Race in fantasy: signpost

Race has been an issue in fantasy world-building and gaming for a while now. Since the beginning really, but it has been a slow burner in terms of how much attention most gamers have paid to it (as a topic of discussion rather than just as a box to fill on the character sheet).  I’ve… Continue reading Race in fantasy: signpost

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Racial mixing vs separation

In this post (part of a series on race in fantasy), I will discuss the logic of what happens if different fantasy races can interbreed, and what world building options are therefore open to a logical world-builder. Two disclaimers before I get into this: I am talking about biological heredity: what modern science calls genes… Continue reading Racial mixing vs separation

Dragons in D&D 5e

I’ve looked over the information in the core 5e Monster Manual about dragons and analysed it to bring out some universals, some patterns of variation, and some less-patterned specifics. These might be of interest if you’re a GM running 5e dragons (or especially if you’re considering homebrewing dragon stat blocks), or a crunch-oriented player in… Continue reading Dragons in D&D 5e

Humanoid hybrids in D&D 5e

I would like to review the evidence for interbreeding between different humanoid races in official core 5e DnD material. I suggest that the amount of interbreeding implies that several of these races qualify as a single species, if such a scientific term can be applied to fantasy creatures. (This point is relevant to a few… Continue reading Humanoid hybrids in D&D 5e