Races of YOUR World

[Ryngard]

For me I am pretty much scrapping any "homebrew" and going as close to core 4e mythos as possible. It actually REALLY is similar to what we've been playing for many many years and this way, since my DM prep time is about gone since I recently went back to college to get my Master's, I can easily slip published material into my world.

I think that I'll have a HUGE chunk of time pass with a cataclysm to explain changes OR just start fresh. That's what I'll prolly do... start fresh.

New edition, new world and new heroes.

I dunno, I just REALLY like the "fluff" I've read.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

I'm going to use the core 8, though I may add some adapted AE races in as time goes by - and there will be enough room for people to play whatever is allowable from the monster manual.

The basic setting is an extremely loose fantasy analogue of medieval Texas and the Southwest.

Giants and the Glyph-thaned Families - Founders of the current world system, arbiters of the dictates, and rulers of the pilgrim roads. They have long since passed into the mists that claimed their homeland and the holy city of Ananomphis, but their laws and words are still present in the world. Indeed, most religion is based on ancient understandings of their rituals.

Humans - The humans were the first of the Giant favored races to escape the cataclysm. They brought aid to all they could find, and worked to bring the peoples of the concord into harmony. Eventually, their hegemony lead them into empire and hubris, for they could not master the magics and rituals of the Giants. The crisis destroyed humanity as a people - only three populations survive:

The Nomad Legions - Concentrated far to the West of the Imperial capital when the crisis came, the Legion Tamarchs quickly understood the finality of the Night of Bright Clouds. They abandoned their hated war against the Dragonborn, moved their armies to the plains, and adapted their protocols for pastoralism and technological degradation. Today the descendants of each Legion form a nomadic tribe of hunters, herders, and paladins - for the final legacy of the Tamarchs was the promise of aid to all peoples who should ask for it. They were the only human population to survive without extensive magical modification.

The Tieflings - Within the cities of the empire, certain priests, sages, and magi were granted premonitions of their coming doom. Their fevered attempts to find an alternate punishment for their people resulted in the Tieflings. None now know how the ritual was succesful or what price was paid, but the Tieflings remain the most intellectual and far sighted of humanities descendants - and the most willing to make bargains. They still live inside the cities, braving the ruins of both humanity and the giant Satrapies.

Half-Elves - Along the banks of the Per lived the most peaceful scions of humanity. On the eve of the crisis there came among them the Faen - a dying race returned to the lands to seek shelter. The humans of the Per granted them shelter, and this kindness saved them. Over the course of the crisis the two peoples literally merged. They are the most populous and peaceful of humanity's scions. They keep no armies relying on magic, diplomacy, and subterfuge to protect them.

Dwarves - Second among the Giant's servitors, the only escaped the mists well into the human hegemony. At either end of the Canyon of Souls the mists rolled back to reveal two vast dwarven cities who's inhabitants could none of them remember what their sojourn within the mists was like. Since that time their culture has divided in two:

the Great Holds have a culture dominated by shallow materialism, trade, and war against the mists. Their cities are the largest and best located in the lands making them the center of all commerce. These dwarves are the most cosmopolitan of all peoples.

The Diaspora Clans are calmer, dour, and more scholarly. They build small secure fortress palaces where ever they can find water and the shelter of stone. Among the peoples they are valued for their sense of duty - often housing the food caches for whole other peoples. They are conservative and sometimes greedy, but also hospitable and good.

Elves - Arrived late in the time of the Giants. They came as soldiers to aid the Giant Satraps in their war against the Eastern Beast-peoples. What they did not know was that their Eladrin lords were effectively exiling them. The Cataclysm cut off their contact with the Feywild for generations and left them stranded in a realm of war. They dispersed their formations - learned to live off of the land and became masters of guerilla warfare and vendeta. Generations later they are winning their war and have tamed their forests. Currently, they are among the great powers of the earth.

Eladrin - Among the fae they were the lowest rank of favored cultures, and when the giants offered them nations in return for troops they happily accepted. Unlike the Elves they did not entirely loose contact with the Feywild during the cataclysm. Instead, they developed magical constructs called kivas and troads that allowed them tap into the conjunctions of the world and feywild in order to bless their cities with powerful enchantments and travel without regard to the mundance wilderness. Now they live in compact elaborate cities supported by mana fonts, revels, and their hunts for fae infused beasts and items. They are the most civilized of all peoples - possessing less depth perhaps than the Nomad Legion's Tamarch libraries, but far more of them. Unlike most Fey they no longer slave. With the return of the Faen the Feywild became open to them, and now they raid the slavers of other fey, bring their charges back to the world, and ransom them. Those who cannot pay become clients till their debt is paid.

