Decline Worst playable fantasy race?

[ValeVelKal]

In fantasy it makes perfect sense. Even in relatively cosmopolitan empires you are going to have distinct populations of various human races with their own culture, archetypes, valued skills and other traits, making for a separate race in gameplay mechanics sense.
[...]in fantasy you should either have separate, mechanically distinct races (if only because their culture, magical arts, fighting style and so on are different) or have only one, single colour race of choice - having just evenly mixed bag of humans of various random colours and physiognomies with no background for those differences is just woke nonsense when applied to fantasy.

I was a lot meaner than I should have been, but in Everquest there is a race actually called « humans » and then the « Nords » and the « Erudites » (=Blacks), which really feels strange when I thought about it years later. When I played back then I actually did not notice this. Calling the « humans », well, anything would have been less weird. I remember seeing something similar in some other low-qual RPG but no way to remember which ones.

You are right that TES has four human cultures, with none defined as the default (well, maybe the Imperials but it makes sense lore-wise), and separating cultures make sense in a medieval settings (or even modern, but not contemporary). It can also reflects the view of the scholars of the time.

On the other hand, I disagree with you on one small point : Empires if the past could be and would be multiracial : the Persian Empires included Greeks or at time Armenians, the Roman and Byzantine Empires were very multiracial, and of course the Lagids were their own things though people would not travel as much as they do nowadays, not marry between cultures. I was unfair to TES as they do this pretty well, mostly Dark Elves in Morrowind and Nords in Skyrim, but everything in the Imperial Province. On the other hand, in TES it looks like there is no mixing. Apparently if you dad is a Redguard and your mom a Nord, then you are either a full imperial or a full Redguard yourself. I fully forgive that due to engine limitation and game design constraints


Oh : and then there are the whole « different starting stats for different human races » topic, but then maybe it is culture / nurture rather than nature. And there is definitely a lot of lead in the water the Nord babies are drinking

 

[Harthwain]

I voted Black Human. Why? Because in most cases it's pretty much "white human, only painted black". If you don't want to flesh out a different culture (or come up with an explanation why there are no cultural differences in the first place), then what's the point?

 

[Commissar Draco]

Elves only good ones are raped by Orcs dead ones.

 

[ValeVelKal]

Yeah Brienne of Tarth is an awesome character, and quite realistically drawn. But of course an extreme anomaly. There's like a handful of notable female fighters in history (Joan of Arc isn't one - the one I'm thinking of is actually a fairly rogueish archetype from the 19th century, forget her name, but she killed several men in duels, both pistols and fencing).

Sounds like Julie d’Aubigny, but she was more 17th century. The rest fits.

Africa had its share of women fighter forces in the 19th century - usually using ranged weapons : Dahomey Amazons, or their Abbysinian equivalents. I would say that women were used to increase the number of soldiers on the field (including vs colonial powers) and also because there were no tradition around using firearms so why not use women.

There are plenty of interesting fighting queens during the diadochi era but that’s another topic.

 

[Rat King]

Elves only good ones are raped by Orcs dead ones.

A true comrade of culture!

 

[Squidhead]

I wanted to vote Tiefling but only because I can't stand the fan art.

 

[Rat King]

I wanted to vote Tiefling but only because I can't stand the fan art.

Spoiler

Opinion invalidated.

 

[Scarlet Lilith]

I wanted to vote Tiefling but only because I can't stand the fan art.

That's an 100% invalid reason to vote for the most superior race, dwarf boy.

 

[Lawntoilet]

I wanted to vote Tiefling but only because I can't stand the fan art.

That's an 100% invalid reason to vote for the most superior race, dwarf boy.

Tieflings only exist because some losers made deals with devils and had nothing of value to trade, so they had to let the devil pee in their butt and make a tiefling baby. Doesn't sound too superior to me personally but hey if you're into that sort of thing who am I to judge.

 

[Rat King]

I wanted to vote Tiefling but only because I can't stand the fan art.

That's an 100% invalid reason to vote for the most superior race, dwarf boy.

Tieflings only exist because some losers made deals with devils and had nothing of value to trade, so they had to let the devil pee in their butt and make a tiefling baby. .

I don't know man being a butt baby sounds pretty rad.

 

[Lawntoilet]

I don't know man being a butt baby sounds pretty rad.

 

[Scarlet Lilith]

I wanted to vote Tiefling but only because I can't stand the fan art.

That's an 100% invalid reason to vote for the most superior race, dwarf boy.

