@KorvinStarmast I'm loving it as a MTG fan, but not like this

@G.Moylan oops, I meant 5e stuff

@NautArch ah you replied to the MtG comment so I thought you meant that :P

@G.Moylan I ignore 95% of that

@AncientSwordRage You too, why do we need to know why OP wants what they want?

Why isnt "i want to play this way" good enough?

@G.Moylan replied to wrong comment. Shame on me.

@ThomasMarkov because X-Y problem

@AncientSwordRage I've found it hard to. Especially with the upcoming crossover stuff, it will be everywhere and just part and parcel going forward

@ThomasMarkov if they find them unbalanced we can suggest power level fixes. If they don't fit the campaign world it's different than if they find exotic characters make group dynamics difficult. Maybe it's that it grates that exotic races are roleplayed like humans?

they're asking about how to implement a solution they've come up with, but it's not their actual problem and may not be a very good way to solve their actual problem. So asking why they want to do things a certain way enables challenging the frame.

They've picked a solution and are asking how to enforce it

@Carcer @ThomasMarkov this :)

I've been playing the new Digimon card game lately and really digging it

Right, we asked about that, and they edited this into the question:

> Because as a GM, all games I've ran in the past year have had an exuberance of exotic races and I want to change things up for variety's sake. Otherwise I won't have fun running the game. The GM is a player too; their fun and preferences matter as well.

But what is it about those exotic races that make it un-fun for them?

@ThomasMarkov it just seems like an odd thing to have one's fun ruined over, so it seems like maybe there's more to it?

If the problem is "I'm not having fun", then we can work on that. But we need to understand what's creating this issue in order to present resolutions for it.

to be honest, I think a large part of it in this case is that the solution they're trying to implement strikes many of us as an intuitively bad idea, so there is continued poking about the whys in order that we might be able to find an alternative solution that still makes them happy.

That's true as well @Carcer. It's not a 'sorry, I am just limiting choices for this campaign", it's "how can i actively make this a difficult decision for them so that they don't take it."

@ThomasMarkov a lot of my suggestions above cause the lack of fun... Which one is causing that changes how we help

(But I don't have particular hope this will be productive based on how the OP has responded to the questioning)

Yeah, the snark in their question itself is pretty offputting. I've downvoted, but I may edit instead.

For me, at least, I was hoping to find a depth to their question that wouldn't make it sort of read like "I hate the way my friends have fun, and I want to make them have fun MY way"

@LCooper I still don't understand why limiting choice itself isn't a solution.

I've told players that some things are off-limits. Sometimes they listen, sometimes they don't and I realize it's actually not that big of a deal, too :P

@NautArch Honestly, me neither. My guess is that the DM would really like it if their players wanted to do what the DM wants, so they don't have to put in explicit parameters.

I would guess they're doing their worldbuilding as "mostly human" and the exotic races end up not fitting in (and they're not able to play with that in a fun way, which I can kinda get)

@Someone_Evil This would make sense, but they seemed sort of resistant to doing that? Without knowing why they have such an aversion to exotic races, it's hard to solve the problem

@Someone_Evil Which seems like a thing to ask about before playing. "Hey, is everyone okay with this being a human-centric campaign?"

@LCooper And we still don't know what 'exotic' means for them. Unless it's anything but human

And based on the defensiveness when questioned, I would guess they don't actually have a good answer to that question

At this point the answers seem to cover a good variety of solutions, so it's unclear why none of them satisfy what they have in mind. I suspect they are frustrated for personal reasons and so the objective criteria don't really make sense.

@NautArch I don't think they have a definition; if I had to guess, I'd say it's just "any race that they personally don't like or find too interesting for whatever reason"

I have sometimes wished for a VTC option that's along the lines of "You have provided so many stipulations on this problem and argued with every possible response to the point where it's clear you don't actually want an answer"

probably anything outside human/elf/dwarf/gnome/halfling/half-orc/half-elf

I wouldn't even be sure about elves, honestly. I was vaguely operating under a "no pointy ears" understanding of what makes for something "exotic"-- meaning, just races that are basically humans in slightly different sizes and proportions.

