Fluff Changes You've Made to PC Races

[crazy_monkey1956]

These were all 3.5...

Dwarves - sentient ant-folk. Penalty to charisma represented lack of invididuality. Bonus vs. giants explained as being adept at avoiding being stepped on.

Elves - Humans afflicted with a magical plague and forced to become scavengers in the dregs of human civilization. Con penalty results from being afflicted and diseased.

Gnomes - Biomechanical sentient toys created by giants for their children.

Halflings - Secret masters of human society, operating an illuminati/mafia style network of information and secrets, manipulating human society to war against itself as a means of keeping themselves safe and on top of the food chain.

 

[Fifth Element]

One fluff change I normally make for both halflings and gnomes: they never existed! Humans and elves and dwarves, oh my!

 

[Shades of Green]

Dwarf

1) In one campaign, I fluffed them to more like a cross between stereotypical Soviet-era Russians and the dwarves from Dragon Age: Origins.

This sounds cool! Care to elaborate?

 

[Gilladian]

I have "stone dwarves" although I didn't go to the distance of giving them different favored classes for being "of different stone" as I thought that would lead to difficulties; in geographic regions where a particular stone was either very common or very rare class balance would be thrown off.

I have not actually made elves in my campaign world into plant-based people, but I would if it wouldn't wreak havoc on my campaign history (too many important historical elements with half-elves involved). Instead, true elves mostly live on the ethereal plane, or the "feywild" if you prefer 4e terminology. Powerful elves can build fey mounds that link the two worlds together to help preserve the forms of the ethereal, which have a tendency to "drift" if not linked. I prefer TALL elves, not shrimpy ones.

Hobytlan are very much "Tolkienesque" bucolic types with traces of magical abilities, not wanderers, not insane kleptomaniacs, nor cannibals (although that could be a fun scenario for an isolated group). I have no gnomes in my world, as I just didn't see how they differentiated.

I also allow grippli, catfolk and lizardmen as playable races, so there's a lot of variety.

If anyone's interested, you can see what I've got here: Vishteer Campaign / Creating Characters

 

[TarionzCousin]

Thank you, now I will forever have seared in my brain a picture of a hairy dwarf in a loin cloth.

This. Is. MORIA!!!

Minotaurs?

In 2Ed, I had them as a Plains Indian type culture....

World of Warcraft stole this from you. I'm just sayin', you could sue them and get rich....*


*And cut in your old buddy TC for tipping you off.

 

[Pheonix0114]

So, a quick list of my changes as I very much enjoyed reading this thread.

Elves: In my world Elves are naturally immortal, but they have distinct periods of life. As children they grow at the same speed as humans, and around age 20 they are stricken with a wanderlust which lasts approximately until the end of their first century. Almost all Elves most people meet are these young elves. Their next few centuries they put down roots in a community and become mostly insular, pursuing family interests and their own hobbies as they may. Once they are happy with this they feel drawn to creating some masterpiece, depending on their interests. They will wander during this period as well, but it is a focused kind, seeking out other masters of their chosen craft as well as great works in it. Then after they've completed their work they feel no desire to keep living and will allow themselves to waste away. (they are still able to be killed however) Most artifacts in the world were created by elves.

Dwarves: As for Dwarves I have two varieties, first I have bog-standard Dwarves that live in the mountains, but second I have desert dwelling dwarves whose large feet allow them to walk without special shoes along the burning, shifting sand and whose hardy constitution allows them to gather prismirium (pure magic in physical form) from the sands without much risk of the cancer it causes in the other races. Also more Dwarves become Monks than Berzerkes, because they are a focused and devout people more so that rabble-rousers.

Halflings: They are just wandering hippy-gypsys, not too much here.

Other: Most everything else is standard, but I do have tribes of cat, wolf, and monkey people that live in the great forests instead of Elves, which live in elegant cities.

 

[Jon_Dahl]

Even though it's listed as "Vital Statistic", weight is still pretty much "fluff".
So that leads us to halflings' weight. Males are 30 lbs and females are 25 lbs. Since they average at 2' 14''* it means that their BMI is under 14 which means that they are severely underweight.
Calculate Your BMI - Metric BMI Calculator

So the fluff change is that halflings are kind of fatty and round-bellied. Weight is something like 50+1d10 lbs for halfling males and 45+2d4 for females.

* I don't know how to deal with feet and inches, sorry.

 

[Argyle King]

This sounds cool! Care to elaborate?

It was pretty straight forward.

I liked the caste idea (and the attached political intrigue) which the dwarves from Dragon Age: Origins had. So, what I did was simply implement that into my vision of dwarves for the campaign. It was a very easy fit; dwarves are already a race which stereotypically reveres tradition and clan relationships. The ancestor worship was a natural fit as well.

All of that was extremely easy to mix with a Soviet stereotype. I simply applied what DA:Origins had going on with dwarves to what I can only describe as some kind of mix between monarchy and communism. The 'king' would give the clans a general direction toward what to work for. Lower castes had little to no say in what occupation they were born into or what they would be doing. Dwarves in higher castes would have more freedom to choose their own fates. Ancestors of great reknown were not worshipped in a religious sense, but were instead held up as a state-sponsored ideal; a model against which citizens would be measured.

Socially, it seemed pretty natural to change the hammer and sickle symbol (Soviet Union Flag Wallpaper 1920x1280) of the USSR to a crossed hammer and axe for a Dwarven Empire. Likewise -in my head- it was easy to imagine a choir of dwarves singing something like this: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj2il9sH_VY&feature=related]CoD4 Spetsnaz Victory Theme - YouTube[/ame]

I should also note that these dwarves did not live as deep underground as typical D&D dwarves. They did often build settlements which were partially underground, but that was due to their homeland being frigid, cold, and hostile. Those who worked in deep mines and didn't see the light of day were slaves, prisoners, and/or criminals who were working off their debts. Here the DA dwarf influence came back into play, and I had something akin to the Legion of The Dead. For those who don't know, the basic idea is that you commit yourself to serve in a military branch which is constantly sent on missions which are near-suicidal in nature. It is an option for those who have no hope of redeeming their lives, but do not want to pass their dishonor onto the rest of their family. Dwarves - Dragon Age Wiki

The image of them in my head was of a stocky dwarf standing in the middle of a frozen tundra; wearing a heavy fur coat, ushanka (Let’s Bring Back The Ushanka For FW09! | Vancouver Fashion + Style Blog | demiCouture), and leather gloves. In one hand is the handle of a hammer which is rested upon a should; in the other is a bottle of strong Dwarven Vodka. When I would roleplay them, I would also go with a very stereotypical Russian accent. I tried to find some examples on Youtube, but this is the best thing I could find as an example. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xks7xtwhRY8]A guy speaking with the best thick Russian accent - YouTube[/ame]

 

[RPG_Tweaker]

The most notable change I've made:


Halflings are not a race... but rather the many offspring of a Cassanova-style demi-god with a fondness for human and elven females. Humans give birth to Hobbit-halflings, and elves give birth to Kender/Quickling-halflings. Because of their divine heritage, and reputation of being watched over by their father (reflected in their luck bonus), they are generally given more social leniency than typical bastards.

 

[Fifth Element]

Even though it's listed as "Vital Statistic", weight is still pretty much "fluff".
So that leads us to halflings' weight. Males are 30 lbs and females are 25 lbs. Since they average at 2' 14''* it means that their BMI is under 14 which means that they are severely underweight.
Calculate Your BMI - Metric BMI Calculator

BMI is intended for adults, presumably halflings are more childlike in physique.

Also, BMI is bollocks.