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Jul 13, 2012 -- 3:03AM, The_Stray wrote:

Not a problem...wasn't your tone that got to me. But that's kinda exactly the issue I had my own self, running both 3e and 4e games. I had a campaign set up that had certain assumptions about the roles of certain races, and when new races came along I wasn't particularly thrilled to have to work those in. I tried not to go the "torches and pitchforks" route and, in fact, I adapted quite well to Dragonborn and tieflings (I loved both races, though I hated the 4e assumptions of where tieflings came from...I vastly preferred the "children of fiends" idea to the "cursed humans of an ancient empire I now have to shovel in to my game world somewhere" idea)...it was specifically a Goliath character that evoked that reaction from me in 4e, as well as a half-dragon changeling and a half dwarf-half elf played by the most insane player ever that soured me on halfbreeds in the 3e era.

Honestly, I had the same problem myself for awhile at the start of 4e.  I'd make a whole world without dragonborn, then remember them, and be like, "Ugh, right, one more thing to weave in, dammit."  But once I started calibrating for them from the start, I made my favorite homebrew world to date.  And about the new tiefling stuff, I've found the stats work just fine for a "child of fiends" tiefling, if you just use the old appearance.  As a player, I've appreciated that, and have only just recently, years into 4e, figured out how I want to use the "scion of an ancient empire" angle.  *cough*  But as DM, I've just loved the chance for tieflings to have their own race, their own culture, and to be a force, however minor, in the world at large, as opposed to a scattered and rare series of part-fiends with no real connections.

Also, in our 4e game someone wanted to play a changeling...and this was before the 4e Eberron book had come out, so all we had to rely on was the pretty broken doppelganger traits from the back of the MM. Of course, I found a way to turn the changelings into an interesting race in my game (they were persecuted by the elvish empire, and this actually became a pretty major plot point for that game rather than a "argh I hate this race so i'll make you suffer for taking it" thing).

Ouch, you have my sympathies.

And now that I've made the stretches for certain races, I find it's hard to go back on them (and will be dissapointed if I can't have Dragonborn and tieflings off the bat in 5e, since I've now done the work to fit them in).

Same.

Thanks for the compliment, though...I'm around, I usually just lurk. I'm glad you like the Ten-Minute Background format, though. That makes my day.

Do you still update that opening post with new characters?  I haven't been posting mine in the thread, but if you still update, I could go back and grab some.  I made one for an interesting tiefling warlock in the scarred lands awhile back, and a friend submitted a character to a pbp game I started a couple months ago in that format.

Jul 13, 2012 -- 4:11AM, The_Stray wrote:

Yeah, kinda the same here. I didn't like the Empire thing at first, but now that I've been tinkering with it it's grown on me.

I love it when things work out like that.  I managed to make a tiefling empire and a dragonborn empire grow on me.  Sort of like a Bael Turath/Arkhosia thing, except within living memory instead of ancient history.

Given how awesome the changeling storyline turned out to be, I'm not really that broken up about it.

Good on you, then :D

I haven't done that in years, no. I ran into a max character limit during the Gleemax era, and there's such a backlog of posts since then that I've been too afraid to go back in and start trying to figure out where I left off. If you want to post your characters, though, go right on ahead...I'm thinking of posting some things myself, since I'm working on a 5e game.

I think I'll post that tiefling warlock there.  I'm actually rather proud of having found a solid reason for a Lawful Good Infernal Warlock to exist.  It'd be so cool if someone else took the idea and ran with it in their own game.

EDIT: Done. 

Jul 13, 2012 -- 2:36AM, Pashalik_Mons wrote:

Not trying to be too hostile with the tone, but I think a lot of it also comes in because people aren't willing to change any campaign world assumptions for odd races.  I mean, they're willing to go along enough that dragonborn get into the world, but as soon as dragonborn or whatnot are in, they don't want to really make an effort at making a racial history for them and really integrating them into the setting and instead settle on the "Well, they look like monsters, so get ready for pitchforks and torches!" as a sort of passive-aggressive F-U to the player that chose something they don't like.  I mean, if someone wants a human centric campaign, or just plain doesn't think Race X fits their world, they should just say it up front, not allow other races and then flog the player who chooses them for the whole game.  

I'm confused with where you are going with this paragraph.  The books say tieflings are the target of prejudice, the books say shardminds are rare (and thus unlikely for anyone to know what they are), etc. 

Am I playing the game wrong by using the default fluff? 

Jul 12, 2012 -- 10:05PM, Salla wrote:

Jul 12, 2012 -- 9:22PM, Dapifer wrote:

..."window.parent.tinyMCE.get('post_content').onLoad.dispatch();" contenteditable="true" />Me too...

Ok, so who didn't wanted race and culture to be a separate thing?

Evidently, Gygax.

Nah, I`m sure he would have liked it if it ever came through his head.


Race and culture separation benefits:
Avoids racial pidgeonholing.
Allow for more interesting and diverse character concepts.

Problems:
One more step on character creation, wich can be completely invalidated by giving packages based on the most usual stereotypes.


Anyone wants to add a benefit/problem?

Jul 7, 2012 -- 8:43PM, kezzek wrote:

Can't we be a little more politically correct now that it is the 21st century.

Nah.  PC is for small minds.

I don't see your problem - I'd rather WotC make sure the basic parts ACTUALLY WORK before adding complications.  If you really want to try playing something half-baked and not ready for prime time, create a 4e PH1-only Warlock.