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Which 'monster' races are allowed? Are minotaurs allowed just because they were in that dragon article?

I think some of the big things to remember. Like say..the drow.

Most people don't even know what a drow is..they can't make the knowledge check. They just think 'dark skinned elf'. It's a bit silly..but its true.

I know in my area we got one DM who insists all monster races get treated poorly, just because they are monster races. Not even considering the idea these people treating them poorly for being drow..don't realize the person isn't just an odd looking elf. Well not so much..not even considering..more like...they find that idea laughable and ignore even the possibility.

But some other things can be diff...Minotaur apparently are best known as the rogue Minotaur...causing the nice ones problems. Gnolls are..well..Gnolls, nothing to really say about that, yaknow?


But on the side of the attack on sight/don't attack on sight stuff. do remember that all DM's are allowed alot of fiat..you can change things around....let players do stuff..etc, that isn't covered in the mod.

Due to the actions of the party, we had one encounter turn into a skill challenge (actually it was about to turn into a nothing encounter..but the DM wanted to be nice and give us a chance at the goodies the supposed enemies had).

Basically supposed to be some attack on sight Shadar-kai..most of you prob know the mod. But we happened to have someone in the group who had the card..and was playing a Shadar-kai himself. Dm looked it over..we just popped up in their home...the area they are in (in his opinion) didn't indicate any reason they'd be that openly hostile..and when my diplomat type half-elf suggest our Shadar-kai give diplo a chance..he figured why not..it would work...

Then when it comes time to the treasure from them..some of our party started trying to ask in round about ways (got anything good for sale) etc. The DM finally made a skill encounter up, on the fly, that involved us assisting them, and in return we got their treasure (he considered the diplo enough to give us the xp..we defeated the encounter...in a way).

I've heard of other DM's doing odd things to mods..to help spice it up when replaying. do remember..all DM's can do quite a bit to a mod if they feel like it.

Stafir Ortnev wrote:

Most people don't even know what a drow is..they can't make the knowledge check. They just think 'dark skinned elf'. It's a bit silly..but its true.

That's just like most people can't make the knowledge check to remember bears have claws, then.

Even aside the fact that people in the Realms would have had horror stories of the drow literally for centuries, the point is that in any (faux-) medieval setting and especially in a Points Of Light theme, if people see some creature they're unfamiliar with they're going to be very wary distrustful, probably to the point of lynch mob hostility.

Now, I'm not saying that DMs should round up lynch mobs against every gnoll or drow or whatnot character, because that would be unfair to the players. But I am saying that this is a huge oversight in the campaign creation, because this is the response that would make the most sense for nearly every city and village around.

Scenario: you're a gate guard in a quaint little city that's not as cosmopolitan as Waterdeep. Four heavily armed strangers approach. The first is a huge hairy monster with big claws, the second is an equally huge lizardman, the third a demonic-looking critter with big horns and a tail, and the three are led by a dark elf. Do you (a) think that's all right then, (b) charge them three coppers trade tax, or (c) immediately drop the portcullis, run screaming to the barracks for reinforcements, and alert the entire town to deal with this apparent menace?

KarmaInferno wrote:

Er, 'most people' in the Realms know darn well what a Drow is, even if that knowledge is secondhand or based in stories. Many folks have family or friends that have been killed by Drow.

The Drow of Faerun are not the rare recluses like those of, say, Greyhawk. In the Realms, they've been raiding the surface world all over the lands for tens of thousands of years in their endless war against all things good.

Just skim through the Grand History of the Realms. They're all over the damn place.

The average person in the Realms should at least know that drow are "evil elves that live underground", if nothing else.

Gnolls and minotaur have a generally bad reputation, but more for being violent and savage, not for being evil, really. A person encountering one might react in the same way they would to a wolf or other predator.

Shadar-kai have only really around in the past century in any real numbers. Outside of Netheril-controlled lands most folks might have heard the term but won't know what one looks like or what they can do. Heck, even IN Netheril lands they're not that common.


-karma

Really? "Most people" know all about the monster races? How? Did they read about them on the internet? Maybe they saw a documentary on TV?

No. Most people live reasonably isolated lives. When they hear about stuff from other areas, it is big stuff (wars, earthquakes, etc.). By the time a non-local story reaches them, it is non-specific ("monsters raided a town" rather than "gnolls raided a town") and often details that are included are not completely accurate due to the nature of third, fourth and fifth hand information.

Unless the average person lives in an area where gnolls raid regularly, the odds are they have never heard of a gnoll. And, if they have heard of a gnoll, it is more likely they heard of the adventuring gnoll that saved Dame Bodoinka's (who lives one town over) cattle from the giant rats last summer than that they heard of the gnolls who raid villages 200 miles away.

In reality, imagine a mining village in the north, mostly populated by humans. A gnoll, a drow, a minotaur, and a dwarf (adventurers!) walk into the village. The gnoll is just some dog-man and the minotaur is just a cow-man. Weird, but they don't seem hostile and their weapons are sheathed (it is a mining village in the north, so every man and woman over 12 has a weapon). Sure, the elf has dark skin. Must be a southern elf. Southerners are strange anyway. But, look, a dwarf! Dwarves have been stealing our livelihood by mining our tunnels at night and they were responsible for the tunnel that collapsed on Old Jones (or so the rumors say). Dwarves are greedy and vicious. Get a lynch mob to kick him out of town.

-SYB