The Campaign Builder's Guild

Quote from: Luminous Crayon('¦The most dramatic "other" in the Jade Stage are the elves, and it's not because of the green blood. It's because they feel no love, empathy, or affection, rendering them mentally and emotionally separate from everyone else.)

Wait, emotionless humanoids with pointy ears?  You mean Vulcans?  ;)

And Vulcans have green blood, too.

Try as you might, you can't get away from your own culture.

I don't know about this whole "they don't have emotion X" thing.  I don't know why it is, but it seems to be the one detail that can break my suspension of disbelief.  Quite possibly it just reminds me of so many cliché "cold blooded reptile-people, with cold-blooded meaning evil" or "an entire species of outsiders who have no empathy whatsoever".  Vulcan-like people I can deal with, since Vulcans just strike me as having all the standard human emotions they just keep them in a part of their mind where they can deal with them more effectively.

Do you use multiple races, and if so, why did you choose to include them?

Heck yes.  It makes the world more fantastic if you have deep ancestral homes and high towers.  Mysterious forests and secretive peoples.  What's more interesting... a walled golfing community or a city built among the branches of a giant walking tree?

Do races serve a function in your work, to support or highlight a particular theme?

Support and highlight to be sure.  Dwarves, elves, gnomes, halflings, half-orcs and half-elves all have different motivations and desires than humans.  I use this to create a living world full of fantasy ideas.  Well, at least try to.  

Do you get the sense that many people write in multiple races as a matter of habit, or just because it's often expected in the genre?

I think it's a general laziness.  This has been alluded to in this thread but I'll say it this way.  What is the biggest bad guy group in the real world in the last few centuries?  Nazis.  When Indiana Jones is trying to prevent them from getting their hands on the Ark of the Covenant, the filmmakers don't have to explain why they are the bad guys.  If I need a stubborn, gruff, take-no-cr@p dude with a not so secret heart of gold, you know I'm gonna get a dwarf for the role.  I don't have to explain it in context.  Let's face it, in the heat of riffing when your players take one of their inevitable wild tangents, it sure is nice to fall back onto familiar tropes and genre conventions.

If so, do you think that's a problem?

Only when the stereotypes become the goal.  If as a DM, you can expand upon the type and create something new with it, even if it's just a nudge.  An honor bound society with real clan loyalties... throw in an ancestral weapon and switch out the scottish accent for one much further east and voila!  Still familiar but with an interesting twist.  Not a huge change but one step from expected.

What awesome things are made possible by the use of multiple races? What problems are caused?

Problems first.  If a DM doesn't have a firm grasp of sociology in some general sense then they all just become short and cranky, thin and spoony, small and thiefy or whatever versions of humans.  I understand why many don't tackle this issue as it means having to completely understand a different mindset and be able to extrapolate past and future as well as current shades of that mindset for each race.  Putting all that together in a world is a daunting task indeed, so who can be blamed for wanting to just use the conventions to play a game.  

The awesome things possible....  The big one for me is nothing short of the creation of a living world full of all the things we love about playing these games.

Do you use multiple races, and if so, why did you choose to include them?

Definitely. It just makes the setting epic times the number of races instantly.

(I haven't read through everybody else's replies yet, but will soon...so I might add to or change this.)

Do you use multiple races, and if so, why did you choose to include them?

Yes. With Ifpherion, I wanted to combine aspects of different genres, namely SF and D&D-esque Fantasy, and having multiple evolutionary branches of Humanity living on the same world seemed to express, at some level, a commonality found in both genres - the Albiz, limber and sharp-sighted, evolved from plains-dwelling Human settlers, and the Ducters, short, quick and dextrous, evolved from a consistent working class. Of course, I also included non-Human origin species, as well as the Dragons, who are very different than any other Dragons I've read.

Do races serve a function in your work, to support or highlight a particular theme?
No, not really. At least, not when it comes to Ifpherion. In fact, the only thing in particular I wanted to show a lot when it comes to the races is that they can be as diverse as Humans (in fact, Humans are a minority in this setting).

Do you get the sense that many people write in multiple races as a matter of habit, or just because it's often expected in the genre? If so, do you think that's a problem?
Hmm. I think that the same common races are used because they've been used before, and thus are more interesting for the authors. I mean, hobbits - dwarves/halflings/etc. - are a common type, so there's a good chance readers know what that race is, and the author is free to explore personality and other expressions.

However, I'm not a fan of personality being defined by race. I do want to see the occasional cowardly or forest-loving dwarf, or an intelligent, urbane orc.

I also would like to see more fantasy works that use more very obviously non-humanoid species. Though, I recognize that that might be not as light or as fast a read. So far, Ifpherion has one quadrupedal insect-like species, a non-corporeal species, and a small, three-legged race of robots.

