with different ways to think and with different motivations
This is a theater kid sentiment.
>[in regards to mechanics] I genuinely do not give a single shit
This is a theater kid sentiment.
>Authentically represent what your character is
This is a theater kid sentiment.
So, excuse me for mistaking a post filled with theater kid sentimentality as being written by a theater kid.
Your concession is accepted.
>Someone coming from D&D, PbtA
So someone coming from 99% of the market?
Someone coming from the market that itself tells you their product isn't needed for the purpose it's intended to be used for doesn't understand game design, yes.
I'll figure that out when I'm done balancing the races.
The only male should be me, and the rest are various races and classes of hot chicks
>How diverse do you like your adventuring party?
As diverse as possible while still being believable in the setting. Different backgrounds and roles clashing makes the party interactions more entertaining.
Pretty much this. I prefer my parties to have a little more variation in class and race, but I want the characters to have great interactions and clashing viewpoints. Makes for a lot of fun at the table in my opinion.
Yeah, some common backgrounds can be good fodder for RP but you want there to be different backgrounds and experiences to play off of.
Human Fighter
Elf Wizard
Dwarf Fighter
Halfling Rogue
this but dorf should be a cleric
I, the ultimate authority on roleplaying game party structures, deem your suggestion acceptable.
Don't need a cleric if you sleep well, eat well, and exercise
>4 furshits and 1 human (me)
20% diverse, we wouldn't make it into the Oscars
before the thread dies what is OP pic from?
Anywhere between from of one each race with diffrent classes each. To a full team of everyone is the same race and class.
As long at people are enjoying themself.
I play the token freakshit most times. It’ll feel weird next campaign being normal if there’s no freakshit in the party.
All the same race, all the same class, all with the same outfit, and all with the same weapons.
Last game was all Gnome Barbarians dual wielding hand axes while wearing corgi skins for armor whose main goal was to kill all gnolls and breed all the larger ladies.
It was a blast honestly.
>Everyone has the same class
>Backgrounds are randomly generated
>Race is player's choice
Theme parties are the best parties. Plus with the different backgrounds and races, you end up with all sorts of bullshit builds trying to one up each other. It's basically all the fun of PvP without the risk that a PC shanks another one.
Problem is players are far too attached to specific concepts they want to play. That's why one-shots always have a place at my table so you try out ideas you wouldn't dedicate an entire campaign playing as.
Sounds like a good time. I do like contrasting different things a class can do, even in a cookie-cutter system like 5e.
This question depends on so many factors as to be unanswerable in its base state. Good day.
One time 2 of my 5 players showed up with white human male(straight) fighters with blonde and red hair, instead of brown hair, and we had to have a talk about it.
They rolled for it.
Red haired had to go with the standard brown hair(but he rolled well enough that he could've opted for black hair as well).
Blonde haired character rolled well enough to keep it.
Took some getting used to, but we managed to keep this going for a couple of months with 4 brown haired white human male(straight) fighters, and 1 blonde haired white human male(straight) fighter.
I like them really diverse.
Current group I think is a pretty good example
Human Female Martial Artist, comes from a background of farmers, was found to have the touch of magic, so she was taken in by a wizard. Unfortunately her talents turned out to be for the magic of the self, basically like a D&D monk. She has mostly used her abilities to help with her job as a courier, since she never really had the ambition to do more than that before the campaign started.
Human Male Paladin(?), he always lived pretty well, though he never met his father, doesn't know he's a noble bastard. He had a strong sense of duty and justice, and as such joined the local guard until he was poached to work as security for a noble lady. He felt he was doing his duty to protect important people of his home city and that he should be proud of that. The first adventure has pushed him to be more of a knight, and recently a holy weapon reacted well to him.
Human Male Thief, came from a shit upbringing, both parents died, blagged his way into being an assistant in a library where he learned to read, then blagged his way into becoming a scholar's assistant, expecting an easy job for good pay, ended up doing A LOT of archaeology work for the old man. When the man died tragically in an accident the thief took over the man's house/museum (no heirs), and has basically just maintained it while looking for other jobs that could make use of his knowledge/skillset. Ended up being the party thief after their first set of challenges.
Human Female Psychic, she came from the south with gypsies, though she was too young to remember much about it. Has always been a bit of an outsider due to both her appearance and the fact people suggest strange things happened around her. Later learned to disguise her abilities as hexes and magic, but that doesn't change the fact she needs to feed off of emotions every so often. Was only recently forced to push her kinetic manipulations for combat effect.
Very diverse, because games that can only reduce PCs to some brand of human are are shit! Shit!
It's something that's completely irrelevant to me unless it impacts the setting or is defined by it in turn. In a sense, expect the world to react to what you're playing as.
I like that /tg/ reacts to adventuring parties much the same as the average Gloranthan Orlanthi tribe.
freak shits have the reputation they do because their players think race choice by default makes characters interesting
Freakshit is a forced meme only used on /tg/ by autistic shitposters. It addressed a real type of problem player, but has become hilariously overblown by nogames on the board.
