How do you make your races feel unique and/or more original?

FriarRosing · Dec 29, 2008

One of my favorite things as a DM is world building. I like to keep notebooks full of random histories, people and societies even though a lot of it my players will never encounter, or may just hear of in passing and forget. I like to think up histories and cultures, I suppose. One problem I run into a lot, though, is making the various races seem unique and interesting to my game world while still retaining the general feel and assumptions people would except. I'm the kind of guy who wants most everything in my game to have at least some sort of inspiration in classic folklore or fantasy (my personal opinion on this has to do with my feeling that part of what makes a D&D work so well is the familiarity the players have with the subject matter--everyone knows who elves, dragons and hobbits are and what they look like. If I threw in Cardassians from Star Trek for some reason and several of my players had never seen a single episode, they would be somewhat lost on what the heck I was talking about).

Anyway, I've been having trouble thinking up unique personalities and societies for some of the standard D&D races (mainly Dwarves) and I was wondering what kinds of things other people did to make their races different. This could be social aspects, appearance, personalities or whatever.

I personally like to combine cultures from across the globe into interesting mishmashes of social ideas, structures and beliefs. One problem with that, though, is that it's a pretty common one, and a lot of the societies that I find interesting are pretty commonly applied to various races, or are so non-european like that the tone of Medieval Europe (which I want to retain to at least some extent in my campaign) is lost. My Orcs, for example, are less blood thirsty marauders and more a death-obsessed highly regimented and highly xenophobic society based equally around the culture of ancient Egypt, Dark Ages Scandanavia and Imperial Japan. Also they're much less brutish in appearance, and are essentially just larger, leaner humans with greenish skin.

Asmor · Dec 29, 2008

Not exactly what you're looking for, but since you've mentioned dwarves...

I've made two societies of dwarves.

The first is based on ancient egypt, and they live in the desert. But what's a dwarf to do without a mountain to live in? Build one! The Kamit live in massive pyramid-cities.

The kayama are based loosely on ancient Japan, though they're not really meant to be encountered. Rather, they provide a back drop for The Ronin, dwarves exiled from their home mountains and never again allowed to return.

Dannyalcatraz · Dec 29, 2008

I'm the kind of guy who wants most everything in my game to have at least some sort of inspiration in classic folklore or fantasy (my personal opinion on this has to do with my feeling that part of what makes a D&D work so well is the familiarity the players have with the subject matter--everyone knows who elves, dragons and hobbits are and what they look like. If I threw in Cardassians from Star Trek for some reason and several of my players had never seen a single episode, they would be somewhat lost on what the heck I was talking about).

I can understand that, but to be fair, odds are slim that every person who sits at your table will have read all the folklore or fantasy you have, so there's really no point in limiting yourself to those sources only.

In fact, taking inspiration from unusual sources may actually prove inspirational.

Unique race design is a mix of of culture, history, and mechanics. The trick is not "thinking outside the box," but rather how to mix elements chosen from within and outside the box.

Dwarves: I made them into sentient stone in one campaign, and they reproduced by carving new ones. The type of stone determined their exact stats and favored class. Tougher minerals were better at being the warrior types. Gemstones were better at being the spellcasters.

In another one, I killed them all off...sort of. I made the dwarven survivors of an apocalyptic war into a fantasy version of Dr Who's Cybermen or Daleks. Psionically active dwarves transferred their consciousnesses into the bodies their slain bretheren constructed- Warforged. They had the physical attributes of Warforged (but with darkvision added), but the mental and cultural attributes of dwarves. They called themselves "Inheritors."

Elves: In one campaign, I combined elements of the Minbari (from Bab5) with making them sentient plants). This latter twist is one of my most common.

Another common twist for me- making them true "fey" and using the "Drift" rules from the Geomancer PrCl to warp them as they age.

In another campaign, they were sci-fi "Greys" who had crashlanded on a fantasy world. They used their high tech stasis devices and tesseract generators to create what humans called "Underhill" to give them a nearly timeless and quite vast space in which to live while awaiting either rescue or for native tech/magic to be up to the task of repairing them.

As you can see, I'm not afraid to blend sci-fi tropes into my fantasy, especially when designing races.

shilsen · Dec 29, 2008

For me it's simple. I let the co-DMs of the 4e game I'm now running create them, since they (Rolzup and Mallus here on ENWorld) are unbelievably creative people, and then use their ideas. Simple! There's a thread on the setting they created here.

