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How do you make your races feel unique and/or more original?
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<blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 4605200" data-attributes="member: 19675"><p>I can understand that, but to be fair, odds are slim that every person who sits at your table will have read all the folklore or fantasy you have, so there's really no point in limiting yourself to those sources only.</p><p></p><p>In fact, taking inspiration from unusual sources may actually prove inspirational.</p><p></p><p>Unique race design is a mix of of culture, history, and mechanics. The trick is not "thinking outside the box," but rather how to mix elements chosen from within and outside the box.</p><p></p><p><strong>Dwarves:</strong> I made them into sentient stone in one campaign, and they reproduced by carving new ones. The type of stone determined their exact stats and favored class. Tougher minerals were better at being the warrior types. Gemstones were better at being the spellcasters. </p><p></p><p>In another one, I killed them all off...sort of. I made the dwarven survivors of an apocalyptic war into a fantasy version of Dr Who's Cybermen or Daleks. Psionically active dwarves transferred their consciousnesses into the bodies their slain bretheren constructed- Warforged. They had the physical attributes of Warforged (but with darkvision added), but the mental and cultural attributes of dwarves. They called themselves "Inheritors."</p><p></p><p><strong>Elves:</strong> In one campaign, I combined elements of the Minbari (from Bab5) with making them sentient plants). This latter twist is one of my most common.</p><p></p><p>Another common twist for me- making them true "fey" and using the "Drift" rules from the Geomancer PrCl to warp them as they age.</p><p></p><p>In another campaign, they were sci-fi "Greys" who had crashlanded on a fantasy world. They used their high tech stasis devices and tesseract generators to create what humans called "Underhill" to give them a nearly timeless and quite vast space in which to live while awaiting either rescue or for native tech/magic to be up to the task of repairing them.</p><p></p><p>As you can see, I'm not afraid to blend sci-fi tropes into my fantasy, especially when designing races.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Dannyalcatraz, post: 4605200, member: 19675"] I can understand that, but to be fair, odds are slim that every person who sits at your table will have read all the folklore or fantasy you have, so there's really no point in limiting yourself to those sources only. In fact, taking inspiration from unusual sources may actually prove inspirational. Unique race design is a mix of of culture, history, and mechanics. The trick is not "thinking outside the box," but rather how to mix elements chosen from within and outside the box. [B]Dwarves:[/B] I made them into sentient stone in one campaign, and they reproduced by carving new ones. The type of stone determined their exact stats and favored class. Tougher minerals were better at being the warrior types. Gemstones were better at being the spellcasters. In another one, I killed them all off...sort of. I made the dwarven survivors of an apocalyptic war into a fantasy version of Dr Who's Cybermen or Daleks. Psionically active dwarves transferred their consciousnesses into the bodies their slain bretheren constructed- Warforged. They had the physical attributes of Warforged (but with darkvision added), but the mental and cultural attributes of dwarves. They called themselves "Inheritors." [B]Elves:[/B] In one campaign, I combined elements of the Minbari (from Bab5) with making them sentient plants). This latter twist is one of my most common. Another common twist for me- making them true "fey" and using the "Drift" rules from the Geomancer PrCl to warp them as they age. In another campaign, they were sci-fi "Greys" who had crashlanded on a fantasy world. They used their high tech stasis devices and tesseract generators to create what humans called "Underhill" to give them a nearly timeless and quite vast space in which to live while awaiting either rescue or for native tech/magic to be up to the task of repairing them. As you can see, I'm not afraid to blend sci-fi tropes into my fantasy, especially when designing races. [/QUOTE]
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