How Are Your Elves/ Dwarves/ Orcs Different?

[Imaculata]

In my homebrew pirate setting, a faction of dwarven pirates call themselves The Oarsmen. They all cover themselves in tattoos from head to toe, and do not have beards at all (and also often have bald heads). Instead of mining for minerals, these dwarves instead explore the deep sea. They are experts in the development of diving equipment, and build diving suits, diving clocks and bathispheres. They salvage treasure from sunken ships, and protect their harbors with naval mines. They've also built an advanced underwater transit system, and build various underwater bases. The Oarsmen are the only ones in my setting to have perfected this technology, and who are able to create hulls and glass for submarines that are able to withstand the immense pressures of the deep.

The Oarsmen have strong guild ties and family ties, and hold to tradition very much. But a curse was placed on them a long time ago, that has caused them to forget much of their ancient knowledge (such as rune magic). It is rumored that this has also caused them to gradually become shorter and shorter with each generation. The Oarsmen are basically short humans, and they consider it an insult to be referred to as 'dwarves'. They are a proud people, and they call themselves Oarsmen. They expect others to do the same. The Oarsmen are also known for their unsurpassed loyalty, and never commit mutiny.

 

[Bitbrain]

DWARVES
Extinct, aside from the NPC Duergar.
All that remains of the dwarven bloodline are the Muls, who are descended from humans and dwarves that interbred with each other.

Some muls have beards and a full head of hair, while others are completely hairless.

"Fluff-wise", muls are assimilated into human society and culture, so most of them work as stonemasons, weaponsmiths, farmhands, gladiators, and bodyguards.

Mechanically, I based them off the Goliath PC race (got to play an 8th-level Vengeance Paladin Goliath in a one-shot last year. My use of Stone's Endurance was a highlight of the session).

Mountain Born and Giant language are replaced with Dwarven Resilience and the Dwarvish language.


ELVES
They wander the desert as nomads, and live for only 150 years. They care nothing for the forests and jungles of the world.

Elves are not arrogant jerks. Just about every monster on the planet thinks elves are delicious, so the "pointy ears" are pretty close to the bottom of the food chain and they know it.

Drow are split: half live underground as fanatically loyal slaves of the Duergar, while the other half are freedom-loving desert nomads just like every other elf.
Neither group worships Lolth.

Mechanically, my elves are similar to Wood Elves, only with a +2 charisma instead of dexterity, and +1 dexterity replacing wisdom.

Sea Elves can breath air and water, and have a swimming speed of 30 feet. They also replace Elf Weapon Training with proficiency with Tridents, Javelins, Scimitars, and Nets.


HALFLINGS
Halflings are cannibalistic forest-dwelling nudists currently involved in a three-sided war (Halflings vs. Vegepygmies vs. Ettercaps vs. Halflings).

Only those of Evil alignment are considered "active flesh-eaters"; outside the field of battle, good and neutral Halflings prefer to eat the dead. Technically they are omnivores, so they also eat their fruits and vegetables.

If a Halfling asks you if they can have your liver after you die, it means they consider you family.

Mechanically, they are Stout Halflings who replace poison resistance with the Lizardfolk's Hungry Jaws feature.


ORCS
pre-adolescent Ogres.


BABAU
A specific form of undead that arises only when a dragon kills a humanoid with its breath weapon.


ILLITHIDS
Like in normal lore, they were overthrown by the Gith and now hover on the brink of extinction.

Unlike standard lore, my Illithids are a Lawful Good Precursor race that possibly used selective breeding to cultivate intelligence into creatures of the Humanoid type.

They like to wait until nearly the end of your life to harvest your brains. More life experiences and memories that way.

 

[AtomicPope]

In my current campaign all of the PCs are Elves or Half-Elves (the players wanted to do that). In my campaign only Humans and Elves are considered "Freefolk" or people who are free and independent. Dwarves are huddled masses, clannish, and cowardly. Halflings can't be bothered to leave their Shires. Halforcs are savages. I wanted to set Elves and Humans apart and give the PCs the center stage in the affairs of the world. That allowed me to focus on Human and Elven civilizations, cultures, and politics, and include the PCs in all of it. There are crumbled empires, warring armies, necromancers, and monsters tearing at the fabric of the Freeworld,

TBH, I've never run a game like this before and it's been a LOT of fun. All of the PCs are unified in their worldview and identity.

 

[Wiseblood]

The known world I am running was conquered by a human warlord twenty years ago. There are no half races, it is just a biological impossibility. All races except dwarves have been spread out, intermingled and relocated to prevent any homogeneous populations.

Elves are being hunted but are mostly unchanged.

Dwarves remain unconquered and are loosely patterned after the people led by Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler).

 

[BookBarbarian]

I play up to the archetypes.

High Elves consider other races primitive in comparison. The best of them are unintentionally condescending. The worst downright bigoted.

Wood Elves attempt to live in harmony with the land, which determines their outlook any on any other race.