And a quick example of some things they did with the races (the setting is a city on the last sliver of land left after the apocalypse, on the shore of the Aser/Astral Sea) from the handout we gave our players:

The Dragonborn Magna Publica Machina, the Great Machine of State, was one of the two great powers of the World Before. Where the Tiefling Imperium Goetia had demons and devils to do their bidding, the Dragonborn had devices of cunning intricacy, wedded to magics of power and subtlety. It was the Dragonborn who made the automatons now called Warforged, although the secret of commanding their obedience has long since been lost.

At times, a Dragonborn will become lost within the Interior (and thus, within himself). Most such unfortunates are never seen again, but others somehow manage to find their true selves in the wastes, and to embrace that aspect of their Self. Such individuals are known as Dragons, and the emergence of one from the Outback is a cause for both celebration and terror. Few linger in the World for very long; most pass on across the Aster, to parts unknown.

Tieflings seem quite at home in the World After. They refer to it as the Show, and insist what they call ‘the final curtain’ is yet to come.

Halflings are humans who, as they hit the age of 10 or so, stop growing and start changing into something that is not quite human. As their ears develop points, they become quicker, stronger, and much, much luckier. Most end up on the streets, rejected by their own family; Halflings, as is well known, simply cannot be trusted. Of course, it’s no surprise that so many Halflings turn to thievery in order to survive, under the circumstances. Halflings are themselves infertile, but they know their own even before they change. It’s not uncommon for a Halfling to kidnap a child, and take him to grow up among his own kind. The common belief is that the Halflings are actually changing human children, using some twisted ritual, but this is nonsense. Mostly. This, of course, contributes even further to the reputation that Halflings have, and is one reason that they stay on the move as much as possible. Common wisdom has it that trimming a Halflings ears will make him human once more; this is not in fact the case, but that hasn’t kept it from happening with appalling regularity.

Gnomes wear peaked caps, deep red in color, dyed with the blood of their many victims. They kill easily and casually, moving unseen and slitting throats on behalf of their Eladrin masters. No one with any sense trifles with a gnome, lest he take offense and murder the perpetrator. And his family. And the dog (they like cats).

The Dwarves have a holy task; they are working to carve the chambers and caverns deep below the surface into an enormous musical instrument sounded by the underground movement of air, one that will – when it is completed – sound the Last Trump, finish the apocalypse, and allow the new world to be born. In the meantime, Orthodox Dwarves spend their entire lives underground, venturing to the surface only when it is absolutely necessary. And even then, they keep all exposed flesh covered; only when The Job is done will they be allowed to feel the touch of sunlight once more. A lot of dwarves reject this, not surprisingly. They leave their homes and family behind and venture to the surface to forge new lives for themselves. When they get older, many of them return to the caverns of their birth, take up their tools, and get to work once again. It just seems like the right thing to do.

Shadar-Kai are children conceived in the brothels on the Other Side; half alive, half dead, belonging neither to this world nor the next but passing more or less freely between the two. Many act as intermediaries between the living and the dead, passing on the wishes of those caught in the machinations of the Eternal Bureaucracy to their surviving relatives.

Orcs come from somewhere within the Aster; they will not discuss their origins. The ignorant talk of a place called the Monstrous Archipelago, but it’s just a rumor. Orc arrive in the Port on ships of carved bone, silently disembark, and never look back as the ships sail back to wherever they came from. Orcs are highly in demand as bodyguards and soldiers; they will work for anyone willing to pay them, will do whatever they are to ordered to do without protest, and are utterly faithful to their current employer. What they do with the money they are paid is one of the many small mysteries of the Port.

Goblinoids – goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears, and ogres, probably ettins as well – are folk who have been changed by the Aster; either by the sea itself, or by being caught in one of the storms that blows in off the sea. The waters mutate them into things of horrific appearance and bizarre shapes – no two look exactly alike. The people of the Port call them Flotsam, or “The Changed” if they are being polite. They are a despised and generally exploited underclass, doing much of the dirty and dangerous labor for the Port. The Driftglass Society is making an attempt to organize them into a sort of political force, but have met with little luck thus far. Most of the Changed are altered in mind as well as in body.

Gnolls begin life as hyenas, living on the fringes of the Outback. After consuming a living human – and his soul – they rapidly grow and change, developing the ability speak, to walk upright, and to use weapons. This last, they do with particular eagerness. Packs often grow regularly, as gnolls take travelers captive and feed them, still alive, to the hyenas that travel with them.

The Kuo-Toa are somewhat resistant to the effects of the Aster; most of them work at the docks as stevedores, loading and unloading the ships that come to the Port. They keep to themselves, and only a few designated representatives can speak or understand Common.

