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[Vertigon]

-shitsnip-

This post just makes me laugh.  Whose fault is it that you don't know how to use crossbows, or hospitals, or whatever else you're bitching about?

[Marshall Burns]

What's wrong with homogenous races?

Nothing.  It's when you have an entire homogenous race of "rare" half-elf/half-orc/half-whatever hybrids that I get annoyed.  For example: Half-orcs.  They're just slightly less orky orcs.  Why not just let us play as orcs?  Or half-elves.  If elves and humans hate each other so much that half-elves are sooooo rare, why is there an entire self-supporting population of them?

D&D doesn't let you play orcs because it's too namby-pamby. Seriously, you can't just be an orc because they're the "bad guys." Luckily there's The Burning Wheel.

The half-elves thing is especially stupid, considering that in D&D's prime reference for the elves thing, Lord of the Rings, half-elves had to choose to live either as elves or humans (e.g. Elrond chose to live as an elf, but his brother chose to live as a human). They weren't somewhere in between.

Don't get me wrong, I like D&D every now and then, but a large portion of it makes my eyes roll uncontrollably.

[Sowelu]

The half-elves thing is especially stupid, considering that in D&D's prime reference for the elves thing, Lord of the Rings, [...]

Good heavens!  It's almost like they were creating their own world of fiction instead of relying entirely on the source material.

[Marshall Burns]

Good heavens!  It's almost like they were creating their own world of fiction instead of relying entirely on the source material.

If that's what they were doing, then they did it badly. Like, really really badly. Like, oh my Gawd.

There are things that D&D is good at. Fiction is not one of them.

[Qinetix]

Anti Matter... nuf sayd

[Johnfalcon99977]

I don't want some corny tech-tree. Well, I'd like to see some way of tech advancement, but I don't want it in some stupid way like: "Bmb bumb bumb! Your drofs have discovered how to make mini-forges!" Kind of way.

[Vercingetorix]

I'm not sure what you mean, who/what's Erebor?

Aka the Lonely Mountain in The Hobbit, Smaug's residence of choice.

[Solarn]

Good heavens!  It's almost like they were creating their own world of fiction instead of relying entirely on the source material.

If that's what they were doing, then they did it badly. Like, really really badly. Like, oh my Gawd.

There are things that D&D is good at. Fiction is not one of them.

May I direct you to the Dragonlance series and the Avatar series and the Cormyr saga and the Cleric quintet and the rest of the awesome official D&D novels and ask you to kindly SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT STUFF YOU HAVE NO IDEA ABOUT?

[Urist McBusDriver]

3 dimentional procedurally generated, animation, models, and graphics.

I dunno, if this guy were to do a DF visualizer, I'd be all over it.

Well, that's awesome. If only he had an rss feed, I'd be following him now.
As it is, I'll may remember to check for interesting new stuff now and again.

Scroll to the bottom of the page; he has an Atom feed. I dont' know what Atom is, but my browser seems to treat it the same as RSS.

[Assassinfox]

Good heavens!  It's almost like they were creating their own world of fiction instead of relying entirely on the source material.

If that's what they were doing, then they did it badly. Like, really really badly. Like, oh my Gawd.

There are things that D&D is good at. Fiction is not one of them.

May I direct you to the Dragonlance series and the Avatar series and the Cormyr saga and the Cleric quintet and the rest of the awesome official D&D novels and ask you to kindly SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT STUFF YOU HAVE NO IDEA ABOUT?

I, Strahd would like a word with both of you.

But seriously, I didn't intend to start a huge RP fight in here.  Lets take any further verbal fisticuffs to a different forum, okay?

[Cruxador]

Good heavens!  It's almost like they were creating their own world of fiction instead of relying entirely on the source material.

If that's what they were doing, then they did it badly. Like, really really badly. Like, oh my Gawd.

There are things that D&D is good at. Fiction is not one of them.

May I direct you to the Dragonlance series and the Avatar series and the Cormyr saga and the Cleric quintet and the rest of the awesome official D&D novels and ask you to kindly SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT STUFF YOU HAVE NO IDEA ABOUT?

Those are mostly pretty bad, for one thing.
For another, independent novels which happen to be set in settings which also have had setting books for D&D being good is not the same as D&D being good for fiction. It's really not. Although 4e is less bad than its immediate predecessor, and is a step in the right direction, it is still merely removing limitations to using fiction in your D&D games. It still doesn't really facilitate the creation of fiction besides providing a potential motivation.

[Marshall Burns]

Thank you, Cruxador. (AND GET OUT OF MY BRAIN!!!!! Damn psychics.)

It still doesn't really facilitate the creation of fiction besides providing a potential motivation.

Right, and even then it doesn't provide much support for pursuing that motivation and facing appropriate adversity in the process, beyond what the players and GM are going to bring to the table themselves (which means more effort for everyone). For that, you need a game like The Burning Wheel or something.

Don't get me wrong, folks! D&D is hella fun. There's just things it's not good for.

[Nivim]

2. Multiracial forts (might happen, but mjeh)

Why?

I also wish to know; uniracialism is something I've always been annoyed about in civilization games. Such as in Master of Magic, I can acquire numerous cities of dwarves (who have bonuses when working on production instead of farming), and numerous cities of halflings(who have bonuses when working on farming instead of production), but no matter how many spare houses in each I build, or how many connecting magic roads, I cannot get the dwarven farmers and the halfing industrial workers to switch places.
 There is also of course propagating the whole racial acceptance thing, resulting in lower unrest, more trade, and a generally more efficient empire.

So in response to the title; I don't want any unnatural uniracialism by the time the game is done.

[agatharchides]

Realistically, if they live in widely different environments like elves in trees and dwarves 30 z-levels under and they have significantly different ethics, they probably will tend to stay with their own kind. They would likely trade and make alliances or have wars, but they would be unlikely to share living space or feel a massive desire to stay on top of each other.

[Nivim]

 Realistically, people are curious, there are always deviants, and as thinking beings they can decide what their environment is*. Dwarf Fortress has, and will generate, a lot of different races, and although ethics and beliefs always start around physical requirements, they need not stay there; especially as technology and ethics(process patterns) are discovered that loosen those restraints. Although DF civilizations are fairly absolute and exacting in their race membership now (with only slavery and kidnapping able to bridge the magical gap), this is not a natural or realistic state, especially if there is more to be gained from the diffusion than is lost (i.e. with any races that fit in such nice niches). I can see kobolds taking a long time, with the additional language barriers and current closeness to feral behavior, but it would only take one brilliant diplomat to get it started.
 If you're talking about distance when you say different environments, I can understand if there's no population diffusion over 1500km of wildlands. But roads (especially the magic roads in MoM that are effectively teleporters) and settlements along the way will change that.

I seem to have ignored the likelyhood and if-then qualifiers, but the average direction is the same either way, even if not the magnitude.

*(Acronym.) Can be slightly reminiscent of the ~Aztec style, with great stone fortresses among dense jungle.