I distinctly get the impression that "exotic" to OP is equivalent to "non-human"

All I know is I've got a heckuva session planned for tomorrow night in Rime of the frostmaiden.

I had much the same the issue, and for two different campaigns did two different solutions. My players gravitated to non-humans because they were mechanically and stylistically interesting. For one campaign I replaced races with deamons (taking loose inspo from Philip Pullman's Dark Materials). So I have some 30+ deamon race options of varying quality somewhere

For the other I made the world not human heavy/centric and leaned into that, but I'm not sure that'd work in this case

Not sure I'd really recommend the first either

@Someone_Evil I mean, we're playing roleplaying games. Moving on from human is pretty standard.

If we really want to flip it on its head, we can make humans the exotic race and really poke fun at that idea wherever they go

@Someone_Evil I suggested something similar, thinking that if the players enjoy being the odd one out, a weirder setting where humans are rare would still satisfy the players, but, again, that depends on what the querent is actually trying to accomplish and what their specific objection is

Do they just not want players having exotic races? Do they not want them present at all? Did a tiefling throw their parents off a balcony in a terrible CGI sequence to justify their bizarre backstory?

@LCooper at this point it just seems like they're here to be beligerent

@G.Moylan I'm inclined to agree, it feels a bit like just a venue to argue with people. There's a lot of defensiveness both in the question and the comments

And speaking of restricting races, I think for my next group I am going to limit to mostly PHB races. Taking out monstrous races, and definitely nothing from Theros.

@NautArch Look how they massacred my minotaur bois

@G.Moylan I'm making sad face noises

@AncientSwordRage I don't want much... a good Minotaur player race, and a Mardu Minotaur commander. WotC plz

I feel like we've all missed a Joe Exotic joke somewhere.

@NautArch How can I limit (but not outright ban) player characters named Joe?

It just occurred to me, for no real reason at all, that one could abuse the Star system by editing their message after the fact to say anything they want

@G.Moylan yes, but only within the timeframe that allows editing.

Not that I'm condonign it, it just occurred to me that it's possible

@NautArch this is true, so it'd have to be pretty immediate

@NautArch unless you're a mod 😇

@AncientSwordRage Mods can always abuse the system.

Room owners can remove stars from posts (or remove them from the star board? I can't recall which happens)

@kviiri We can cancel the stars.

@NautArch Please do this to Dancing With

@G.Moylan If it's real, I ain't watchin.

@NautArch I'm taking this as permission

@NautArch Is this the real life, portrayed on my TV? Terrible sitcoms, and no escape from reality. Open your eyes, look up to the guide and see: I'm just a bored boy, I want to watch TV! But it's cheapo crap, all the time, nothing good, nothing fine. Anywhere I look it's nothing but trash I seeeeeeeee..... on TV.

sweeping piano

@G.Moylan I prefer vacuum harpsichord

@AncientSwordRage mopping xylophone

@AncientSwordRage Just vacuum.

@AncientSwordRage missed opportunity for me to say "that sucks" as my first response

Things I never thought I'd read on rpg.se: slathered it in ketchup, and hooked it up to a car battery

@NautArch I see the vacuum but I'm having trouble parsing what I'm looking at/listening to

@G.Moylan You are listening to man placing the vacuum over his mouth and making a seal and breaking it to produce different noises.

APparently, this was a punishment his mother had for him as a kid, and he turned it into an instrument.

@NautArch The peak of musical expresion

@NautArch yikes but also good on him, I suppose?

I'll give that it's creative but I feel like it's not good for you to stick a vacuum on your mouth

@ThomasMarkov sounds like a Friday night

@ThomasMarkov I mean, you can use elctricity to remove rust, so why not add it?

I think I'd like to do shorter campaigns.

News about Campaign 3 to come at the end of the summer

I got so overwhelmed with the sheer volume of their content that I had to stop watching. That and the toxicity of some of their fanbase, but that's a separate issue.

