Fantasy Races: Hungry for Creative Races and Racial Traits

[Frostmarrow]

This is NASTY! I love it! Absolutely! Holy crap! What a great angle. What a way to wake up a race that was run-down and lingering in mediocrity. You blew me away. Did you come up with this idea?

Indeed. Am181d:s idea is too cool!

 

[Drakmar]

I am in the middle of creating a campaign setting at the moment as well. I sat down an thought about what my arch-nemesis race was going to be. It ended up being the Yuan-ti. Now.. the races on my world are.

True Human (also known as the Old Blood) - special power - can interbreed with any humanoid race.. and other races with "assistance"

Tulans - Humans with Dwarven blood - Dwarves were cursed by the God of the Yu so that they can't go on water. These humans are similar - there culture is Roman.

Sea Elves - pretty much yer standard Sea Elf. Cept the deeper they go the more scaley and draconic they get.

Creans - Humans who have mixed their blood with Sea Elves. Bit like the Greeks. Love the ocean. Strange that.

The Horde. Orcs, Half-Orcs, Humans with Orcish blood. They ride horses. Orcs have a slight reptillian (very slight) look to them. They are just like the Mongol horde. The Horde destroy buildings and constantly move around in the hope of restoring themselves in the eyes of their god.

True Orcs. These are the Orcs that were not cast down by their God for being decadent and living in buildings etc. They still have their wings. (think Half-Dragon Orcs)

Ogres - When the northern frost giants were mixed (with magic) with the Old Blood humans, you started to get Ogres. And Half-Ogres etc. They have a Celtish style culture.

And.. the Yu. or The Blessed. They are another Human race. They have "Yuan-ti" blood mixed in. Egyptian culture.

 

[greywulf]

I don't know what to do with this phasing through solid stone thing. Bring the PC's to a village that has no doors? Then one of the PC's says "Mom!" as she walks through a wall? Then what? Tennis? Maybe the Belgariad reference (which I haven't read) brings something with it that I'm missing.

*grin*. Phasing through stone isn't a pleasant experience and involves melding with the stone, becoming one with it as you pass. There's one scene in the Belgariad where Relg takes a guy through with him too and....um.....let's go halfway through. Not nice! For attitude (and Relg was a bit of an exception to this, which I won't go into here), picture ascetic monks, living deep underground, chanting, etc. They could probably use echoes to communicate over vast underground distances too.

This is pretty heavy duty. That better be one helluva secret. This idea might be working on me! Ok, tell me: What's the secret?

Somethink major like "there are no Gods" or "we're all going to die" or "the forefather of our race who we venerate was really an evil SOB" or "orcs are really elves with acne" or the ending to Seven or whatever.

It's the Merlin race. I can't relate to what their lives must be like. What do they think about? Acquisition of wealth or power? Losing wealth or power?

They'd probably start wise and clever but frail (+2 INT -1 STR -1 CON), slowly gain intelligence but gain strength (-2 INT +1 STR +1 CON to balance back) then lose the strength but gain higher dexterity (-2 STR +2 DEX, Small size or whatever). Each of those three life phases would have a different preferred class (Wizard, Fighter then Rogue) to eventually an "old" member of this race would have class levels like Wiz6/Ftr7/Rog4 in the body of a halfling. Cute.

As to attitude, they'd probably be trying to halt this aging in some way. After all, imagine gaining Wizardly power then losing some of it as time passes and your mind loses it's sharpness.

Now I'm picturing a halfling lich and that's JUST WRONG...... ewwwww....

This is almost the classical myth surrounding the real life druids. The shapeshifting and blending into nature. I don't know if I'd want to turn them into a race, but I'll probably use them like a nature guild.

Uhu. It would need some work to turn it into a whole race in itelf, but that does appeal to me......hmmmm..... maybe I'll figure it out and post up here.

Thanks for all the ideas! Much appreciated!

You're welcome. Good thread, this.

Watch out for displacer humans. They're EVERYWHERE!!!!

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

Don't forget the wonders of Savage Species...

Can really put a fun twist on pretty much everything... opens doors that a lot of players don't know exist..

 

[celt]

For some reason, the sentence "They like to play with their food." keeps popping into my head. I have a vision of this really devious, mischevious warrior people just wandering the world, looking for people to mess with.
"It's not enough to beat a man. First you have to have your fun."

Agreed. That's an angle. I actually went to bed thinking about this last night (what a pathetic man!)

I had this guy that I went to high school with. He had an odd malicious SLASH playful streak in him. The best representative moment I can express is that I remember we were sitting at a table looking at a couple (boy/girl) at another table and he suddenly said "I wonder if I can break them up!". I was stunned as he proceeded to get up (after the guy at the table had left) and went over and sat down next to the girl. He's all "Hiya! How are you? What's your name?" etc etc and I was thinking that I had never seen such an evil and vile cur. Thing is, when he came back to join me, he was all bright eyes and a big smile and he had just had the GRANDEST time. He had zero personal interest in the girl! He was just enjoying the dynamic of seeing what was possible! I still have never seen behavior quite like it.

