Fantasy Races: Hungry for Creative Races and Racial Traits

celt · Apr 5, 2004

Greetings All,

I'm in the process of creating a campaign world and I'm searching eagerly for creative ideas for races or racial traits with a STRONG bent towards role-playing opportunites (as opposed to stats or "effectiveness").

There's the general pitch. Specifics follow.

If anyone can point out a book, a link, or even just type a great catalyst WORD that leads my mind in new directions it'd be much appreciated. The world will be generally fantasy with some very low-end technology available. Probably some magic-based guns, robots/golems, and a cantrip-quality machine or two (like a calculator or a watch). Any ideas could easily ignore the technology aspect and just go classic fantasy and that would be fine.

I'm a game retailer so I have access to most books available both past and present. I'm already using and loving FFG's Mythic Races which has given me a couple races. What a great book!

As I said above, I'm really looking for role-playing hooks built right into the race. Things I've already seen that got me going are: The new Dragon magazine's presentation of Dark Sun Dwarves as having "focus". Focus being the one thing (specifically mentioned by the player) that the dwarf is working towards at the moment. I like the idea of Nazi Elves. I like the Mythic Races version of Faeries which can fly but are so tiny that it is of limited use. I also like the way the Faeries have a few innate spell-like abilities but using them outlines them in faerie fire. I like the Mythic Races Eleti (basically an undead race) and toy with having them be the "hated race of the moment" just as throughout real life human history we have certainly treated certain sub-groups of humanity with contempt. I'm toying with having a mechanical race that may need batteries. Someone mentioned an idea from the Warcraft RPG that includes magic-addicted elves. Addictions are cool.

Make sense? New races or old is fine. Heck, giving me a new angle on HUMANS would be wonderful. I'm probably going to have them be fairly new to the world and NOT the majority. That should help a bit.

It's not necessary (but it would be cool) to type out a whole ready-to-go race. Just any direction or motivation would be wonderful. Thanks in advance for any help!

celt · Apr 6, 2004

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Jürgen Hubert · Apr 6, 2004

Try out the Surathi, which you can find here.

Short summary: A psionic bloodline that can interbreed with just about any creature. Complete with faux genetics!

As written, members of the higher breeds tend to be evil, and thus are more likely to be NPCs than PCs - but you can certainly rewrite that. They remain suitably creepy - and cool - even if they are neutral!

Steve Jackson Games' Transhuman Space line also has a vast array of human variants created through genetic engineering. My favorite are the all-female Hippolyta parahumans, which can create offspring without any male help - and even if they use male help, their child will always be a female as well. And then there are the Artificial Intelligences and so-called "ghosts" (personality simulations of people who scanned their brains in), who can switch between different robot bodies at the speed of bandwidth...

Dr. Strangemonkey · Apr 6, 2004

You might check out Arcana Unearthed.

The mojh and Verrik are pretty dang cool, and I like the Faen 'Life Cycle.'

And Oathbound has some of the awesomest stuff with regard to races that I have ever seen.

The telepathic pedagogically oriented jellyfish are particularly neat.

Gez · Apr 6, 2004

In my homebrew, there's a subrace of lorekeepers (gnomes, but could be something else) who live always near what they call "sacred lakes" and that are lakes situated on a lei node. They have a funny racial traits: on these sacred lakes, they can walk on water.

On a similar theme, you can look at the selkies in Mixed Myth. Not only is it an excellent webcomic, but there are some funny quirks... As seen in the latest part, a selkie's seal is not only a seal (animal) but also a seal (mystical sigil).

Sarellion · Apr 6, 2004

GURPS Fantasy Folk has perhaps some ideas on old and new races. They have the usual fare from elves to dwarves but there are also winged faelike beings, leprechauns , gargoyles and stuff like this.

Vlos · Apr 6, 2004

Mythic Races

Yes I have mythic racecs which is a great book.

Another book of great racial resources is a book about half races. I can't think of the name but its something like "Blood n ....". Its about Halfbreeds.

It has about 12 half breeds detailed out, and has rules for creating almost any type of halfbreeds given two or more base creatures.

am181d · Apr 6, 2004

I'm in the process of creating a new setting for an upcoming game, and I wanted to create solid hooks for all the core races, so I came up with...

Dwarves: First great civilized race, now near extinction, in decline both in terms of influence and physical stature (they never call themselves dwarves)

Elves: The highest order of faerie, royalty of the Undying Court, have to spend a few centuries as mortals traveling the world before they can return to their brethren

Gnomes: Lesser faeries can be trapped in mortal form by spiteful humans; they are especially prized as wizards' assistants

Halflings: Sometimes human children stop aging; "Halflings" are considered touched by the devil and cast out of human society; some are playful and immature, some are twisted and demented; they travel in packs

Orcs: Just as the race of man has surplanted the race of dwarves, so to do the orcs wait to surplant the race of man

celt · Apr 6, 2004

Jürgen Hubert said:
Try out the Surathi, which you can find here.
Short summary: A psionic bloodline that can interbreed with just about any creature. Complete with faux genetics!

The Surathi are interesting. I came out of reading about them with the word "modularity" on my mind. I'd determined, though, that I don't want to do any half-breeds at all. I'm not totally sure why I'm heading this way but I kinda like the idea of this being all this and that being all that. Perhaps I have lingering Aryan tendancies?

Steve Jackson Games' Transhuman Space line also has a vast array of human variants created through genetic engineering.

I'll check out Transhuman Space. I have other GURPS books that I've been referencing including Fantasy Folk, Steam-Tech, and SteamPunk. I hadn't thought to check out their more Sci-Fi books.

Thanks for the reply!

celt · Apr 6, 2004

Dr. Strangemonkey said:
You might check out Arcana Unearthed.
The mojh and Verrik are pretty dang cool, and I like the Faen 'Life Cycle.'

I've got Arcana Unearthed on my "todo" list. I'd remembered being initially disappointed with the book in general but that shouldn't keep me from mining it.

And Oathbound has some of the awesomest stuff with regard to races that I have ever seen.
The telepathic pedagogically oriented jellyfish are particularly neat.

Telepathic Pedagogically Oriented Jellyfish is a helluva mouthful! I'm leaning towards humanoidish stuff (pushing the flexability of language there) so that the players relate better initially to the core ideas. I want weirdness but I'm hoping the weirdness is more in the application and less up front. Maybe I'm not giving these jellyfish folks a fair shake?