D&D General A Setting with Only Small Races/Species?

[ProfessorDetective]

I had recently a character concept I thought of trying if I ever get to play any multiversal-hopping campaign like Vecna: Eve of Ruin. A kobold Paladin/Warlock who thinks he is a barbarian, from a world of only small races that was a hero of War Against the Frogs - where the initial villains were Grungs and Bullywugs, but then it became Slaads and the world is now overrun with them. So the Kobold ventured to seek help of legendary god-like beings, whom no one has ever seen - the Tall People.

1). I forgot Grungs were small. Nice, another race for the world.
2). A fun idea. Though, definitely more apocalyptic than I was going for. Call that a dark "What If...".

 

[ProfessorDetective]

I just had a funny idea for the dwarf issue. Given that gnomes USED to be tied to fae ancestry before 5E apparently toned that way down for Warcraft-style tinker gnome, I'm going to split the difference. Elves are Forest Gnomes, Dwarves are Rock Gnomes. If the home worlds of a planeshopping campaign happened to play up the classic rivalries... Well, I know it'll be funny.

Also, I discovered another fun race: Dromites, psionic folks from Eberron that resemble insectoid halflings.

Dromite

Dromites are a race of small, psionic monstrous humanoids resembling halflings with compound eyes and chitinous skin that dwell underground.[4] They are known to primarily reside in various locations under the continent of Sarlona.[1] They are also known as bug-men, but this is a derogatory term...

eberron.fandom.com

 

[Not a Decepticon]

1). I forgot Grungs were small. Nice, another race for the world.
2). A fun idea. Though, definitely more apocalyptic than I was going for. Call that a dark "What If...".

You could always turn back the clock on the concept and have Grungs and Bullywugs, with a Froghemoth as a "muscle", and evil plan to summon an army of Slaads* as an antagonistic faction in the setting.

*- I think it's even supported somewhat by official D&D lore, I recall one of female Slaad Lords is consort of god of Bullywugs.

 

[ProfessorDetective]

I'm going to admit that I crossposted this topic on RPGNet to crosspollinate the threads and properly credit a great suggestion. A very good visual inspiration for this that I missed: Fraggle Rock. I'm ashamed that it didn't come to mind sooner.

🎨 Creative - A Setting with Only Small Races/Species? | Dungeons & Dragons / Fantasy D20 Spotlight

This idea popped into my head. Has anyone done a setting restricted to the small-sized races/species? You know: gnomes, goblins, halflings, kobolds, imps, cherubs(? Is there a small humanoid celestial race? Helluva Boss used cherubs as the opposite of Imps), etc.. I'm just imagining your...

forum.rpg.net

 

[CreamCloud0]

IIRC Strixhaven's Owlin can be either small or medium size.

 

[John R Davis]

Was forever ago but definitely played campaign of just dwarf/gnome/halfling

 

[ProfessorDetective]

IIRC Strixhaven's Owlin can be either small or medium size.

Nice, always need a avian race.... Wait... Kenku ALSO get to choose to be Medium or Small.

 

[ProfessorDetective]

Okay: went digging just to have a proper reference. Here are (I think) all of Fifth Edition's player species in the "small" size category. An asterisk means that they can choose between Small or Medium.

Aasimar (Mordenkainen)*
Genasi (Mordenkainen)*
Gnomes (Player's)
--- Deep Gnomes (Mordenkainen)
--- Autognomes (Spelljammer)
Halflings (Player's)
Fairies (Mordenkainen)
Harengon (Mordenkainen)*
Hadozee (Spelljammer)*
Kenku (Mordenkainen)*
Owlin (Strixhaven)*
Goblins (Mordenkainen)
Grungs (One Grung Above)
Kobolds (Mordenkainen)
Tieflings (Player's)* (Note: not actually stated in the PHB, but IS how the other planetouched races are handled in Mordenkainen AND is how 2024 is handling them. So NOT Rules-As-Written, but pretty close.)

If I have missed any, feel free to chime in.

 

[ProfessorDetective]

If I were to really restrict/refocus this list, I'd slim it down to ones present in Faerun, since that IS the 5E baseline.

So, that would leave us with...

Gnomes (Forest, Rock, Deep),
Halflings (Stout, Lightfoot, Ghostwise),
Goblins,
Kobolds,
Grungs,
Kenku (Small only),
Aasimar (Small only),
Genasi (Small only),
Tieflings (Small only),

Not a bad selection, honestly.

 

[ProfessorDetective]

I'm still wondering how to planar entities with the size restriction. I think I'd need to do fresh stat blocks, since stuff in this bracket is thin on the ground (still going with "Imps" and "Cherubs" for the names). Succubi/Incubi are still cool, they're already shapeshifters. What's the closest celestial equivalent to those? (side note: why are the devils "fiends" while angels are "celestials"? "Infernals" was right there".)