Do you use multiple races, and if so, why did you choose to include them?

Yes, because I think it allows for more variety in characters. Humans can be a diverse lot, but in the end they all tend to just act like humans. With the addition of other races, the range of societies the campaign can include is increased

Do races serve a function in your work, to support or highlight a particular theme?

Not particularly.

Do you get the sense that many people write in multiple races as a matter of habit, or just because it's often expected in the genre?

Yes. Whenever I hear of a fantasy setting, I can ussualy be safe in assuming that it includes the standard elves, dwarves, and goblins.
 
If so, do you think that's a problem?

Only in the fact that eventually the standards get boring. If people are good about creating their own original races, there is no problem (In my setting, there are two of these: a race of aquatic shapeshifting treasure hunters and what can be best described as "photosynthetic halflings")

What awesome things are made possible by the use of multiple races? What problems are caused?

Besides the basic wider range of possible cultures, nothing comes to mind at the moment. But I don't see anything that it could hurt either.

Do you use multiple races, and if so, why did you choose to include them?

For Urbis, I did - because it is traditional for D&D gaming. That decision was more than laziness - it was a fully conscious design choice, since I wanted to use and play around with most of the established tropes of fantasy and fantasy gaming (and D&D in particular.

Do races serve a function in your work, to support or highlight a particular theme?

Well, first and foremost the more established races represent all the themes that they have been associated with in fantasy fiction over the decades - it's self-referential, yes, but I am not ashamed to admit it.   ;)

Apart from that:

- Elves: The elves of Avareen and Tuvareen represent some of the darker kinds of fairy tales. The elves of Narevoreen allow me to explore what happens if a deeply conservative society is suddenly forced to modernize with a vengeance - just like Japan did during the Meji Restoration. Other elven cultures (Verdant Coast, Ranya) allow me to hint at events of the distant past, as well as exploring the "Elves Are Better" trope.
- Dwarves: Gol Grungor represents the "stifling conservative" extreme for dwarven culture - so conservative that it has spawned its own "boat people" who just can't take it any more. Gol Algor represents the "tinkerers and inventors" stereotype. Gol Murak represents the "besieged by enemies, under threat of extinction" stories.
- Halflings: In Urbis, they mostly represent the pastoral, communal image of the race. No wonder I turned them into the local euqivalent of the Swiss...
- Gnomes: They represent the "well-established minority" - a group of beings living within the larger human society who have found their own niches. And yes, there are a few parallels to Jews...
- Dragonborn: They represent the gypsies and wanderers - a race cast out from their homeland without finding a new place of their own. I've also thrown in a few parallels to pre-1933 Zionism...
- Tieflings: They represent outcasts and "black sheep" - people who are cast out from society just because of an accident of birth.
- Hobgoblins: I wanted to show how a "monstrous humanoid race" which is predominantly evil still find a measure of acceptance from human society.

Do you get the sense that many people write in multiple races as a matter of habit, or just because it's often expected in the genre?

Possibly out of habit, but as long as they are made interesting nonetheless there doesn't have to be anything wrong with it.

What awesome things are made possible by the use of multiple races? What problems are caused?

Racism. Lots and lots of racism and prejudice. Not really "awesome" as such, but we shouldn't forget that adventures thrives on conflict, and racism provides lots of conflict.

Besides, who's really going to be morally bothered if the PCs slaughter their way through a bunch of racists?

Quote from: SlapzillaWhat's more interesting... a walled golfing community or a city built among the branches of a giant walking tree?

There's nothing to say that humans (or equivalent only-sentient-race from your setting) couldn't build a city among the branches of a giant walking tree.

[blockquote=JH]- Gnomes: They represent the "well-established minority" - a group of beings living within the larger human society who have found their own niches. And yes, there are a few parallels to Jews...[/blockquote]
Why do I find myself laughing at that and at the same time being disturbed???

Quote from: LordVreeg[blockquote=JH]- Gnomes: They represent the "well-established minority" - a group of beings living within the larger human society who have found their own niches. And yes, there are a few parallels to Jews...[/blockquote]
Why do I find myself laughing at that and at the same time being disturbed???

Because that's precisely the effect I was hoping for - thanks for confirming that it works.

BTW, here's is a vignette from the "Races" chapter of the playtest document:

Quote"Trust not the gnome. Do not listen to his witty banter. What he lacks in stature he more than makes up in malice for humankind. Do not take his money, for then he will cast you into debt and force you to sell your own children into slavery..."
- Anti-gnomish pamphlet, signed by "Veritas"

How's that for "disturbing"?   ;)