So I have this thing where I really hate how D&D boxes all their races into pre-determined alignments. My two favourite fantasy races are also goblins and dark elves.
There's definitely a connection there, but I'm honestly not sure which way it goes.
@witchfynder_finder it's really annoying (at the very least) that only humans seem to have genuine free will among the races, everyone else has all these cultural presets. I guess it wouldnt happen like this if they didnt assign gods & religons to the various nonhuman races. Maybe it makes sense to treat racial categories like religious categories in D&D? Then if an individual moves away from the presets it's more like being a religious apostate than anything else ...
(I've thought about this too much obviously)
right now playing a dark elf with goblin sidekick fwiw
@Eve My personal solution is to have races be totally free WRT alignment, but certain societies/groups/collectives/etc have, like, preferred alignments. So, for example, Drow in D&D can be any alignment, but Drow society tends toward LE. Or this adventurer's guild will accept any race, but disallows Chaotic alignments.
@witchfynder_finder this seems totally reasonable. also it's even maybe what the designers had in mind, just that it's implemented in a way that makes the entire races look like a single society. so your solution is like a generalization of what they've done? (a generous reading of their intent)
@Eve More or less, yeah. I've had friends tell me that it's how you're "supposed" to read the alignment stuff in D&D books but I still feel like the books imply way too strongly that certain races can only be certain alignments.
@witchfynder_finder they really do, I agree. the stuff in the books is all sketched a little too broadly probably so people who dont care about stuff like this can just run the presets and kill a bunch of creatures w/o any guilt feelings lol
@Eve Yeah, I think you're right. Like how the books also really lean heavily on stereotypes and tropes. It probably is just to make it a little more accessible, but it ends up coming across as...not necessarily lazy, but perhaps uninspired? Like they're leaving all the "work" up to the players.
@witchfynder_finder totally, it's all pretty skeletal in a way despite their having spilled a lot of ink .. but actually I might like that? mostly bc I have kind of strong feelings about how some of this stuff *should* be implemented and what it *should* look like, and the more the sources diverge from that the more work you have to do to weed out the bad from the good ...
@Eve Yeah, as much as it annoys me that they only embrace the tropes, it does also free the players to REALLY experiment and try their own things WRT characters and also pushes DMs who don't like things to go out and write their own worlds and rules. Silver lining, I guess~