The Eladrin are in decline - the kivas require more and more effort to maintain and the troads are becoming perilous. Political crises and threats from the beast men of the west have left many cities damaged. They have had no royal court for two generations. It remains to be seen whether external alliances or an unexpected internal unification might reverse this.

Dragonborn - The second most powerful during the age of giants, they fell horribly far during the cataclysm. They have forgotten nothing, but they have abandoned much. Trusting only to simplicity and the most essential of forms. Their homeland is entirely tamed and closed, a desert paradise only their elders may access. Once of age their children are sent out from it in mercenary companies to bring some salvation to the rest of the world.

During the hegemony, humans resented the Dragonborn for holding back the secrets of the Giants. The war between them was long and fierce, but surprisingly honorable. By the end of the hegemony - human soldiers so resented the injustice of their cause that the war had become pure ritual. Human legions would encounter Dragonborn companies and 'engage' them only to join them in destroying some greater threat.

Halflings - The ships of the Halflings have been seen off the coast of Anansil since the dawn of the Giant's Age, but it is only in the wake of the crisis that their culture has come to full flower. Now they have great harbors and cities on the barrier Islands of the Southern coast, and have become guardians of the Sacred Lake Precincts in the North East. Their small ships ply every river, and their exquisitely attired merchants bring culture and aid to all the peoples of the land.

There is talk among the tribune-scholars of the Nomads that the Halflings may become the next great hegemony, but this is widely considered unlikely. No race, save perhaps the Dragonborn, respects the giants more. They still wait for their return from the mists and the rebirth of the Pilgrim Realm. This is not to say that they don't have ambition, simply that is less obvious.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

EDIT: I've kept this setting going since 1e I'm not going to abandon it now. But I also don't anticipate moving to 4e either. And if I did I would fit these races in if I had to put the rules in a blender and make them cry uncle.

These are the more or less standard races of my homebrew mega-setting Siluria. Some are more common than others and just how much varies from place to place, but these take the place of the standard PHB races. They're divided into Old and Young based on how long they've existed in the setting. Then into groups based on either relationship, common origin, or common habitation. Some are more likely to be PCs than others but all might be at the right power bracket or under the correct circumstances. Most tend to be Serpent, Giant, Draconic, or Created with frequent forays into Dwarves, Aeonians, Eeee, Krivak, and Hbomakim.

Old Races-these are the Time Immemorial races

Draconic Family: Here Be Dragons, lots of them of varying kind
True Dragons- Top o' the heap
Landwyrms- Sit right under them in influence
Felldrakes & Lesser Dragons- Largely D&D standard in treatment
Dragonkin- Half-Dragons, breed true with humanoids (Lesser Dragonkin) interbreeding creates more powerful dragonkin (Greater Dragonkin)
Kobolds- Unfertilized dragon eggs produce between 4 and 12 hatchling kobolds. They breed true among themselves. It also explains why they revere dragons and serve them so faithfully. PCs may call it a princess devouring beast to the Kobolds it's mama, nobody likes someone picking on mama. Also explains why dragons watch over Kobolds like many do.

Aberrant Family: Implied Common origin but not explicit
Spellweavers- Used to have a large magocratic empire but it fissioned into isolated and insular cabals more concerned with their arcane research than the world around them who eventually mostly moved onto the Astral plane
Ithilid- Largely standard D&D treatment except in reverse from LoM. Used to have an expansionist Republic but it fell due to unknown causes and they were forced far into the Underdark or planar strongholds

Serpent Family: All reptilian with common origin and close relations as species
Nagai- Replace Yaun-ti, basically resemble YT-Abominations grow continuously throughout life.
Lizardfolk- Pretty much D&D standard often slaves or underclass of Nagai societies.
Firenewts- Largely as presented in Serpent Kingdoms with FR specific details filed off

Aquatic Group: Linked only in common habitation most detest each other
Sahuagin- Pretty much as D&D standards they have a massive empire on the great Benthic? Plains.
Armamen- As Oathbound Setting they have an empire opposing the Sahuagin
Uulaurm- Imagine combining a giant otter and a bull shark, now make it humanoid. They're fairly primitive tribal and occupy the continental shelves
Lamprey-Men- Come from the depths of the blackest Abyssal Trenches and worship Dagon. The orcs of the depths, who retreat back into the Deeps where shallow races can't follow. What lurks down there few if any can say.

