This is how I run my...

[Rechan]

One type of thread I enjoy a lot are the "Let's come up with new ways to reinterpret/reflavor monster/PC race x". Like how Orcs can go from pure evil grunts, to mongol hordes, to nobile lizard riding savages.

But, there are so many interpretations of so many things out there now, that instead of doing another thread like that, I ask: which do you use in your games?

Are your goblins like Pathfinder goblins, or something else?

Share your favorite monster/race interpretations. The ones you use in your game, or plan to at least.

 

[Rechan]

For me:

A hyena that has eaten a soul turns into a gnoll. It then tries to do two things: create more gnolls (by taking prisoners and feeding them to hyena), and to worship/summon demons.

You know the survivalists who are terrified the government will come and take their guns, so they build compounds, waiting? Shrink these guys down to 2.5 feet, replace "government" with "everyone bigger than me", put a chip on their shoulder, give them guerilla tactics and an obsession with dragons. You have kobolds; a Napoleon complex coupled with a strong desire to be left the hell alone.

A member of a PC race who begins to hunt other PCs races slowly changes over time. They become predators obsessed with the hunt, as well as groom others to become like themselves. These are bugbears. (I run them like the aliens from Predator, just not from space)

 

[Pentius]

I'm running goblinoids as the descendants of the servants of a long-ago dethroned Fey lord. Sort of like an alternate version of Elves.

I'm running Dragonborn as a recently created race born from dragons attempting to get a breed of soldiers with draconic power and mortal numbers.

 

[Rechan]

Here lately, I have been sorely tempted to run goblins as gremlins. Fey creatures that exist solely to cause misfortune. Spoil grain, break or weaken built things, poke holes in pockets, rust metal, dig holes in the road to trip up horses (or steal the nails from horse shoes), etc.

Only when they get in big numbers are they a real threat, because they have no reason to fear people, no reason to sneak about. Although it means that bigger monsters have no reason to have goblin foot soldiers, since the buggers are hard to control and would just mess up the bigger monster's stuff.

 

[Elf Witch]

In my one game Dwarves hate any kind of arcane magic they distrust divine magic. This is because they do not have the ability to cast any kind of magic. They have a burning hated towards gnomes because of their ability to cast magic and have enslaved them.

Kobolds are a player race. They are followers of Bahmut for the most part and have chosen the side of good over evil. They tend to be dragon shamans and scouts. Because of their size they go for sneaky tactics and are experts in guerrilla warfare.

Elves are lawful not chaotic they have a strict code of honor ala medieval Japan. They cannot cast magic they are the only player race that uses psionics. They also tend to be monks, samurai and ninjas.

Goblins, Orcs, Bugbears are in the game and pretty much the same with one exception there are a lot of tribes that are not evil.

Dragons play a big part in my game the big difference is that they can choose to be whatever alignment they want. Yes for so called "evil" dragons it can be a challenge not to give into their more base instincts but they often do.

Good dragons have been known to go to the darkside.

I have drow but they are called midnight elves and they are not evil worshipers of Lloth. They live in the deep underground and have a thriving society. They are less formal then the sun elves an some have been gifted with divine magic from either Tiamat or Bahmut usually Bahmut.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Bugbears do nothing for me. So instead, I stuck an owl head on them, gave them khopeshes to wave around, made them the servitors of an "extinct" ancient order of evil wizards, and call them the Strix. Identical stats, mysterious stealthy owlmen minions and, IMO, much more interesting.

 

[Zombie Toast]

I quite enjoy some of the alternate race interpretations from a D+D style parody game I own, namely halflings and elves.

Halflings have a disadvantage called "Tastes like Chicken" meaning that just about all flesh-eating monsters find them exceptionally delicious.

Elves in the setting are highlander-esque immortals, they can only permanently be killed by the destruction of the majority of their bodies. Orcs in the setting were created by the gods to deal with the elvish overpopulation (even with a very slow birth rate a race of true immortals is going to start using up all the room eventually), essentially designed specifically as predators to hunt and eat elves.

 

[Rechan]

This is a bump.

 

[Halivar]

In my next campaign, many races will be transmogrified versions of other races: dragonborn descended from orcs, dwarves descended from giants, and gnomes descended from goblins.

Goblins will be extremely smart tinkerers, and will be like gremlins in old folklore (in terms of wit and industry). What gnomes do with magic, goblins will do with machinery. The idea is that orcs and goblins are an extrapolation of what their Tolkiennian counterparts would have turned out as, eventually, with their obsession with industrialization.

 

[Bold or Stupid]

Goblinoids in my game are fey who fled the feywild millenia ago, they have become natural creatures and masters of flesh craft. Goblins and Bugbears are a result of selective breeding and they have made stuff like Thouls and worgs.