D&D 5E Nonstandard Races You Love And Want Back

[QuietBrowser]

I really like those two.

Why, thank you. Any particular reason why? Or that you really don't like the others?

 

[Wednesday Boy]

Why, thank you. Any particular reason why? Or that you really don't like the others?

I like the contradiction of ratfolk--how they originate from a base creature but have a noble cause. I like the fangwyrms for their originality. They don't sound like a race I've seen before. And for whatever reason their four parts (kobold, friendly critter, snake, and hungry piranha) are all appealing to me (especially the hungry piranha part). Aesthetically I'm drawn to them. Maybe there's something to the contradiction of friendly critter and hungry piranha that hooks me.

 

[76512390ag12]

I dont know for most people, but as a french speaker, the name Renardie translate to something like ''Foxy-Land'' in english: how would people like having a realm named Foxy-Land filled with

I mean...Foxy-Land...just no.

And yet, for me, it's double plus good



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[76512390ag12]

I'd actively remove the standard races and replace them with some of the ones here. Including humans..

But I grew up with Tunnels and Trolls *and* RuneQuest...

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[Redthistle]

I dont know for most people, but as a french speaker, the name Renardie translate to something like ''Foxy-Land'' in english: how would people like having a realm named Foxy-Land filled with (for reasons) WOLF-men somewhere next to Waterdeep? I guess its the same thing with oriental adventures or scotish-stereotyed dwarves: exotism might sound cool from the exterior, but for some players it will always looks like a grotesque imitation.

I mean...Foxy-Land...just no.

Aren't all RPGs imitations, grotesque or otherwise? From birth, we learn through imitation. Our limited, very human brains can only contain an amount of information that is just a minuscule piece of the total data set of a species that speaks over 7,000 different languages, worships a lot of different religions, and includes I don't know how many different ethnicities and cultures.

By default due to the intrinsic limitations of the human brain, we simplify, and thereby stereotype, any and every culture that we are aware of but not ourselves immersed in.

Likewise, we often describe an acquaintance with a toss-off phrase such as "Oh, she's nice!" or "What a jerk!". But ask us to to describe someone we know and love well, and it can be far more difficult, because of the complexities of that deeper relationship.

I have read that among all the currently existing languages there are around 840 phonemes: 500+ consonants, 200+ vowels, and 20 diphthongs. A newborn infant without a hearing impairment can hear all of them, but by the age of 6 months, that baby's brain has learned to exclude and ignore any phonemes that are not being heard frequently.

A recent meme I've heard of laments about "cultural appropriation", wherein some aspect(s) of a particular culture is(are) adopted and adapted by some other group in a way that suits the latter group's needs and/or desires, whether those goals are "good, evil, or neutral", to put it in DnD terms.

It's bad news for those who don't like it (and every one of us may sooner or later find ourselves on the bad news side of it): imitation and adaptation are at the base of our human instincts for learning and survival.

Way back when in my college days, a book about teen pregnancies I referenced for an essay (I apologize to the author; I do not recall her name or the title of the book) included in its concluding statements the observation that no one has a magic wand that can solve the world's problems; the best thing any of us can do is to help one person in need at a time.

I've used that as a guiding rule ever since: hurtful biases can best be reduced, when possible, two people at a time, each actively listening to the other in order to understand each other as individuals.

In the meantime, those of us who play RPGs are likely to keep using bits of flavor from different sources, cultures, etc., to make our PCs and NPCs memorable and distinct.

P.S. I've got a new ear-worm: Jimi Hendrix is singing "Foxy Landie" in my head.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Aren't all RPGs imitations, grotesque or otherwise? From birth, we learn through imitation. Our limited, very human brains can only contain an amount of information that is just a minuscule piece of the total data set of a species that speaks over 7,000 different languages, worships a lot of different religions, and includes I don't know how many different ethnicities and cultures.

By default due to the intrinsic limitations of the human brain, we simplify, and thereby stereotype, any and every culture that we are aware of but not ourselves immersed in.

Likewise, we often describe an acquaintance with a toss-off phrase such as "Oh, she's nice!" or "What a jerk!". But ask us to to describe someone we know and love well, and it can be far more difficult, because of the complexities of that deeper relationship.

I have read that among all the currently existing languages there are around 840 phonemes: 500+ consonants, 200+ vowels, and 20 diphthongs. A newborn infant without a hearing impairment can hear all of them, but by the age of 6 months, that baby's brain has learned to exclude and ignore any phonemes that are not being heard frequently.

A recent meme I've heard of laments about "cultural appropriation", wherein some aspect(s) of a particular culture is(are) adopted and adapted by some other group in a way that suits the latter group's needs and/or desires, whether those goals are "good, evil, or neutral", to put it in DnD terms.

