Populating the world without the usual suspects

[Yora]

Today I was going through the monster manual to check which creatures make good fits for the setting I have been working on, and that got me thinking what a world would look like that doesn't have all the popular regulars of D&D.

No goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears, orcs, ogres, trolls, and giants.
No drow and duergar.
No demons, devils, and dragons.
No wights and wraiths.

And I noticed a strong trend towards the Greek and the Weird.

The remaining list of humanoids is quite interesting:
Aaracockra, bullywug, centaur, cyclops, ettin, fomorian, githyanki, githzerai, gnoll, grimlock, harpy, kenku, kobold, kuo-toa, lizardfolk, merfolk, merrow, minotaur, oni, quaggoth, sahuagin, thri-kreen, troglodyte, yuan-ti.

And with humanoid monsters you got azer, doppelganger, dryad, ettercap, gargoyle, genies, hags, jackalwere, lamia, magmin, medusa, mephits, mind flayer, pixie, rakshasa, salamander, satyr, slaads, sphinx, sprite, treant, and yugoloths.

Mostly familiar names, but populating a world with just these could turn out pretty fun. Maybe even without elves, dwarves, and halflings as well.

[HoodedHero007]

And what about Humans, would they be excised as well?

How do you think the lack of our typical perspective Races would impact this setting?

[Particle_Man]

It looks like you are taking out the Tolkien to see what is left. In which case I would agree with also taking out dwarves, elves and halflings.

[PeteNutButter]

A world with only one primary sentient humanoid species might actually make the most sense from a realistic perspective. There's whole fields of biology dedicated to the question of how long competing lifeforms can coexist. At the very least evil races should be either in power or out entirely. If orcs existed in real life and if they were innately evil/incapable of redemption, exterminating them should be priority #1 for any other race.

That can of course be hand-waived in D&D by involving gods and whatnot, but it opens up another idea: Consider instead of saying "humans are the only humanoid race in this world," say "Humans are the only humanoid race in this world, because they killed all the others."

That'd be something fun, here's a few adventure ideas:

-A party of adventurers gets contacted by an elven god and asked to resurrect the species. Do they get it wrong and get pet cemetery elves? Because that's way cooler than drow.

-Humanity is cursed by the gods of all the dead races. The PCs are on a quest of atonement. Can they atone for all the crimes of past humans or should they? Can a [hu]man be judged by the sins of their fathers?

-Rumors say an ancient holdout of dwarves exists somewhere deep in the earth. Can the party find them and convince them to help the humans stop the BBEG before its too late? Will the dwarves upon being found, help the BBEG instead (because $&*@ you humans)?

Sorry went down a rabbit hole of my own making, but just food for thought.

[Pelle]

And I noticed a strong trend towards the Greek and the Weird.


Yeah. Having previously found those weird people and abberations too silly, I have gained a new appreciation for them in the game I'm running now with some Lovecraftian inspiration. Especially if cutting out the other near-human races, the setting might lend itself well to that.