It’s rare that all members of an adventuring party are the same race. The existence of exotic races is one of the defining signatures of fantasy role-playing games. But is it necessary? How much would the game change if there were only a few races or even just one race?
For most gamers, the decision about which race to make your next PC usually comes down to number crunching and power gaming. Race is chosen based on which attributes receive the +2 bonuses or, to a lesser extent, the racial power. This is why we tend to see the same race/class combos over and over again (a practice we explored and discouraged in the article Playing Against Type).
In the games I’ve played, I can’t recall any examples of players striving for cultural or racial individuality. Everyone plays their character the same way regardless of race. They all speak the same language (common), they all share the same morals and beliefs, they all eat the same food and they usually share the same motives. In truth, PC race usually has minimal or no impact on role-playing aspects of the game. If everyone role-plays their PC the same way then there really isn’t much need for different races.
Sure there are those one-off examples like when the party needs to talk with a clan of Dwarves so they send the Dwarven PC in as their cultural liaison, or the town that shuns Shifters so the Shifter PC needs to disguise his racial heritage, but for the most part race has no impact on the game.
Think about how people of different races and cultural backgrounds in real life interact. I have many friends, colleagues and acquaintances representing a wide variety of different racial and cultural backgrounds. When people of different races come together there is an opportunity to learn from one another.
Based on my experiences growing up and living in a multi-cultural city, here’s what I’ve seen when people of different races come together. They don’t stop speaking their native language when they learn English, in fact they still speak their native tongue when they’re with other people from their homeland. They eat North American foods, but their traditional dishes still make up a significant portion of their diet. They still wear clothing, jewelry or religiously significant garb from their homeland while adopting the styles of their new home. They learned to blend this new culture with their own, never forgetting who they are or where they came from.
In a world where the human race is the only one we still find cultural diversity. Yet when we play fantasy role-playing games where there are dozens of races, all the PCs end up acting and behaving the same. If this is going to be the (unfortunate) default then perhaps there is no need for all of these races. Maybe campaign worlds should have only one race, and build in a mechanic to make each PC part of an established culture. It could still work like the race system today (providing +2 to key abilities and a “racial” power) but rather than say we’re all different races we are instead the same race, but from different cultures.
Perhaps this is a bit extreme. After all, I said up front that Elves, Dwarves and Gnomes are an important part of defining fantasy role-playing games. So if we’re going to keep all of these races around then perhaps it’s time we started thinking about what it means to be the only Tiefling, Dragonborn or Halfling in the party. It’s up to you to give your PC a cultural background and a sense of where he came from.
How has racial diversity impacted your game? Has it made a difference at all? Think back to your last adventure, do you even know what race the other PCs were? Was their race ever evident in their role-playing? Do you think that even we need all of the different fantasy races?
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1 2 3 Next »My characters who speak a common tongue (ie: draconic) are always chatting to each other in their native tongue, much to the chargrin of the other players :) Our dwarf is only interested in things dwarven - all the other races have a lot to learn, according to him. It's true, our shifter doesn't do much regarding his race, however.
I think this is something that, if you explore it in your campaign, it's up to the DM to make interesting and apparent. NPC's need to drive the appropriate behaviour. If it's not something you're going to look at specifically, it may get in the way of the themes you -actually- want to explore.
I noticed that it's difficult to impossible to enforce cultural traits upon a player character's personality and have fun at the same time. I've also tried the one species but variant cultures/splinter races thing in the last 4 campaigns I ran and found that most players still role play however they feel like doing so. And that's fine, they need to inject their personality into their character, not every gamer is their to to be a hardcore actor, most just want to be the hero.
