So basically your mitochondria decides your species?
Personally I like keeping it a little more complicated. It’s the same race as the mother, unless the mother is a ditto, in which case it’s the same race as the father.
Technically it implies that all these other races are diverged near humans, humans being relatively unchanged remain close enough to produce viable offspring, but with different non human races being diverged from each other to the point of non viability.
So basically the racial map for a D&D setting would have humans at the center, with half children in each of the spokes of a wheel, and every non human race being nodes located in the environment where they developed in extremity, and then from there you can build the environment under the premise of the conditions that developed elves or dwarves or orcs from the human starting point.
This would also have to include a backstory spanning tens of thousands of years.
Alternative: humans were specifically engineered to be able to half-breed with anything - even elemental beings - so that they’d be able to take over the world.
Don’t humans have the ability to fuck everything? It’s why half elves and half orcs exist, but no non-human hybrids.
I hate that this exists
Honestly, Elder Scrolls has it right: the offspring of two different races will always be the race of the mother, but with some traits of the father.
None of that funny crossbreeding stuff, just keep it simple.
So basically your mitochondria decides your species?
Personally I like keeping it a little more complicated. It’s the same race as the mother, unless the mother is a ditto, in which case it’s the same race as the father.
Technically it implies that all these other races are diverged near humans, humans being relatively unchanged remain close enough to produce viable offspring, but with different non human races being diverged from each other to the point of non viability.
So basically the racial map for a D&D setting would have humans at the center, with half children in each of the spokes of a wheel, and every non human race being nodes located in the environment where they developed in extremity, and then from there you can build the environment under the premise of the conditions that developed elves or dwarves or orcs from the human starting point.
This would also have to include a backstory spanning tens of thousands of years.
Alternative: humans were specifically engineered to be able to half-breed with anything - even elemental beings - so that they’d be able to take over the world.
Too close to great replacement theory to be campaign safe IMO