Tieflings only exist because some losers made deals with devils and had nothing of value to trade, so they had to let the devil pee in their butt and make a tiefling baby. Doesn't sound too superior to me personally but hey if you're into that sort of thing who am I to judge.

Gross, I don't remember this being in the lore.

 

[Lawntoilet]

Gross, I don't remember this being in the lore.

Well I used a euphemism for sex, didn't want to be crass, but it's right there in the lore:

Spoiler

Tieflings were human-based planetouched, native outsiders that were infused with the touch of the fiendish planes, most often through descent from fiends—demons, Yugoloths, devils, evil deities, and others who had bred with humans.

 

[deuxhero]

Half-Orc was designed from the start to encourage characters that were focused entirely on fighting and not good at anything else. Characters that are only good at killing things and useless at other tasks are bad characters, therefore half-orcs encourage bad characters and are an inherently bad concept.

 

[SausageInYourFace]

Most RPGs put these pretty little things in heavy armor and call them tanks and it irritates the fuck out of me.

Funny, I find that awesome and hilarious, that's why I almost always play female characters. It was particularly hilarious in DAO when I was playing a pretty petite elf armed up the ass in heavy armor and two handers and characters would look down on me (cause I was so tiny) and tell what a great warrior I was.

World building should be internally consistent and believable but let's be honest, RPGs & fantasy have also always been wish fulfillment and make-believe and I have no trouble whatsoever to suspend my disbelief for female warriors. I find it a bit strange that of all the things these games usually pull, it should be the female warriors of all things that break peoples immersion because muh realism. Going by that logic, you could strike whimpy elves from your list of playable characters as well and while you are at it, strike the tiny dwarves or at least give them spears instead of axes (tho that probably wouldn't help much).

I already hear the vicious button rating clicks, but since role-playing games should allow to freely express yourself, I think they should also be i n c l u s i v e.

What, you guys gonna tell your daughters ladyboy sons they shouldn't play female warriors because females are naturally weaker and it's unrealistic?

pic related, one of my favorite female warriors in fantasy. Admittedly, maybe a bad example cause she is more of a DEX build and in light armor, and also probably a fighter/thief multiclass, but hey.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I wanted to vote Tiefling but only because I can't stand the fan art.

That's an 100% invalid reason to vote for the most superior race, dwarf boy.

Tieflings only exist because some losers made deals with devils and had nothing of value to trade, so they had to let the devil pee in their butt and make a tiefling baby. Doesn't sound too superior to me personally but hey if you're into that sort of thing who am I to judge.

Tieflings exist because a succubus stole a human's Mana.

 

[Casual Hero]

imagine unironically wanting to play as a gnome

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

From the races present I voted for Half-Elves. The mos useless race ever presented in an RPG, basically created for people who want to play elf, but not really, and special snowflakes. I especially despise DnD 3D for introducing half-drows. Combining faggotry of Drow players with the faggotry of half-elves.
I didn't vote for Half-Orcs because they often are the only way to play some sort of an orc so they actually serve some purpose.
From races out of the list definitely the furries. Take an animal, make it walk on two legs, use the common stereotypes about that animal to define the personality of all members of that race. Special reward goes to Khajit form Morriwnd and their very catlike legs, which weren't designed for bipedal walking. Umpani, T'rang and Trinnies from Wizardry 8 are all-right though.
I'm split regarding the gnomes. On one hand they have their purpose of a small magical and mysterious creature like the wizard from Willow, Yoda, Leprechaun. On the other I don't remember a gnome companion in an RPG I would actually like.

 

[Semiurge]

Bobbit !

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Lawntoilet

Races of Faerûn for 3E

 

[Lawntoilet]

Lawntoilet

Races of Faerûn for 3E

That is totally consistent with what I said, for any tiefling descended from a male devil/outsider.
I will amend my statement that some tieflings are descendants of someone who peed in a succubus' butt.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Elves are usually more interesting when they're reclusive mystical assholes you don't know much about, so I'd put them as worst playable race even if not the worst race. On second thought that goes for furry races too. Half-animal hybrids are supposed to be scary, not shopkeepers. Worst race are probably gnomes since they feel like that old guy in the office who doesn't do much but he's been there too long to be fired.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Pathfinder and arcanum are the only time I can think of gnomes being anywhere near somewhat interesting.
Pathfinder gnomes make you feel sorry for them, if they don't constantly seek out new experiences they basically get dementia and die.

 

[Lacrymas]

When I read the title, I immediately thought "elves". Make of that what you will.

 

[Rat King]

When I read the title, I immediately thought "elves". Make of that what you will.

I'm honestly surprised that elves didn't even win. Never knew people hated gnomes this much.