Do you have human subraces in your campaigns?

Emirikol · Sep 21, 2008

We've always used human subraces in our campaigns. Everything from Greyhawk's various human races (Flan,Oerid, Seul, Olman, etc.) to Conan/Hyboria's various human subraces (Cimmerian, African, Nordheimr, Shemite, Stygian, etc.). We do both cultural and statistial write-ups for our campaigns.

What do you do?

jh
[edit: in our Warhammer D&D game, we have not included as much statistical differentiation for central europeans, norsicans, arabs and easterners, but we have used a lot of the CULTURAL stuff. That includes obvious earth country analogues, naming, styling, weapon and armor preferences as part of the role-playing experience.]

Nifft · Sep 21, 2008

Nope. IMC, humans are humans... unless you count stuff like Tieflings as a sub-race, which some people do.

Cheers, -- N

Emirikol · Sep 21, 2008

In our current campaign, we've got the following from Warhammer D&D:

Imperial
Estalian
Bretonnian
Kislevite
Norsican/Norse
Arabic

Even nationalized differences have gone a long way towards making humans less "generic."

jh

Daniel D. Fox · Sep 22, 2008

Emirikol said:
We've always used human subraces in our campaigns. Everything from Greyhawk's various human races (Flan,Oerid, Seul, Olman, etc.) to Conan/Hyboria's various human subraces (Cimmerian, African, Nordheimr, Shemite, Stygian, etc.). We do both cultural and statistial write-ups for our campaigns.

What do you do?

jh
[edit: in our Warhammer D&D game, we have not included as much statistical differentiation for central europeans, norsicans, arabs and easterners, but we have used a lot of the CULTURAL stuff. That includes obvious earth country analogues, naming, styling, weapon and armor preferences as part of the role-playing experience.]

Yep, we sure do!
Deismaar: Year 200 / Races of Deismaar

Jeremy757 · Sep 22, 2008

In my campaigns different type of human cultures are just represented by regional or background feats that humans can take.

Khaalis · Sep 22, 2008

I do like the idea of cultural breakdowns for races, especially humans. Something I have sitting on the burner but not yet developed is doing an additional Character Generation System for Backgrounds. The FRPG started in the right direction on this concept, as did the Scales of War article, but I don't think they went far enough.

I haven't decided exactly how I want to work background mechanics, but I definitely WILL be using something to create differentiation among members of a race. I simply do not like the clean cookie-cutter variants of the core rules where every member of a race is a carbon copy of one another.

Some examples of what I am thinking of:
For Humans, giving them A set list of available feats they can acquire with their bonus feat based on their background (possibly including new background specific feats); Skill and/or Save bonuses based on background; etc.

For races like elves that get a racial power, creating new racial powers specific to that race and tying them to backgrounds. Thus not all elves would have the same racial power for instance.

Just a few thoughts off the top of my head.

Emirikol · Sep 23, 2008

Moniker said:
Yep, we sure do!
Deismaar: Year 200 / Races of Deismaar

Nice job!

Jay

Masquerade · Sep 23, 2008

All that mechanically differentiates human cultures in my setting is language; starting characters replace Common with the dominant language of their home continent. However, my humans, eladrin, and shadar-kai are all really one race, just from different environments.

The only true subraces I use in my 4e world are for dragonborn.

the Jester · Sep 24, 2008

If by subraces, you mean different cultures, with linguistic and stylistic differences, then yes, I do.

If you mean mechanically distinct subraces, then no, I don't... though there have been a few 'this culture only' paragon classes that I made, as well as some 2e specialty priests.

Cwheeler · Sep 25, 2008

The setting that I'm writing uses a couple of different races of humans, which will have mechanical differences. This is largely because the setting is post-apocalyptic and different groups of humans have been effected by the magical taint in different ways:

Highborn:
The ruling caste of the Dominion of Man. Through selective breeding and a limited gene-pool, the Highborn have become a functionally different race, comprised largely of power-hungry autocrats.

Lowborn:
The commoners of the Dominion of man. Lowborn function as standard humans.

Trueblood:
Pious and warlike, the humans that call themselves Trubloods believe themselves to be the last pure thing in a dark and amoral world. The Cataclysm in fact warped their minds, making them deluded and unstable, and allowing them to manifest their convictions as a searing golden light.

I am considering adding another type of human: one that dwells in the wastes and has been mutated by the effects of the Taint (elves serve a similar purpose to this, although they're more wild hunters and scavangers).