Gilladian · Dec 29, 2008

Dannyalcatraz said:
Dwarves: I made them into sentient stone in one campaign, and they reproduced by carving new ones. The type of stone determined their exact stats and favored class. Tougher minerals were better at being the warrior types. Gemstones were better at being the spellcasters.

Dannyalcatraz, this is exactly what I've done with dwarves in my campaign world! Do you have notes on what you did? Would you be willing to share? I'd love to see the details! Anyone who wants to see my dwarves can find them here: Vishteer Campaign / Dwarves

The Green Adam · Dec 29, 2008

I too have Dwarves made from stone...though the origins and effects are quite different.

Without getting too deeply into my cosmology, a single diety imagined and designed the world and then made dragons to construct it. When the dragons were done they went to sleep (which is why they sleep so much to this day. World Building is exhausting

). The various pantheons of gods (Egyptian, Norse, Greco-Roman, etc.) were made by the original diety to manage the place.

Over time, reality fell into disrepair. The gods of the Norse-like pantheon had an idea. They carved statues from rock, mud, precious gems and metal and brought them to life. These creatures were small so they could get into the nooks and crannies of the world to fix it and were tough to handle various environments. The other pantheons applauded and the Dwarves were born.

Now...essentially constructs of the gods, Dwarves have an 'off' switch if you will, their 'True Name'. If a Dwarf's true name is spoken by a non-Dwarf, that Dwarf turns back into stone. Therefore all the Dwarves on my world have no 'Proper Name'. They're called Redeye Thunderfist, Deepdown Tunnelhonor, Grimhammer Soulforge, etc. This protects them from having any outsider discover their 'True Names' which sound like Scandanavian meets Gaelic meets having pebbles in your mouth.

AD

SilverSnake · Dec 29, 2008

I like the stone dwarf idea, I think I may just have to "borrow" that. My dwarves are generally modeled after Vikings; most stay at home and keep the kingdom running, the rest go out in trading or raiding parties. And I get to use a Norwegian accent for them, which is a lot of fun.
In my current campaign, I've made elves and eladrin NPC races. There are many stories of them, such as they are the "boogie man" that will come to eat the naughty little children. Folklore has it that they never existed, they did exist once long ago, they are evil baby-eaters, or they are kind and benevolent stewards of mankind.
In actuality they still exist, but most have moved on to the feywild, or to a far away land. I'm allowing half-elves, but they have no points on their ears and are thought to be normal humans. Little do they know their elven ancestry has manifested in them.
This is my first time mucking about with the elven races, hopefully it goes well and everyone has fun with it.

Set · Dec 29, 2008

shilsen said:
Gnolls begin life as hyenas, living on the fringes of the Outback. After consuming a living human – and his soul – they rapidly grow and change, developing the ability speak, to walk upright, and to use weapons. This last, they do with particular eagerness. Packs often grow regularly, as gnolls take travelers captive and feed them, still alive, to the hyenas that travel with them.

That's hot. I like the bit about the Gnomes, too.

The first place I saw carved stone dwarves was in the Shadowbane MMO (which has some *amazing* flavor text, with the Irekai being one of the coolest versions of 'dark elves' I've ever seen).

I never went completely sideways with the standard races, but, back in 2nd edition, when Orcs were LE, I modeled them strongly on Klingons, all about honor and stuff (in 3E, I'd probably port that over to Hobgoblins). I also tweaked elves to make them more CN in nature, with personalities closer to those of sharks than people, wracked with emotions many times more powerful than those of humans, and very fleeting, so that an elf who seemed to be your best friend might try to take your head off over a joke gone wrong, and then, upon success, wail over your body, before his mercurial moods changed and he wandered off, perhaps spitefully kicking your still-cooling corpse for putting him through all of that grief.

pawsplay · Dec 29, 2008

Anyway, I've been having trouble thinking up unique personalities and societies for some of the standard D&D races (mainly Dwarves) and I was wondering what kinds of things other people did to make their races different.

You could try taking a classic archetype and applying common sense, dramatic sense, and flair to it. That would certainly be different than what a lot of other people do. In my experience, race and culture building rarely lacks originality so much as it lacks sense.

Dannyalcatraz · Dec 29, 2008

Gilladian said:
Dannyalcatraz, this is exactly what I've done with dwarves in my campaign world! Do you have notes on what you did? Would you be willing to share? I'd love to see the details! Anyone who wants to see my dwarves can find them here: Vishteer Campaign / Dwarves

I may still have notes on them...but right now, I'm in the middle of a whole-house renovation. IOW, things are a mite more disorganized than usual.

I'll keep looking, though, and if/when I find them, I'll post them in this thread or a fork from it.

How do you make your races feel unique and/or more original?

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