Races and NPC Tolerance

[DeathMetal4tw]

I'm a little conflicted. Part of me wants to introduce alternative racial options for players in my campaign but the other part of me finds it a little (for back of a better word) unrealistic. While I want to see how a kobold character could play out, when I run it in my head all I can see is a vermin race that will be ignored by most NPC's. The same applies for Hobgoblins, tieflings and some of the other goodies in the bestiaries. How do you handle alternative races? Do you allow them in your campaigns? Are they game changers? Should I just rewrite the world's view of races traditionally seen as "lesser"?

[Buri]

In the GM section of the CRB, there are two lists of races. One is the "alternate" list and the other is "if you allow these races let the party start a 2 cuz they're leet." All the ones you stated are from the "alternate" list.

[SImRobert2001]

It depends on how i'm feeling.

If i'm not up for a fight, i'll just have the characters treated as "normal" race.

If i built a town up from scratch, with its own history, then i'll look at the following: 1) What is the town's history with the race in question? Hobgoblin players would likely find alot of racism and hatred if the town in question had issues with Hobgoblin raids. However, in a town like Absalom, Hobgoblin characters would see a great deal more tolerance simply because of the massive amounts of other races that trade in the town.

Simply consider the history of the npc, town, and country in question. A cleric of Iomede would let the PC's actions speak for themselves wherever they were, while a random person in the Hold of Belkzan might treat a half-orc with suspicion and hatred, even to the point of not wanting to deal with them. A gnome in Cheliax would be treated as property, while in Andoran, the NPC's might treat the gnome in the exact opposite manner. Perhaps even asking if the gnome was an escaped slave.

FOr me, they haven't been game changers. I've given a bit of different flavor text, though. Such as:

*There is a bit of hatred in the store clerks eyes as steve the hobgoblin enters his store. It is clear that Money is welcome here, but Steve is not. There seems to be a silent curse emanating from his lips. *

"your appraise check did well, resulting in a total of 15. However, you find that the kobold race is not welcome here, and all you cold find was a shopkeeper who charges triple for the Masterwork sword."

There are ways around these of course, since the kobold/hobgoblin player could give his money to his companions.

[Jeranimus Rex]

But that's because they're highly specialized for the purpose of creating a certain kind of NPC rival.

For example, Kobolds suck hard as barbarians, and Assimar's beutiful stat bonuses are kinda useless for a fighter ect.

And how NPCs view other races, well that is always up to you, if it breaks virsimilitude that an NPC would nor than hapily sell potions to an adventuring Hob-goblin as he would anyone else, then it might be best to not allow these races, because the alternative would be torches and pitchforks running the poor party out of town, and that would be no fun.

As an aside, you could be more tounge and cheek in how the NPCs deal with the less traditional party member.

For example, one of the members of a group I gm picked an Oread (Earth-Elemental Genie Kin) for his inquisitor and decided to dump charisma really hard. So I just decided that the reason he has such a hard time influencing people (Diplomalcy), stems from a very much stunningly ugly appearance. I would never outride deny my Player's anything as a result, but it did nicely flavor some NPC interactions, and provided inspiration for when the Party decided to teach school children for a day.