Others: Any other races that don't fit under the above groups
Dwarves- Minor Earth elemental creatures, society largely standard but with flavoring from Exalted Mountain Folk. Delves are much deeper than in most settings and either bleed across onto Plane of Earth or are otherwise linked to settlements there.
Vykarin- Hooved and partially shelled kangaroo-wolves. Very primitive, to them fire is the height of technology
Aeonian- Fae those on Prime are either Exiles who fell afoul of Fair Folk politics or simply thrill-seekers. Basically like medium-size humanoid unicorns don't have all the MM unicorn powers.
Aeulum- Little wild people, nature worshipping and very old they have never been powerful and are very reclusive about their home territories after how the giants treated them.
Zelak- Hive minded insect race, aside from specially bred diplomat/traders and soldiers they have very little contact with most other races. Hives will sell <defective> soldiers or workers, those who can't form Hivemind connection, to other races at times.

Young Races-relative term them may have hundreds of thousands of years of history but they belong to a newer Epoch than the Old races

Giants: All related and considered to descend from the First Ones of Titan myth.
Titans- Closest to the First Ones and most powerful of giants they generally keep to the Planes now.
MM Giants- Storm, Cloud, Fire, Ice, Hill and Forest giants. The remnants of the great Sovereignty which collapsed roughly 100,000 years ago they now tend to live in small groups in remote areas trying to abide a simple life and recover. Note Hill giants have less severe int/cha penalties and all MM Giants are Huge
Trolls- Degenerate giants who remained in their destroyed empire and were reduced to savagery, hated by “true giants”. Mechanically Hill Giants with Troll traits added on.
Ogres- Degenerate giants who remained in their destroyed empire and were reduced to savagery, hated by “true giants”. No change from MM treatment
Orcs- Proud and ferocious noble savages, driven from racial lands they have become close allies/clients of humans. MM Troll stats, I generally use GW Orks for images or minis
Humans- Smallest of the giants, they exist in a state of perpetual war with the Goblinoid Hordes. Heavily WH & 40K influenced flavor with higher average tech levels than most races. Mechanically as MM Bugbears without the int/wis/cha penalties. They've been embroiled in a war of genocide with nigh-infinite enemies for thousands of years and have a society that makes the Spartans look comfy. That sort of thing has an effect.

Goblinoids: Taken idea from WH in that is 1 race with multi-stage lifecycle.
Hob- MM standard Goblin, youngest stage and cannon fodder/slaves.
Hobgoblin- MM standard Hobgoblin with Int penalty, more mature form backbone of hordes that does more than soak up traps, casualties, and AOE spells
Goblin- MM standard Bugbear, leaders of subhordes and elite warriors of larger hordes
Advanced- MM Ogre stats, basically just a Goblin that's continued to win fights and gain a larger horde thus growing larger and more powerful physically. Not known by a separate name, they grow curled horns and incisor-fangs

Created: These races were all created magically by the Giants during the long reign of the Sovereignty as servants/slaves/experiments. Also Furries OMG run
Daurhim- Humanoid horses, the first such creation of the Forest Giants. Considered to be a flawed prototype but serviceable enough for untrained labor even if they were smaller than a Giant they were still fairly strong and more expendable.
Jhellan- Humanoid wolves, creation of the Hill Giants but largely performed via assistance of the Storm Giants who invented the process
Keitlyn- Humanoid foxes with three tails and fire immunity. Fire Foxes, I know pun races are supposed to be bad but they've been a lot of fun in play. Created by the Fire Giants who required assistance from the Forest and Cloud Giants in order to give them traits that would allow them to co-exist in the Fire Giant's preferred environment.
Kekriival- Prototype of the Cloud Giants who mostly lived either on sky islands, cloud palaces or high mountains. Mechanically Aaracokra.
Kujaku- Next work of Cloud Giants to fix problems of Kekriival, peacock people have separate arms and wings
Vartan- Developed in parallel with Kujaku as separate project, humanoid hippogriffs
Muntia- Experience with the Daurhim allowed Forest Giants to get it right the second time, these are humanoid deer
Skeek- Small mouse people, unknown attribution a lab accident probably of the Storm Giants as they were the first and most skilled at creating these servitor races.
Savanite- Anthro-cheetahs the first intentional attempt to produce an anthro-race by the Giants. Considered a failed attempt because they do not have a voicebox and cannot speak. This has also resulted in them being considered a slave race to this day even by the other created races.
Rakasta- First truly successful created race of the Giants, cat people.

