I have been roleplaying for almost 18 years now. But I'm quite new to Greyhawk (well in fact i'm quite new to DM'ing as well) and i was wondering how other DM's handled how the PC's Race was chosen.
Of cause you could let the Player choose what race he would like to play, but i like the randomness a bit more.
For instance, the DM that i play with when playing Warhammer or Rolemaster have a list on which all the playable races is listed and according to the probabillity of a character being that race the races have a number (for instance 01-40 could be human and 41-50 Dwarf and so on) to determine the PC's Race you roll 1d100 or whatever (and possible a second time to determine sub-race .. like High Elf, Wild Elf, Drow and so on)
Does anyone here use that method and if yes, how do you determine which race is more or less probable for the player to "get" - I cant seem to find any real informations regarding this.
Also what races do you allow to be played, is all Elf races playable including Drow for instance. What a bout Half-Races - Half-orcs, Half-Orgres ... Half-Dragons ?
What is "Canon" on this (if i dare to use a word that i'm not totally familiar with :D )
I hope that I have explained myself sufficently... well if not .. please do ask me to enlighten you ;)
/Jevian
Edit:
p.s Please excuse my english ... its not my forté
As far as the official Rules As Written go, players get to choose their characters' race in every version of the rules I've seen. "Official" is probably a better word in that context than "canon."
The DM should definitely be able to limit the amount of choices available, of course. If you don't want to run a game where people are playing half-dragons, beholders, elves, or bug-eyed aliens, you shouldn't have to. The official rules tend toward inclusiveness, so there are rules in every edition for playing at least some kinds of monsters, but you shouldn't feel obliged to allow them in your own campaign.
In the other case, where the player get to choose his/her race, the player will more often than not enjoy it because he or she will pick their favorite race, but that dosent nessecarily mean that the player can put his mind into that square box that is the Dwarf way of thinking or the elaborate and abstract thinking of an Elf - Yes I know that every character is different, and that one specific Dwarf, Elf, Human could think and behave completely out of the race's "normal" parameters ... and I actually encourage this from time to time.
Anyways, that wasent really the question, I gueess what I wanted to know was if theres some kind of stastistic possibillity listing of what races (as a whole) is more or less likely to be the adventuring kind of person.
And also if theres any listing of what races is normally playable, and where to find racial bonuses on "not normal" player races.
Anyways, that wasent really the question, I gueess what I wanted to know was if theres some kind of stastistic possibillity listing of what races (as a whole) is more or less likely to be the adventuring kind of person.
Nope. I'd talk with your players and decide with them which races they want to have more representation among the party.
And also if theres any listing of what races is normally playable, and where to find racial bonuses on "not normal" player races.
If you're talking the present (3.5) edition, the racial bonuses, ECLs, special abilities and so forth are listed in the Monster Manual under the appropriate monster entry. In 2e, there was the Complete Book of Humanoids.
Nope. I'd talk with your players and decide with them which races they want to have more representation among the party.
Yeah, i have talked with my players about it, strangely enough they were a bit skittish about choosing races by them selfes. But i will go with this and prehaps rule that a half-fiends-half-dragon is out ofthe question :-)
If you're talking the present (3.5) edition, the racial bonuses, ECLs, special abilities and so forth are listed in the Monster Manual under the appropriate monster entry. In 2e, there was the Complete Book of Humanoids.
Yes i know about that, but im not totally sure what races are native to GH.
thanx for the answers :-)
Yes i know about that, but im not totally sure what races are native to GH.
Pretty much all the "standard" D&D races. Wild Elves are known as "Grugach" here and are, generally, off limit to players. But that's all.
Yes i know about that, but im not totally sure what races are native to GH.
As Mortepierre said, all of them are assumed to be on Oerth somewhere. The MM was written with the idea that it would assume Greyhawk as the standard world; other worlds tend to modify it somewhat.
When I ran a Scarlet Brotherhood campaign they were restriced to playing a Suel brotherhood member or an Amedi, Hepmonaland slave race (which none did, since that would isntantly entitle the suel players a given amount of control over what the PC does.)
When I ran a Grandwood forest campaign, I gave them a few options but they all played Grugachs. I believe the choices were Oeridean refugee, gnome, grugach, human (ranger/druid types) and couple other forest dwellers.
I also ran a Rhizia campaign using some of Kuntz' stuff, and the "Five Shall be One series," in which they all played suel nomads, 2 Barbarians, a Shaman, an Ice Mage, and a Skald (bard.)