Mountain Dwarves tend toward isolationism but if won over make the most loyal of allies.

Hill Dwarves are far more open than their cousins, prone to traveling and trading.

Stout Halflings are hobbits. Lightfoot are nomads, but in caravans rather than tents.

Orcs are tribal nomads. Hobgoblins a regimented military society.

 

[Blue]

I'm going to answer for a previous set of campaigns I ran in the same setting which lasts 12 years between them. It was also in D&D 3.0 - 3.5.

Elves actually were immortal, in that they would not die of age. They were a +1 ECL race with other adjutments, and not native to the "prime material". Over the course of their life they would look younger and older as their mental picture of themselves changed. There were no drow. Oh, and anything immortal (also dragons in this campaign, for example), had spirits instead of souls. This mean in the fiction that they could not change their base natures, and mechanically it also impacted spells like resurrection (remember, D&D 3.x)

Orcs were not a monoculture, nor "innately evil". Rather there were the Riders fo the Northern Steppes, seven* nomadic tribes of horse-riding orcs each with their own stereotypes. The party from the first campaign actually helped one of the tribes, the one with the most affinity for the humans on that frontier, to overcome some of the other tribes.

The * on seven is that one of the tribes had gone underground and become somewhat drow-esqe.

The other main orc culture was slaver sailors who lived on a archipelago, traded with a nearby human kingdom that allowed slaves, and worshiped a dark beast that lived in a slumbering volcano.

My dwarves were a bit more traditional, had lost their whole ruling family and were lead by a steward and council that held the throne in their name. Geographically their mountain chain made them the gatekeepers between the primary human kingdom and the wild frontier to the east. The humans were latecomers to this continent (well, really this material plane, but that's another story) and the dwarves at first thought them another variation of goblinoid.

My hobgoblins were a strictly communistic society, very lawful and regimented. The lawfulness helped avoid the corruption that seems to plague real world implementations of communism, and there were a serious military force, though on the far side of the dwarves.

My kobolds were the cockiest sons-of-guns, all "descendants of dragons". There lived in a chaotic meritocracy where you hooked your wagon to a rising star and gave 110% effort - until you changed to someone else or started your own plans. But the just abandoned, they didn't backstab on the way out.

Besides a somewhat familiar type of kingdom culturally that the PCs started in, there was a human-led mixed-race empire to the west that was lead by an Emperor who was the rightful heir to the duke of the "Western Marches", abotu a quarter of that first kingdom, who was first male heir but like a second cousin once removed and the duchy overturned it's patriarchial laws and made the very-well-suited daughter to the duke the new duchess. Anyway, that happened generations ago and this guy had worked out a way of staying live for generations (serial immortality I think, taking over his children) and had founded this empire with the support of minotaur tribes and then grew it very metropolitan and accepting of different races. This is the one that had slaves the archipelago orcs traded with.

Even the base kingdom I tried to work out regional differences culturally, like the over-civilized South March with seamen and merchants high on the pecking order and Merchant Houses, the frontiersmen of the Northern Marches, the breadbasket in the east, nestled close to the safe dwarven border.

Other set of humans were on the far side of the dwarves, barbarian tribes that were actually the lost 13th ship when the humans came here from another continent (really another prime material world). Each tribe had some stereotypes, including one lead by a blue dragon, and another who took bugbear brides as second wives that wouldn't give children.

 

[Blue]

In my current campaign all of the PCs are Elves or Half-Elves (the players wanted to do that). In my campaign only Humans and Elves are considered "Freefolk" or people who are free and independent.

Reminds me a bit of my current campaign, where one of the players asked frequently if any particular race was considered "near-men" - in other word killing them was murder in the eyes of the law. So that became a thing in my world.

 

[akr71]

I stick fairly closely to the common tropes for most species, however people of 'extra-planar' origin are few and far between - tiefling, genasi, aasimar. They are not so much a race unto themselves as develop those characteristics as they mature. Why is pretty much left up to the player.

Also orcs and goblinoids aren't always evil hordes of wanton destruction. Sure, they are savage and warlike but both orcs and hobgoblins have established (taken over) settlements. The hobgoblins have realized that trade and toll roads through the mountains can be more profitable than war, though if the price is too high they won't think twice about invading and just taking what they want. Hobgoblin mercenary units are not uncommon.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Hmm. Well, my Orcs are nature-loving guardians of reality with an ancient druidic tradition. My Elves are either feared ravagers who raid the civilised lands or creepy necromancers. My Halflings are nomads who'll welcome you to tribal hospitality if friendly, and feed your entrails to their raptors if not.

. . . So pretty standard. For Eberron.

 

[Parmandur]

I'm a big believer in using standard tropes as a way to help people enter into the role-playing experience, so as a ruleI will go with very sterotype all. Give the Dwarves a little Middle Eastern flavor, due to Tolkien and Pratchett using certain Jewish tropes for language and culture in their books, but mostly pretty standard.