Others Any of the young races that don't fit any of the larger groups
Eeeee- Anthropomorphic bats with separate wings and arms, live on different continent than Giants and may have been inspiration for their created races. Mechanically de-rated gargoyles.
Krivak- Foxtaurs who live on the same continent as Eeeee and are nomadic herders.
Elves- How I hate elves, let me count the ways. Basically they stay just like PHB elves in a world where everybody else gets tougher and their lifespans get switched with humans while Dwarves being elementals don't really die of old age they just get more venerable. Also their society is essentially a Menzobarrien sp? Rip-off from those first few Drizz't novels.
Hbomakim- These bizarre creature live in a tainted poisonous desert that causes mutation in other races assuming they don't just die. No two of this race are alike, they're kin to chimera and have a similar sort of mismatched physiology.


***Bonus***
Primordials-not in the 4e sense or the Greek Titan sense but in the biological sense. These are the very oldest mortal creatures and the first to have appeared on the Prime way back before the Tanari or Baatezu (or the Demodands and Yugoloths for that matter) came about when the planes were different and the Obryliths, Baatorians, and Nether were doing their thing. Rarely seen by anybody anymore and not to be trifled with.

Linnorms- these creatures gave rise to the entire Draconic family and many related races across the cosmos. They take longer to mature than the entire lifespan of most True Dragons and live potentially millions of years. Also if you've read the ecology and habits section on them in the MM2 mine tend to be more unpleasant.

Aboleth- mostly as Lords of Madness put down. The info there was just too good to ignore even though it required retconning some previous details of the setting background.

Treants-The Green Remembers and so do I... Basically treants just keep getting older and larger (advancing in mechanical terms) and more powerful with time. But slower and slower to think and act until the oldest mostly operate on a geologic time scale until roused. The first things to grow on land were green and the Treants were one of them. Everything has changed, but nothing really has for the Treants. Still they go about the business of the wood and do as natural order always has. There are just more distractions now.

 

[JeffB]

I'm very basic...and old fashioned, but I've been working on an old world of mine and freshening it up a bit in anticipation of 4E

So I'll have:

Humans of various cultures

Elves of a few cultures..and prolly eladrin

Dwarves of two cultures

hobbits...err..half...uhm...hobflings? haffits?...somewhere between Tolkien's and the abominations of the current and soon to be current edition Think "Jeff Dee"

Thats it for playables. There are NO Half ANYTHINGS in my campaigns..orcs..elves..giants..dragons, etc. well..Half-Human anyway

I may work Tieflings in as a fairly major foe group. Not sure yet.

Not into Dragon men/draconians, etc ..so buh-bye dragonborn

Bugbears, Gnolls, and Broos are quite prominent.

 

[Voss]

Lets see. My 'world' at the moment consists largely of a small continent, roughly comparable to late Roman and mostly human-centric. Several tribes of humans about- one collapsing empire, one collapsed Empire just starting to consider expanding again, a few city states and everybody else is in tribal villages.

Intelligent races-
<PC races>
Humans
---about 9 distinct tribes, culturally, with 4 city states that are a fairly mixed population
Dwarves
Elves
--- no drow, eladrin, half elves or any other such silliness
dwarves and elves are fairly rare among humans, but just uncommon enough that most humans do not have an enslave or kill on sight reaction. Except the two Empires, but there are cultural reasons for that.