>freakshit
>basis of 90% of 5e
>5e contains 90+% of players
Found the autistic freakshitter.
Turn your monitor on then
This looks cool, is it a game?
I dont think i'd attack strangers unprovoked, but i wouldn't harbour these foul creatures under my clan's roof, i'd send them to another clan.
King of Dragon Pass
Very.
We got a Fighter, a Wizard (sometimes an Elf), a Cleric and a Thief.
We cover all the bases here.
Fighter, Elf, Dwarf, Wizard, Paladin
Tolkein already invented the best adventuring party, my Dad and Gary Gygax perfected it.
How do you propose to measure diversity?
OP is a gay. Traditionally it’s measured by divergence from human fightermen.
Should we use the Hollywood lefty method and go by how non-white, non-straight, and non-male a party is instead?
Human only parties bore me. It's all you ever see in other mediums justified by technical and cost limitations and the goal of playing it safe ansd appealing to the masses so I have no interest in seeing that in tabletop. Even if I'm the one playing the human I still prefer to bounce off of weird characters and situations.
Like Chrono Trigger
150% balls to the wall non binary burger king kid's club ren faire freakshit in wheelchairs.
The ideal party is 50% human
25% near human (Elf, dwarf, halfling, whatever)
And 25% freak
When everyone is a freak race, no one is
This unless everyone agrees to some kind of theme
Like one game I had with the boys was a bunch of beastmen. I was a catfolk, dude was a loxadon (elephant), another was a lizard, another a minotaur
We called ourselves "The Animal Crackers"
Shift the ratios a little and I'll concur
You can have as little as 30% human if you still have enough near-humans to keep the oddballs in the minority
FF12 did it pretty well, and imo is a good model to follow - in a party of 6 you've got 3 people from the main country of the setting, 1 person from the enemy country, 1 person who immigrated from the enemy country to the main country, and 1 complete foreigner of a different race.
And across that you've got a large range of socio-economic statuses as well - from the lower class, to soldiers, to (ex-noble) pirates, to a member of royalty.
They're all connected to the setting in ways that make sense, and because of the diversity in background you have a diversity in thought amongst them as well.
People - here and elsewhere - get way too fricking hung up on a character's race+gender being the only ways for diversity to exist. Appearance mostly doesn't fricking matter. Thought and culture are much more important but they tend to be waylaid in exchange for screaming about black people.
And of course a lot of that is culture war bullshit, but really people should be thinking more on what makes for a better story. Consider the scope of the campaign and work within that to make sure that most characters have connections and viewpoints that reflect the setting, unless of course the whole point is that the party are complete outsiders - which still needs consideration beforehand as to what outside views they're bringing in.
What? that did it fricking awful imo. I fricking hated 12's party so much because it presented so many interesting non-humans in the setting and then saddled us with an entire two humans too much, both who were utterly worthless and uninteresting characters.
Honestly, the only member of FF12's party that didn't pull their weigh narratively was Penelo. Ashe is the real main character, Basch and Baltheir and Fran all have significant plot connection or connection to zones you spend a lot of time in, and Vaan is a perfectly servicable pov character that brings a ground level view to these huge sweeping events everyone else is embroiled in. Penelo, by contrast, is just kinda... there.
I do agree that we should have had a Bangaa party member, though. I understand not giving us a Seeq, but a Banga or a Gariff should have been on the table. Not even necessarily in replacement of Penelo, just in addition to her.
>3
Human, Human, Human or Elf
>4
Human, Human, Human or Elf, Dwarf or Other
>5
Human, Human, Human or Elf, Dwarf, Other
>6
Human, Human, Elf, Dwarf, Other, Other
Depending on party composition One of the Humans can be Halfling.
the big thing is that having two human characters serves as an grounding for any shenanigans or wacky racial bullshit, Elves also are quite versatile but its really best to have just the one. Dwarves are similar where one is good but more than one on a long term basis can shift the center of gravity in the part to that one all Dwarf party meme.
The other slot can be anything from a small mascot type like kobold or goblin to a hulking berserker as an orc.
However this is all just my preference and stuff like all one race parties or evil race parties can also work, it just really becomes a drag when most of the party is wacky and trying to pull attention with their racial choice.
If you can't have a grounded concept that doesn't fall back on your race choice for 90% of its identity, that is your shortcoming as a player.
If you cannot empathize with exotic cultures and ignore massive swathes of the wider world to indulge your ill-fitting mudcore or hamfisted Christian religion fantasies, or cannot delve into their personalities without making it about your fetishes or snatching attention from the party, that is also your shortcoming as a player.
The patricians can do both, knowing which settings best accommodate either concept.
Depends on the game. Space fantasy? Yeah go wild, we can even make up new, weirder races. Something about a small band of post-apocalyptic survivors rebuilding society? Human only.
>not rebuilding mutant plant society
Bruh.
Could be a neat game too. So long as the races available fit whatever tone the game has. Hell, I've got ideas for a simple campaign based on Kipo and the Wonderbeasts as my daughter gets old enough to pay attention through a tabletop game, so Humans and Mutes for that one.