Instead what I do is treat each "race" as if it were a group of people. Think of two groups of people, each of the same species, but isolated from one another geographically, culturally, whatever. They may live in different social situations, one group of dwarves living in a city of giants and forced to do labor for peanuts, while another group of dwarves lives near the top of a forested mountain and although they have built a city into the mountain they have taken up hunting and foraging in the woods as a means of survival. Both groups of people will guarantee have their own cultural identity while being of the same race. As the dm, if you can role play this and the players recognize this fact then they may begin to follow your lead and lines of thinking when deciding how to role play their character.
.-= Mike(aka kaeosdad)´s last blog ..Gamer Challenge: Month 1 =-.
I have never really seen a fantasy race being played to the full potential of an alien culture - actually even the cultural differences within one race are very hard to play without resorting to ridiculous stereotyping (funny accents, anyone?) In D&D, the issue of a limited number of functional race/class combos has also caused our gaming group to look for alternatives.
Thus, we have houseruled the whole race/culture issue into fluff only - the player characters are all human. The additional rules options the races are supposed to fill are replaced by "aptitudes", which portray spiritual and physical qualities of the human race. This sort of houserule came in effect already while playing 3rd edition and when 4th ed came out we had to create the "human only" rule right away. The end result can be found at http://admc.pbworks.com/CharacterCreation - in short all aptitudes get the human-style +2 to ability of choice, but the othe racial abilities are taken from the 4ed races as such, with a bit of mixing and matching.
I've been extremely fortunate to game with players who play up their character races quite a bit, including personality, cultural quirks, story hooks, appearance and mannerisms, and so on. What's more, the players in my games always strove to make their characters more than simply a racial archetype - in fact, one of the overriding themes of my first 4E campaign was how the different races in the party, over time, learned from each other and picked up on each other's habits and outlooks.
They've run the gamut from the 'classic' races such as elves and dwarves to the 'new wave' options like dragonborn, tiefling, and warforged, and each time I've been blown away.
In fact, they've been so good at it that even the humans feel... well.. human in contrast to the others.
I think when it comes to race and roleplaying, each group's mileage may vary. In my case, most of my players are (semi-)professional writers and artists, so that might explain the quality of their performance. Other groups might need a little extra prodding.
Of course, removing race from the game is certainly a valid option if a group finds it's not adding much to their experience. Whatever works, I say. :)
This idea has precedence in fantasy movies. The Princess Bride is the first that comes to mind, but Ladyhawke, Stardust, Legend, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Harry Potter feature primarily or exclusively human protagonists (and in some cases, antagonists, too!).
Not to mention all the fantasy literature that features mostly humans. The Game of Thrones, Black Company, and The Sword of Truth series, for example.
.-= Michael´s last blog ..digitaldraco: @matt_james_FR Pencil on paper still works fine for my group! #dnd =-.
I feel that the racial descriptions define 90% of the general populace the adventurers are different. That being said people can run what they want how they want.
I always try, as a player or GM, to give some idea of the difference in cultures (human or non-) that a character is from. That being said, it is not always easy to do successfully.
.-= Sean Holland´s last blog ..Curse – Anniversary of Ashes =-.
The PCs' races are a big deal in the current campaign. The two dragonborn stick together, the elf despises everyone else, and everyone is a little uncomfortable around the doppelganger.
But I think it's the sort of theme that only fits certain campaigns - in others, it's just not that important. How often do you talk about what your character is eating? Exactly. So if your character is eating exotic/native dishes, how would anyone even know?
I enjoy playing different races in D&D, and do my best to play it *as* a different race. One fun example is when myself and a fellow player were both playing genasi, so we had a lot of elemental pride, and schemed right in front of people in primordial. It was a blast, but I can see how that might not have much of a place in a different sort of campaign. It seems like the broader a story's goals are, the less time everyone has to savor the little details.
It's interesting that you should bring this up, as the group I DM tends to play all humans with one odd man out. I would like to see them branch out a little but they're all so casual that other races tend to be out side their realm of consideration. They're weird, but it's a good weird. Myself I try to play each character I play different, however I rarely take cultural consideration into account. So next time I'll be thinking of it thanks to you.
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