It's bad news for those who don't like it (and every one of us may sooner or later find ourselves on the bad news side of it): imitation and adaptation are at the base of our human instincts for learning and survival.

Way back when in my college days, a book about teen pregnancies I referenced for an essay (I apologize to the author; I do not recall her name or the title of the book) included in its concluding statements the observation that no one has a magic wand that can solve the world's problems; the best thing any of us can do is to help one person in need at a time.

I've used that as a guiding rule ever since: hurtful biases can best be reduced, when possible, two people at a time, each actively listening to the other in order to understand each other as individuals.

In the meantime, those of us who play RPGs are likely to keep using bits of flavor from different sources, cultures, etc., to make our PCs and NPCs memorable and distinct.

P.S. I've got a new ear-worm: Jimi Hendrix is singing "Foxy Landie" in my head.

Oh, I'm not saying having a people/city in a TRPG based on a existing people is a bad thing. It was just a joke on how using a name from another language in a game might sometimes sound funny if used in that language while gaming. In french, ''renard'' means ''fox'' and ''renardie'' is an expresion meaning ''trickery or sly action''. So a place called Renardie full of wolf-men acting as nobles is weird. I'd love having a land based on a roguish version of renaissance France, filled with fox-men thinking they're lordly and all, while being only a big masquerade for a city of thieves. For my part, I dont mind dwarves with scottish accent and hollywood-style samurai

 

[Redthistle]

Oh, I'm not saying having a people/city in a TRPG based on a existing people is a bad thing. It was just a joke on how using a name from another language in a game might sometimes sound funny if used in that language while gaming. In french, ''renard'' means ''fox'' and ''renardie'' is an expresion meaning ''trickery or sly action''. So a place called Renardie full of wolf-men acting as nobles is weird. I'd love having a land based on a roguish version of renaissance France, filled with fox-men thinking they're lordly and all, while being only a big masquerade for a city of thieves. For my part, I dont mind dwarves with scottish accent and hollywood-style samurai

Yeah, I've got the occasional problem with waxing all seriously after reading a humorous bit. Thanks for the return to reality.

By the way, decades ago, my mother took a course in Irish Gaelic and was told after the class that our family name, "Shannon", derives from an old I.G. word for "fox". And I've heard that the name "Zorro" is a Spanish word for the same wee beast.

That said, it reminded me of something a high school friend told me about a place in England (is this for real?) called Mt. Torpenhill, having been named in flip-flop order as various peoples came to occupy the island. The Romans asked the locals what they called a local prominence and were told they simply called it the "Tor", so the Romans called it "Tor Pen". The Anglo-Saxons came round, and took to calling it "Torpen Hill". When William conquered, the name was updated to the current "Mount Torpenhill." Again I ask: does this place really exist, or is it some old gag?

 

[QuietBrowser]

Oh, I'm not saying having a people/city in a TRPG based on a existing people is a bad thing. It was just a joke on how using a name from another language in a game might sometimes sound funny if used in that language while gaming. In french, ''renard'' means ''fox'' and ''renardie'' is an expresion meaning ''trickery or sly action''. So a place called Renardie full of wolf-men acting as nobles is weird. I'd love having a land based on a roguish version of renaissance France, filled with fox-men thinking they're lordly and all, while being only a big masquerade for a city of thieves. For my part, I dont mind dwarves with scottish accent and hollywood-style samurai

For what it's worth, when Lupins originally appeared in Basic, and in their 1e writeup in Dragon, they actually were divided into a massive number of canid species, including everything from shar-peis, chow-chows and beagles to wolves and foxes - the latter breed, called Renardois Folk, were the swashbucklers of the species, being capable of ignoring the usual racial restriction on Fighter levels and advancing as high as they wanted if they took the Swashbuckler kit.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

For what it's worth, when Lupins originally appeared in Basic, and in their 1e writeup in Dragon, they actually were divided into a massive number of canid species, including everything from shar-peis, chow-chows and beagles to wolves and foxes - the latter breed, called Renardois Folk, were the swashbucklers of the species, being capable of ignoring the usual racial restriction on Fighter levels and advancing as high as they wanted if they took the Swashbuckler kit.

I'm ok with that, Renardois Folk sounds pretty cool, might even create them as NPC from the Feywild in my game. I love the were-jackals from Volo's (or MM, cant remember), but since I dont play in desert settings, I can refluff them as Renardois Folk.

Thanks for the info!

 

[QuietBrowser]

Actually, I think there are two vulpine Lupins in 1e; Renardois Folk, as I mentioned, but there's also a Foxfolk breed who can't become Clerics, are master (Level Unlimited) Druids, and have a very strong trap-sense ability.