D&D General An Overview of Furry-Friendly D&D/Pathfinder/OSR Settings

[Libertad]

D&D by angiewolf of Fur Affinity.

Sometime last year I reviewed the Delver’s Guide to Beast World. The initial concept is a D&D world dominated by anthropomorphic races, with a specialized social class of adventurers roaming the lands in customized wagons. Although not a pre-existing IP, it received a lot of attention and was appealing to the furry fandom in particular. What was once a niche and at times vilified subculture in prior decades is now more mainstream and accepted, and as of the 5th Edition anthropomorphic races are increasingly numerous, from dragonborn to tortles.

I figured that I should make a thread showcasing some of the more furry-friendly D&D/OSR/Pathfinder settings by going into detail on what would make them appealing. My two major criteria focus on Lore and Playability, focusing on how much of a place they have in the setting as-is along with how easy it is to play such characters on both a mechanical and roleplay level.

 

[Libertad]

Dragonlance

Dragons of Despair Cover Art, by Clyde Caldwell.

With its strong emphasis on character development and plot, it’s no surprise that the Dragonlance setting’s more monstrous races got their fair share of personal expansion beyond dungeon-dwelling enemies. Draconians and minotaurs are perhaps the most iconic anthro races in the setting, but they are not the only ones populating the world of Krynn.

In terms of Lore, Dragonlance has plenty of material fleshing out the anthro and otherwise monstrous races, several with prominent places in the setting and its history in the form of both novels and gaming sourcebooks. Several novels had such beings as the major protagonists, such as the Kang’s Regiment series and Kaz the Minotaur, both well-regarded books within the fandom. Lesser known anthro beings existed, such as the benevolent shadowpeople who resemble winged apes, the thanoi walrus-folk and ursoi bearfolk living in Ansalon’s chilly south, and various non-draconian reptilians such as kobolds and lizardfolk have a common progenitor ancestor known as the Bakali. In fact, Dragonlance introduced several unique reptilian races, such as the jarak-sinn (a subrace of lizardfolk) and the snakelike sligs. Dragons, naturally, played both a huge and varied role in the world, ranging from wicked hoard-lovers laying at the lowest level of dungeons to allies and mentors.

Dragonlance’s 3rd Edition introduced the tayfolk, an isolated civilization of humanoids who are always born in pairs of twin siblings, one of whom looks elvish in features (tayling), the other being a strong humanoid with a diverse possibility of animalistic features from bears to apes (taylang).

Draconians by Elena "Greenedera" Zambelli

Playability flourished during 3rd Edition and later systems, where the core setting book gave rules for minotaur and draconian PCs. Dragon companions, once the province of DMPC guest stars such as Silvara, could become long-term allies of adventuring parties via the Dragon Rider Prestige Class. However, this latter class often restricted said companions to being young adults at most, so fully-grown Huge and larger-sized dragons remained out of reach. The Dragons of Krynn sourcebook would give rules for more powerful breeds of Draconian along with other reptilian races such as troglodytes, albeit the Racial Hit Dice and Level Adjustment rules made such options rather underpowered. Cultural details were also provided for role-play purposes, such as an in-depth look at the draconian city-state of Teyr. Other races mentioned above also have rules for PCs via Level Adjustment, and the Bestiary of Krynn had rules for determining how accepted monstrous PCs would be in various communities and what they could do to win people over with time and dedication.

Dragonlance adventures are no stranger to DMPCs. In the Key of Destiny Adventure Path, a kobold necromancer by the name of Master Yap would join the party during a journey up north, volunteering to join the group. He was popular among the fandom during that time, and would eventually return with an in-character narration in Dragons of Krynn when talking about the setting’s kobolds. Suffice to say, PCs often got the chance to ride on and fight with dragons while wielding Dragonlances in various adventures.

Dragonlance never got an official conversion to 4th Edition, but via 5th Edition the Dragonlance Nexus and other fans on the Dungeon Master’s Guild made plenty of options available that Wizards of the Coast didn’t touch. Tasslehoff’s Pouches of Everything introduced draconian PCs balanced for 1st level play, and the Journals of Kaz the Minotaur greatly expanded on minotaur society along with opening fiction written by Richard Knaak (of Kaz the Minotaur fame) and new rules options along with an adventure.

While the draconians, minotaurs, and some other anthro races have a bad reputation in much of the setting for siding with the forces of evil, quite a few were often more benevolent or sufficiently unknown so as to provoke curiosity rather than fear. Shadowpeople are mostly good-aligned, and the ursoi and tayfolk are good to neutral. Troglodytes were notably non-evil (or rather more varied in alignment) in their details in Dragons of Krynn, unlike most other settings.

