No more elves and kobolds.

[Nordlicht]

Replace all generic fantasy races and make crawl a unique fantasy universe. Even if it' only renaming the the existing ones at first.

[Siegurt]

You'll need to replace more than just elves and kobolds

[Nordlicht]

Listing them all in the title would have been a bit much, wouldn't it?

[andrew]

Disagree, anyway. Having at least some recognizably-named species is good for accessibility to newbies.

[Siegurt]

I vote we change all race names to snack foods, candy bars for PCs, Devil's food cake for devils, multi-headed gummy worms, and we can have literal popcorn for the early floors...

[Shard1697]

Disagree, anyway. Having at least some recognizably-named species is good for accessibility to newbies.

It's also nice for people who aren't new, but just like those previously established things.
"Uniqueness" is not the most valuable thing in the world, and chasing it above all else is not a good idea.

Also understandability is important. I still maintain that"shadow fiend" was a better name than "tzitzimitl", because not only does it connect the monster to other monsters with similar names but also I can actually fucking spell it and search it by name

[Shard1697]

the thoroughly non-generic experience of googling "dcss hells", clicking the wiki page, then clicking on the tartarus link and reading until I find on that page the name of the enemy in order to copy and paste it itt

[andrew]

Also understandability is important. I still maintain that"shadow fiend" was a better name than "tzitzimitl", because not only does it connect the monster to other monsters with similar names but also I can actually fucking spell it and search it by name

And I suppose it supports this point that until just now I was not aware tzitzimmeh were fiends at all.

[Airwolf]

Disagree, anyway. Having at least some recognizably-named species is good for accessibility to newbies.

It's also nice for people who aren't new, but just like those previously established things.
"Uniqueness" is not the most valuable thing in the world, and chasing it above all else is not a good idea.

Also understandability is important. I still maintain that"shadow fiend" was a better name than "tzitzimitl", because not only does it connect the monster to other monsters with similar names but also I can actually fucking spell it and search it by name

Learn Nahuatl and it'll be easier to spell: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzitzimitl

[Shard1697]

I know what the word comes from, it doesn't really change that it's not a word I would ever use in my day to day life

[andrew]

Don't think I've ever referred to kobolds in my day-to-day life either, personally

[b0rsuk]

In practice settings that strive to be original end up reinventing orcs and elves. It typically becomes a renaming project.

Githyanki instead of elves, infected for zombies, ogres instead of trolls.

It would be a completely different story if the world was based on a different princinple. For example Spellsinger books had bipedal animals, including with skunk city guards and weasel strippers.