Monsters and Humanoid Races!

Greetings!

I've long thought that having the typical array of monsters and especially humanoid races, like Orcs, Goblins, Hobgoblins, Flinds, Kobolds, and so on, can become somewhat cramping, you know? Same thing with five different varieties of elves, five varieties of dwarves, five varieties of halflings, as well as gnomes.

These different races, all living in the same areas, just doesn't seem to cut it. I usually cut out many of them, in order to ensure a distinct flavor. On occasion, I'll let some of them live in isolated continents, or islands, that way if I want to use them, I can on a limited basis. But having the standard default situation seems contricting.

Do you use all the races in your campaign? How do you justify all of them living together and such? When doing so, does it ever seem to you that they become somewhat culturally bland, i.e. just another humanoid?

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Ditto. For a more "historical" feel, try an all-human campaign. Magic and humanoids are very rare, and not everyone even believes they exist. Make sure your humanoids are decidely non-human in their looks and behavior.

On a related point, it always strikes me as particularly funny that people will complain that male gamers cannot do justice to a female PC. Yet nobody has a problem with a human player running a non-human PC. IMO, the difference between an elf and a human should be infinitely larger than the difference between a male and female human.

In my home brew campaign I have 3 different types of humans, 3 different types of elves, orcs, goblins, Fortanear (high orcs), dwarves, 3 types of halflings, gnomes, and probably some others that haven't been placed yet.

Each has there own particuliar culture and beliefs. The world isn't even close to be all the way defined, but I'm not cramped for space at all.

spouting off

IMC, there is one kind of elf (yep, no drow), one kind of human, dwarf, and hobbit. Orcs, goblins and hobgoblins are all the same species. So, i've trimmed it down quite a bit.


Aaron

Slash and Burn Aaron!

Greetings!

Damn, Aaron, you have trimmed it down! I think doing so can add more distinctiveness to the campaign, you know? I don't really use Gnomes, for example. Or Kobolds. I like Hobgoblins though. I'm not sure about Bugbears though. They seem ok though. Bugbears. Hmmph.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

I've long thought that having the typical array of monsters and especially humanoid races, like Orcs, Goblins, Hobgoblins, Flinds, Kobolds, and so on, can become somewhat cramping, you know? Same thing with five different varieties of elves, five varieties of dwarves, five varieties of halflings, as well as gnomes.

These different races, all living in the same areas, just doesn't seem to cut it. I usually cut out many of them, in order to ensure a distinct flavor.

Click to expand...

I couldn't agree more. Even having Dwarves, Gnomes, and Halflings as PCs strikes me as too much. Adding in a dozen more goblinoids gets outrageous.

If anything, I prefer a long list of human cultures, all far away and very foreign, with just one or two monster "races" living underground or in the depths of the forests.

If you want a rich mileau lacking the plethora of inhuman humanoids (& low magic, to boot), Lankhmar works great. However, it does go with different modifiers for various human cultures, to provide some sense of difference between all the human characters by a means other than class.

However, I pretty much stick w/ D&D as is, except that I don't allow for any subraces---drow elves, mountain dwarves, forest gnomes, etc. I pretty much stick with the "core" PHB races for racial abilities, though appearance is another matter---you can play an elf w/ jet black skin & chalk white hair, but for all intense purposes, you're an (high) elf as per the PHB. No Underdark, no Lolth, etc.

I pretty much went with this because there wasn't any such diversity for humans (the only exception I know of is the various Clan Humans from OA). I really wanted to promote the idea than an elf is an elf is an elf, despite how they appear on the outside.

I use six of the PH races (no gnomes), as well as orcs, goblins, and hobgoblins. I don't really use subraces, so there's not that much differentiation.

I use all 7 PH races, orc, goblin, and kobold (with one subrace for the orc and the goblin each), aasimar, tiefling, githyanki, and dwelves (dwarf/elf). I also allow OA races in certain parts of my world. No subraces other than the two above for orc and goblin.

All told, there are 23 choices for race IMC (last time I counted, anyway). Each region, though, only allows 6 or 7 different races, so a party isn't usually too diverse (unless they're higher level).

IMC I have only human PCs. I have a few other races out there, but the characters would have to get outside of their current country to find them. The game is a PBeM, and therefore slow, so it may be years before that happens.

As for the humanoids, I have a theme. The current evil wizards & cultists need shock troops, so they are breeding them. Turns out that if you cross a human male with an elf woman, add a few judicious potions during gestation and you get orcs! Unfortunately, they don't breed true. Orcs crossed with anything (even other orcs) beget goblins. Goblins beget goblins. So orcs are prized fighters, tough and well trained. Goblins just get thrown at the front.

Kobolds were a miserable failed experiment, the useless failures were expelled and left to die. They survived, with strange creation myths that mix fantasy and fact.

Gnolls were another failure, too wild to control. Again tossed out, and again living in the wild somewhere.

Hobgoblins may prove to be better than orcs! Evil cultists with big plans certainly hope so!

PS