<maybe PC races, but lots of social problems>

Goblins
---everybody's slaves. The collapsing Empire is discovering the high cost of having 99% of their mining done by goblin slaves. The slaves revolted, mines shut down, metal resources are suddenly scarce. Several conquered provinces have rebelled and everything is going downhill from there
Hobgoblins
---currently building their own Empire

<other races>
Gnolls
---feral marauders
Deep Ones
---corrupted humans. Not many, quite insane. Took to their master after they were driven off their island by one of the dragons. Only intelligent aquatic race.
Ogres
Trolls
---more like the trolls of Norse myth, or the Fensir in the FF
Dragons (only a handful)


<other races that are largely on other planes>
Demons
---all sorts of fiends, really. No one cares enough to distinguish them
Giants
---subraces are more separate tribes. Not many anymore. They fit better in Faerie than wandering around the humans, but there are a few up in the mountains.
Fey
---lots of subraces, but all one race, really. Most off in the Feywild. The Empire was not kind to them, and very fond ...
Elemental types (including genies)
---exclusively summoned
Aberrations
---only a handful of the more interesting types. Grell and Tsochar, primarily. very rare and tend to freak people out.

So only about 12 intelligent races native to the world, and giants and fey are very rare these days. Dragons and giants are not quite unique creatures. and most folk would be quite surprised to know that there are more than 12 dragons running around. Legends would indicate that there might be 6 or so, if you really know about such things.

Anyway, I'm much more comfortable (from a believability standpoint) with a dozen intelligent races, rather than the 100+ that are packed cheek by jowl in the standard D&D world. Its just a little absurd. And speaking of absurd, I went through the 3e Monster Manuals (I-III), the Fiend Folio and assorted other books, and came up with around 200 monsters I was actually comfortable with using. The rest were too stupid, too absurd, or just didn't fit. This made me sad, since it amounts to only about 1 monster manual, rather than 4.

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

For the first 4E campaign I run, the available races will be:
Dwarf
Elf (maybe Eladrin too)
Human
Obsidiman (large stone-based humanoids, probably use the Warforged stats unless a better alternative is published)
Orc
Troll (not the regenerating type, a powerfully-built race of airborne vikings; probably will use Bugbear stats)
T'Skrang (a swashbuckling draconic race; probably use Dragonborn with some modification)
Windling (tiny winged fey; not sure what I'll use yet)

 

[LightPhoenix]

I don't usually post to these kinds of threads, but I thought I'd actually write down some ideas that have been percolating in my head.

I'm hoping to run a 4E game with some friends that I discovered are into gaming. I want to run a by-the-books 4E as much as possible.

In R&C there was a blurb in the Human section that talked about how humanity had no god of their own, gods were competing for humanity, and humans basically worshiped everyone. I'm going to run with that, and so I'll be taking pretty much all of the races, plus others if they're released.

 

[A'koss]

I've been itching to start up my Greyhawk-Planescape game again with the timeline advanced a hundred years to incorporate the new races on Oerth. IOW, all the PHB races, plus the rest of the standard planars as soon as I can do the conversion.

In my homebrew game though - just humans. Though I've been toying with the idea of having them possess a little of the immortal spirit of the losalfar & dokkalfar (light and dark elves), the dwarves, the dragons, etc. In essence, remaining human but adopting (at least some) of the traits of the other PC races.

 

[Celebrim]

The playable races in my Homebrew are:

Changling (not the Eberron race)
Pixie (not the MM stats)
Sidhe
Goblin
Hobgoblin
Elf
Human
Dwarf
Orine
Idreth

I've never had satisfactory 3rd edition rules for my homebrew Pixie, Orine, and Idreth (I'd like none of them to be an LA race, but its hard to get around in these cases), and I tend to conceptually dislike the Savage Species style race building classes.

One area of 4e that does interest me is the new racial rules, which I'm looking at for ideas as a possible solution to the difficulties of making races which are very different than humans (for example, ability to fly) work as non-LA races. So I probably won't port the actual rules, but I may look into adapting the mechanics.

 

[Gareman]

Races

Like others, I'm intentionally trying to keep things as coherent to 4E rules as possible in the beginning. House rules are great for alternatives to things that don't work, but I want to give the core rules the benefit of the doubt.

One change I might make is making dragonborn more human. I already had planned a "dragon-blooded" race based on Unearthed Arcana for 3.5.

The hard part for me was tweaking my new setting to a) avoid racial animosity and thus be more 4E compatible, b) creating racial homelands that meshed somewhat with 4E backgrounds, and c) creating "points of light," which required the home setting to be built upon a fallen civilization, even though my plan was to have it the first emerging civilization. Yes, I could have tweaked all these things to my liking, but I wanted to begin with 100% coherency.

Here's my campaign planning blog: http://labash.blogspot.com/