Races in a new Campaign Setting

Ebylon · May 8, 2010

When you set out to create a campaign setting, do you work from the ground up when it comes to adding in races? Or do you take all the D&D races and try to find a niche for them all? I've got a handful of races in my fantasy setting that I could relatively easily transfer over to existing D&D races, but I'd lose a bit of their flavor in the process. I can't decide on what to do.

Garthanos · May 8, 2010

Ebylon said:
When you set out to create a campaign setting, do you work from the ground up when it comes to adding in races? Or do you take all the D&D races and try to find a niche for them all? I've got a handful of races in my fantasy setting that I could relatively easily transfer over to existing D&D races, but I'd lose a bit of their flavor in the process. I can't decide on what to do.

I am open to extensive variation ... I have races that are standard for my world but pcs are exceptions and in some cases completely unique... but in general we look at what is desired and skin liberally to fit. Humans of my world are incredibly magical and during the last war created many new species but few have become massively viable. If nothing else a character is either human (elven are fey souled ones and also considered human by most) or a created one (dwarves are createds but mechanically like the warforged).

Jawsh · May 8, 2010

What I do is I take a bunch of Player's Handbook races, though not necessarily all of them, and add in one or two bonus races.

To some extent, the D&D races work on archetype. If you create a new fantasy race that lives in the forest, uses longbows, and has an affinity for magic, well then those are elves, no matter what name you give them.

Another thing I find, though this will depend on your group, is when you troll for players, invariably someone will be like "D&D? Sweet! I'll play. Can I be an elven druid?"

and you'll be like "um, in my setting there aren't any elves, but you can be a whatsit, which is pretty much an elf."

and then when the campaign begins, you ask everyone to describe themselves, and the player says "I'm an elf... sorry I mean a, um, what was it called again? Your elf analogue? Okay, yeah, a whatsit."

other players: "what's a whatsit?"

whatsit player: "an elf"

other players: "okay"

It's actually kind of hard to come up with decent concepts that can be archetypalized. There are a few holes in D&D though, that you might be able to fill. For example, I don't know of a suitably archetypal civilized desert race.

Often too, in an attempt to create archetypes, creators will resort to animals: "there's a frog race, and a cat race, and a bug race, and a dog race. You'll never guess the next twist: you know the cat race and the dog race? They're mortal enemies." ugh

Mostly, it's been my policy to allow the players to come up with the races based on what they want to play. Obviously they can use the PHB as a starting point, and most do, but a few players find really obscure races, and I find it useful to wait to flesh out the campaign setting until I know what sort of creatures the players are going to be, so I can use it as a hook.

aco175 · May 8, 2010

Most of my players are more PHB1 for races and it works, but every once in a while a character ends up being something out of the norm. It is mostly explained that there are small pockets of said class that are around- usually far away from the lands we are playing in. The first few levels end up with more roleplaying around other's reactions to that player, but I have not had the other players get upset at the additional 'shine time'. After a few levels it tends to get boring when every new town acts a certain way towards the said character and it tends to get skimmed over from that point.

Uchiha Blood · May 22, 2010

Jawsh said:
It's actually kind of hard to come up with decent concepts that can be archetypalized. There are a few holes in D&D though, that you might be able to fill. For example, I don't know of a suitably archetypal civilized desert race.

From FFXII, there is a desert race called the Urutan-Yensa, they are basically humanoid crab-like creatures that wear heavy cloaks like jawas. They were my favorite part of the game.

Ebylon · May 22, 2010

Uchiha Blood said:
From FFXII, there is a desert race called the Urutan-Yensa, they are basically humanoid crab-like creatures that wear heavy cloaks like jawas. They were my favorite part of the game.

The Yensa were one of the best parts of that game!

Gradine · Jun 4, 2010

Ebylon said:
The Yensa were one of the best parts of that game!

This does not speak kindly of the game

Back on topic, I find myself struggling with these same issues in my own homebrew campaign I'm working on. The campaign world is a single (albeit large) self-contained city, and of the seven established races I have in the setting, three aren't fully supported PC races. I've considered adding something like an "immigrant quarter" in the city to allow for players who want to play something really more unique to the setting (this would include gnomes or halflings or minotaurs and the like) so I don't have to come up with an excuse for why every race has carved out its own niche in the city. I've already added elves (and subsequently half-elves) to the mix from my base concept.

I'm curious how any of you have pulled off race-class restrictions? That nearly every human lacks magical capabilities is an important aspect of the world, but limiting humans to martial (and maybe psionic) classes seems overly restrictive. I'm tempted to walk the "PC's are special" party line and just allow whatever, but I'm worried that something like a human sorcerer might steal the spotlight RP-wise that way. Thoughts or suggestions?

malcolm_n · Jun 4, 2010

You'll find that most players who've been around a while will understand that you'd prefer they not play a human spellcaster without a great story reason. I've actually used that as a tool for dissuasion in a couple campaigns. If they want to play something against the grain, ask them for an extensive reason why they'd be that way. They'll either shy away and consider something else, or give you a good attempt at a backstory that you maybe hadn't considered before.

ceiling90 · Jun 13, 2010

I my campaign (setting), I pretty much threw out the PHB races, except Humans. I don't even have an elf analogue. But it's also sort of sci-fi, so a lot of the races are based on constructs. I do have what it seems Shifter and Dragonborn analogues, but it's difficult to take some ideas and not have overlap.

While I don't really particularly limit races in the setting, after all it's a colony planet that gain immigration popularity, the story reason for a severe lack of other races is that, while the world maybe rich in bounty, it'll tear apart even the most seasoned of adventurers. And really, those who managed to carve out a piece for themselves (those that first immigrated and actually managed to live on the planet) are the most common.

So far, the only reasonable way to explain to player is to actually given a good overview of how the world works. It might turn off some players of "I wanna be the chick elf wizard" or something, but those who take to heart the setting will probably enjoy the game a lot more.

Kingreaper · Jun 13, 2010

Gradine said:
I'm curious how any of you have pulled off race-class restrictions? That nearly every human lacks magical capabilities is an important aspect of the world, but limiting humans to martial (and maybe psionic) classes seems overly restrictive. I'm tempted to walk the "PC's are special" party line and just allow whatever, but I'm worried that something like a human sorcerer might steal the spotlight RP-wise that way. Thoughts or suggestions?

Divine power isn't really you doing magic. It's the gods working through you.

As a warlock you haven't gained magic yourself, you have borrowed that of another.

As a primal class: you're gaining power from the primal spirits of nature. (this is a questionable one. But then, Barbarians aren't very magic, and druids could easily be non-human to begin with, even if they are "human" by the rules.)

Limiting humans from just the non-warlock arcane classes isn't huge.