Even in a human only games making the party more diverse makes it more interesting. Most disaster, zombie, or apocalypse stories have a pretty odd mix of people who otherwise wouldn't give each other the time of day because it lets them have an fun array of skillsets and leads to tension.
Absolutely, but I'd say there's a fair difference between two humans from vastly different backgrounds and two completely different species, and it can be fun to swap between exploring them in different campaigns.
The best take in the thread.
Diversity is conductive to a fun dynamic, but that applies to background and personality being diverse first, after that comes gameplay niche diversity (which may include your racial choice if you are playing a game where races dont just give night vision and minor ability modifiers)
would pet
Minimum 10 players and I have an auction system so that once one race has been chosen for a character, no other player can use that race. No humans. If players run out of ideas they like from splatbooks, I have a collection of my own custom races (all furry and sexual of course ;^)
In D&D/PF or other similar high Fantasy settings, ideally party choice is restricted to the core/traditional races, plus animal races, with possible exceptions depending on those exceptions. The reason for this is simple: People instinctively know how to play them. They know Dwarves are grumpy subterranean Scottish people, they know Elves are namby-pamby treehuggers, and with the animal races they can default to stereotypes about the animal. Cats are lazy, wolves run in packs, etc. My problem with more esoteric races has been that people just play them as humans with extra abilities, and consequently it's easy as a DM to forget they're supposed to be different.
LG White Human males between the ages of 16 and 24 only. Anything else is unrealistic and profane.
Depends on the game/setting tbh.
Shadowrun? Traveller? Fine, give me a random as frick mixbag of ethnicities, races, species, whatever.
DnD? If there's a major presence of the race the player wants in the area (Dwarf Nation to the North, Elves in the Great Forest to the East, whatever) then sure, fine. If you want to play the one member of a random-ass race for a thousand miles in any direction? Frick off.
I think people should be able to play whatever they want as long as there is room for players to bend on their desires and work with each other. My brother used to play this incredibly anti social mantis man druid in a game for over a year and it was great but the party was mostly "normal" beyond that and I was the blonde boy lawful good human fighter to anchor everything. In another game I've played a chaotic wall running dhampir barbarian woman that got lost in the feywild for the majority of her life before joining the group but it's fine cuz we have a human paladin and a human ranger calling the shots; and most importantly nobody i play with is so committed to playing some weird niche freak character that throws off the plot at every turn.
if a player is like
>yeah I kinda wanna play an 8CHA minotaur this game and just be the party's wrecking ball but I also have this idea for a weird old warlock man if we need a caster
vs
>this is my half tiefling half aasimar I try to bring to every single table and if all eyes aren't on me I'm gonna freak out
and the table just balances shit out to have a good dynamic I think that's better than a party of all humans or something. Of course I also treat 5e as more of a high fantasy game because I don't think current D&D does grounded low fantasy and stuff well in any way whatsoever, is practically a superhero game. In a low or no magic setting with a different system then it's a different conversation.
There are exactly 3 more races in the world than there are races in the party. The world is as diverse as the party wants it to be.
>party consists of two humans, an elf, and a dwarf
>halflings, beast folk, and Porcs are the remaining races
>party consists of three dwarves, a goblin, and a tiefling
>humans, halflings, and elves are the remaining races.
Every other race either doesn't exist or are monsters. Your race is nothing special and I'll bleach it until it matches the setting.
>party consists of a dhampir, fire genasi, a duergar, a dragonborn, and a bugbear
>remaining races are human, halfling, and elves are the remaining races
>dhampir
offshoot of humanity that are their own race and are more closely related to humans than they are top vampires
>fire genasi
humans from the plane of fire.
>a duergar
all the other dwarves are dead because of a massive extintion event so only dueregar are left so the races just treat you as dwarves
>dragonborn
lizardfolk, but capable of civil discussion.
>bugbear
fairy werewolf
Pretty diverse. I like to have a couple of Fighters, a Wizard, a Rogue, and a Priest. Maybe an Elf, a Dwarf, or a Girl can fill one or two of those spots for a double diversity score.
Human male fighter only
I consult the ESG Guidelines before each game.
Well typically I don't have much choice in this, it's up to the other players. If I'm Dming I might ban races that don't exist or I just don't want to deal with (Warforged, Bird frickers, aasimar etc). But typically so long as players follow my general outline for races in the setting i'm fine. If you want to be a hot half-orc lady that's good but they just have to understand that that race carries with it certain stereotypes and assumptions that they either they'd need to lean into or defy in a way that fits their and the worlds rp. As a player I always liked the outcast monster groups. Orcs, Goblins, Ogres etc.
4 Humans
1 Dwarf
1 Elf
Diversity? Culture? Only skin-deep. There are only three eternal facts in this existence. The Gods, That Good Shall Triumph Over Evil, and myself.
An all freakshit party can be great if you have the right players/adventure set up. Starting the players off as a gaggle of exotic slaves fighting their way to freedom in the area only to become a found family as they traverse the land on a grander quest is pure kino.
4 dwarves
2 manlings
1 horse