If I've communicated the spirit of the moment at all: That's what I think could make for an interesting "cat people" as brought on by your "plays with food" angle. They're manipulative, vain, playful, sometimes evil. Probably would make hella-interesting adventurers and story catalysts.

 

[celt]

Well, if you want to increase the Squick factor, how about portraying them as a sexually transmissable disease that warps the minds of the infected?

I'm hesitant to mix in too many references to "The Deed". This campaign will be run, first, at home with my two children and eventually at my store where I have to be *ahem* a paragon of virtue. It definately increases the Squick factor, though.

Also, the idea is interesting but seems to deal more with why the stats are what they are rather than what the players will do with their stats. I know that numbers lead to roleplaying leads to numbers (and so forth) but I want to emphasize the roleplaying at the earliest possible stage. Then, let the numbers be damned! (My inner pirate just crept out).

Hopefully I just said something.

 

[celt]

I'm beginning to leak details of my Twilight world to the Net, and just today I put up the Qor Demon. You can see them at http://www.talkaboutcomics.com/viewtopic.php?t=14778 on my comic forum (it further links to a picture).

This was cool! You've really done a lot of work. I think you did a real nice job on your picture. I know it's entirely cliche and banal to point out the value of a picture in the word market but, still! The picture gave me a very good idea of what the whole thing was about. Nice work.

 

[celt]

True Human (also known as the Old Blood) - special power - can interbreed with any humanoid race.. and other races with "assistance"

This REALLY is turning into a randy thread! What kind of assistance is required? Stirrups? A network of ropes and pulleys? Still, I've determined that I don't want to get involved with half-breeding anything. I think it's a very clever angle to allow the humans be the bucket for mixing the genetic slop. Most humans I know wouldn't even have to roleplay.

Sea Elves - pretty much yer standard Sea Elf. Cept the deeper they go the more scaley and draconic they get.
Creans - Humans who have mixed their blood with Sea Elves. Bit like the Greeks. Love the ocean. Strange that.

Aquaman is chasing me. I don't have any interest in water anywhere doing anything. I like video games.

The Horde. Orcs, Half-Orcs, Humans with Orcish blood. They ride horses. Orcs have a slight reptillian (very slight) look to them. They are just like the Mongol horde. The Horde destroy buildings and constantly move around in the hope of restoring themselves in the eyes of their god.

I like this one! I know I've seen it done before but not recently so I didn't consider it! The race that lives on the road! Gypsies, Mongols, unwanted whereever they travel. I'm jotting this one down.

Tons of half-breeding on your list. Not my schtick. Thanks for your ideas! I think I got a keeper there in the horde.

 

[RangerWickett]

I have a race of bird men, called Aechan, that have a limited verbal language, but who have a very detailed written language, since it captures the intricate body language of wing movements and such. Their primary magic system involves writing events that then happen. It is said the language is so intricate that an Aechan can describe an image in textual form in less space than it would take to have an actual picture.

The Trillith are creations of dreamstuff, born from the dreams of an ancient psionic dragon held in eternal slumber. Thousands of years ago, her dreams, made manifest with psionic energy, placed her into an eternal sleep, then crept into her mind and conjured up the most frightening nightmares imaginable. Among the Trillith, the strongest are those who can master the terror of their mother, creating the most powerful minions and warriors possible. A race of nightmares, they could destroy the world, but they are trapped. Fearing her own power, the Mother of Dreams exiled herself deep beneath the surface of the world.

 

[celt]

*grin*. Phasing through stone isn't a pleasant experience and involves melding with the stone, becoming one with it as you pass. There's one scene in the Belgariad where Relg takes a guy through with him too and....um.....let's go halfway through. Not nice! For attitude (and Relg was a bit of an exception to this, which I won't go into here), picture ascetic monks, living deep underground, chanting, etc. They could probably use echoes to communicate over vast underground distances too.

I'd think you could do something like say that there's a chance they'll have an element of whatever they last passed through/melded with incorporated into their body. Passing through stone could give them natural armor class. Passing through wood could give them, umm, "speaks with plant". All in all it seems to be more about stats (or a reason for them) over a way of behaving.

Also, thanks for the grin. I know I was being a goof.

Somethink major like "there are no Gods" or "we're all going to die" or "the forefather of our race who we venerate was really an evil SOB" or "orcs are really elves with acne" or the ending to Seven or whatever.

I'm intrigued by the idea of "The Racial Secret, passed from one generation to the next". I'd think you'd have to go the Gilligan's Island route and never reveal it Everything else might ultimately feel like "your Uncle was actually a lady".

Watch out for displacer humans. They're EVERYWHERE!!!!

I actually considered a shapechanging race but decided it was too powerful a concept and should be kept in the hands of evil conspirators. I understand that Eberron is going to have a race (or two) with shapechanging and I'm gonna be very curious to see how they keep what I feel is a ridiculously abusive power (in the right hands) contained.