They have great and cool games, but I can't hope to catch up in a reasonable amount of time :P

lol unstar that, it isnt campaign 3

I was too late to edit the message

@ThomasMarkov It's a light campaign before the real campaign /s

they're basically doing the dimension 20 side quests thing

@NautArch delete my message where I said campaign 3

mini-campaigns with a more varied cast as sides to their main campaigns

Critical Role 8 episode mini-campaign Exandria Unlimited premiers June 24th

→ 1 message moved to ­Trash

star that if you want to star something

I assume we'll see a few of them

@G.Moylan I just watch the first half when I get the chance, and mostly just see what the eight-odd fans that I'm friends with have to say, because...same

@Carcer Yeah, I suspect if this one goes well, we'll see more of them, which seems promising! Especially for the "actually getting caught up" side of things

I haven't watched C1

I only watched C2 because I got into it quite early

→ 2 messages moved to ­Trash

@Carcer I listened randomly to some episodes while doing some long drives.

@Carcer I kept up with C2 for a while and I got bored for a few episodes so I stopped watching, then when I wanted to watch again I was so far behind (time-wise) that I just gave up

Love you too bruh

lmao

@ThomasMarkov Trash is lonely.

Looking at that exotic race question again, it does seem like they just want to do a campaign of unknown length (but not forever!) with just humans.

if that's their question, that's totally reasonable. Just talk to your players about what your plan is.

well, not just humans

the opening sentence contains "both ordinary races (human, dwarf, elf, etc.) and exotic races (tiefling, shardmind, genasi, etc.)"

Unjust humans

Ah

THen I guess the problem is that's what they need to do (talk to players) but that's not an option

(I'd guess that "anything you can be in the 3rd edition core PHB" might be the yardstick in use)

@NautArch if talking to the players isn't a viable answer then IDK if we'll be able to help them. If something that fundamental is getting opposition, then I'm content to let them stew

@G.Moylan I fell super far behind and then watched approximately half of each of the last two episodes, and called it good

I blew through all of C1 while I was in college and had tons of free time (much of which was spent with CR on one monitor and WoW on the other, good times), but I just don't have the time as A Real Adult(tm)

@Glazius I love Papyrus

@Someone_Evil Their problem is that they are making this too hard on themselves. Just ban the exotics you don't want, play the rest. KISS principle.

@NautArch applause

I have a question but I’m not sure which stack to ask on.

My question is whether or not bicycles would be effective replacements for horses in a cavalry charge.

I am thinking not, as they would be unstable..

@TheDragonOfFlame No

Are they tandem bikes or single person?

@TheDragonOfFlame lol no

What about mountain bikes?

If you had a tandem bike, with one guy steering and the other holding the lance, maybe

I mean, this sounds like worldbuilding to me, and I'm terrible on a bike, but anyway

Do you get to demoralize the enemy if you have one of those little honky horns?

@LCooper or a bell

yeah, if anywhere it'd fit on worldbuilding. But also the answer is almost certainly no

@LCooper 55mph avg speed for a horse vs 10mph for a mountain bike

A tricycle would probably work though!

let alone other issues

@Carcer Not sure if any of you have ever tried jousting on a bicycle with broom sticks, but let's say that confirms, in my mind, "no" with some occasionally hilarious results and a lot of bruises.

@KorvinStarmast and you probably did that on flat ground!

@DForck42 professions bikers in the Tour de France regularly hit 50 MPH

@Carcer In a parking lot

@RevanantBacon yeah, on pavement

@Carcer Beer was involved

@RevanantBacon and those aren't mountain bikes

And your bike cavalry would almost definitely be professionals

@KorvinStarmast I did infer that bit.

@Carcer Right, so you just use racing bikes instead

😁 🍺🍻

@RevanantBacon in a field?

Well, either beer, or the level of stupidity and boredom that develops in late summer in middle and high schoolers.

Sure, sure, alright. What about single combat, with swords though?

Just like you wouldn't expect to go 50 MPH on a clydesdale

you could make a fast pass and stab em

also bikes don't exactly have the momentum of horses even if you did get up to 50mph on grass somehow

Yeah, but if both sides were on bikes, it would balance out

@Carcer humans just aren't as strong as horses

@LCooper Or boredom from being deployed ... (not teenagers, nope)

@KorvinStarmast weren't you navy? If you'd tried it on a ship deck I'd be more impressed

Heh, once we were underway, we tended to be busy ...

excuses, excuses

We did other nutty stuff underway, bikes just weren't the means to that end ...

Bike jousting on a ship sounds like some extremely whimsical Victorian nonsense

i'm now picturing a bike calvalry trying to cross a river

Fun fact, apparently quarter horses are the fastest breed, not thoroughbreds

@DForck42 Sounds like a deleted scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail

I has thought that thoroughbreds were the faster breed

@RevanantBacon Quarter horses are a breed of horses, good at sprinting quarter miles. So you'd be looking for a thoroughbred quarter horse

@RevanantBacon no they're just a more verified bread

@Someone_Evil the recent question you deleted: I don't believe that the user is 13 based on the choice of words.

@Trish Wouldn't surprise me either, but there's nothing to do unless they tell us

That goes through the kinds of horses used

Is there a shorthand way for saying "the Nth triangular number"? Like, 3 squared is 9, 3 triangled is 6?

Not really. You could use a formula but that's not really shorthand in the way you mean it

If you're in the context of an extended math discussion, you could define a shorthand way. "Here T_n is the Nth triangular number..."

Or an operator which triangles a number, but that's probably less useful

The obvious solution to the "no 'exotic' races" issue is just everyone is elves.

fun fact: the first time I encountered function notation, f(x), was in a math competition test - and I tried to solve the problem as if it was an equation and f(x) meant f * x

Upcoming Kickstarter: Dwelling: A Solo Game for Ghosts by Seb Pines. Dwelling is a role-playing game for one that leads players through an evening in a haunted house, conjuring the ghosts they encounter.

"Asking Better Questions" Part One and Part Two, essay by David Walker for the Edinburgh Indie Gamers Zine 2021. Some techniques and worked examples I use regularly to help games be more collaborative through the art of asking questions.

@BESW in my setting all races used to be elves (but no one can play as elves) even though elves exist, which explains why they are immortal and imbued with powerful innate powers...

In Thousand Cousins, there are humans on the periphery of the relephant world, but all other creatures are the survivors of a magi-tech apocalypse which destroyed an elven society and scattered its people into groups that have diverged both culturally and physically (magical radiation will do that to ya) but all remember and value their status as diaspora/refugees, and that shared connection is central to how they interact with each other.

So, for example, orcs aren't 'bloodthirsty savages,' they're the descendants of elven nobility trying to reunite the kingdom whether the other cousins want to reunite or not.

If I ever do anything remotely D&D-like again I'll probably use Thousand Cousins as a worldbuilding reference, likely incorporating the principles of "space is a sea and you are its sailors."

@KorvinStarmast They've also ditched the high-quality (IMO) more-intensive playtest and feedback cycle this last year....

"Mother Lands is a tabletop role-playing game free of slavery and colonialism" interview by Charlie Hall with Tanya DePass and B. Dave Walters. An Afrofuturist game inspired by Black Panther and Star Trek

@G.Moylan Humans are a viable dwarf-elf hybrid. Lamentably (to the dwarves and elves) they have poor constitutions and age unnaturally rapidly, dying when they should be in the barest primes of their lives.

@KorvinStarmast We didn't do broomsticks. We did 8' long 6" dia. shipping tubes, slotted over the forearm and braced against the (inside of the) elbow. Hilarious, painful, poorly-controlled, and--looking back--I don't know how nobody separated a shoulder or broke an arm.

@nitsua60 human: I've got 12 garndchildren and it take me half an hour to get out of a chair

Elf: my parents just let me stay out past sunset

@nitsua60 yeah, quantity over quality, I smell Hasbro corporate all over this ....

@nitsua60 Human: "I think the dwarf just made a fart joke."