All in all, Dragonlance is one of the more furry-friendly settings of official D&D, with a notable bias in favor of reptilian/scalie anthros. Even the more traditionally evil-aligned beings have plenty of lore and places in the world outside the dungeon, and the draconians in particular are noted for trying to find their way in a post-war world with the fall of the empire that created them.

With that being said, Dragonlance was always a setting that was defined just as much by what it excluded as what it included in comparison to traditional D&D. Mainstays such as orcs and werewolves are explicitly noted to not live in Krynn, while the importing of new classes and magical systems were often encouraged to find "lore-friendly" ways of making them fit into the setting. While it's been established that people from other worlds could visit Krynn as extraplanar travelers, for many gaming groups it can be a tougher sell for unconventional choices such as tabaxi.

 

[Libertad]

Mystara

Commission: Races of Mystara Lineup by Mischa Cel Frumos

Mystara, also referred to as the Known World, is best known as the unofficial supporting setting for the Basic edition of Dungeons & Dragons. In spite of its name, Basic D&D grew to be its own well-supported line, with unique and distinct features that set it apart from other Editions. Without a single sourcebook to outlay the world, much of Mystara’s canon material is scattered among various adventures, gazetteers, and tie-in products. Beyond its strong association with the Basic line, Mystara is known for several other things: many of its regions borrowing from real-world cultures to various extents of respectability, where instead of gods ascended people known as Immortals held sway over reality,* and having a more whimsical high fantasy feel in comparison to grittier sword and sorcery realms like Greyhawk.

*And there were rules for playing as them after PCs hit maximum level!

But one of Mystara’s lesser-known qualities is the sheer amount of playable races introduced to its world over time, including many anthropomorphic animal people.

In terms of Lore, Mystara is still a human-dominant world, but demihumans and humanoids have significant regions in which they hold sway. The rakasta (feline) and lupin (canine) are the most well-known anthropomorphic races, getting writeups in multiple publications which further fleshed out subgroups and breeds to the point that they can be found in just about every region of note. The largest Rakasta civilization is Myoshima, a pseudo-Japanese kingdom on the moon sharing space with two other nations. The Lupins tend to integrate into larger societies, but they have a realm of their own known as the Kingdom of Renardy.

For more traditional monstrous humanoids, orcs have porcine features and tusks, and along with kobolds and gnolls make up a significant population of the Broken Lands which serves as the typical monster kingdom for the setting. While such beings occupy an antagonistic role, there are non-evil exceptions to be found in the Known World. A group of orcs living in Alfheim’s capital city had some of them choose to stay there after being temporarily enslaved by the elves after they lost a war. The elves freed them after soon finding out that enslaving the orcs is too inefficient. A group of elves and gnolls known as the Sheyallia and Grugraakh, respectively, peacefully live alongside each other in a vast wasteland in the setting’s far west.

Players of more modern D&D may recognize the Tortle, who first debuted in the Savage Coast sourcebook, a sub-setting detailing a new region for Mystara. While being located outside the “main” setting, they gained popularity above and beyond the Known World during the era of 5th Edition. Phanatons, who look like a cross between a raccoon and monkey, are another race popular within the fandom, first referenced in the Isle of Dread and have a reclusive kingdom of their own in the Savage Coast.

Beyond these examples, there are so many sentient and monstrous races in Mystara that even the fanbase has trouble keeping track of them all. The Vaults of Pandius fansite does a great job compiling sources and articles for all manner of subjects, such as a list of sentient races which has been indispensable for writing up this post.

Artwork from Champions of Mystara: Voyage of the Princess Ark​

In regards to Playability, Mystara is full of unique classes, several of which are designed for playable versions of anthopomorphic creatures. Being Basic D&D, nonhuman races were classes of their own, so demihumans and humanoids were strongly reinforced into certain roles. However, the lupine and rakasta were exceptions in that throughout various books and two issues of Dragon magazine, they more or less were built like humans but with additional features such as claws as natural weapons for the rakasta or the ability to detect werewolves for the lupin. This meant that these two races could belong to a variety of classes and thus roles in an adventuring party, and generally didn’t have to worry about level caps or negative experience points that the other races mentioned here had to contend with in the ruleset. That being said, the Rakasta did have their own racial class going up to 5th level in Rel Partha and Rage of the Rakasta.

Grugraakh Gnolls had a writeup in Champions of Mystara where they used the Elf class but with modifications, such as thick fur that gave them the equivalent of natural armor. There was also a separate class for gnolls as well as ones for kobolds (who look like dog-people instead of lizard-people of modern D&D) and orcs in the Orcs of Thar, part of the Gazetteer series detailing the Broken Lands.

Various issues of Dragon Magazine gave rules and cultural details for playing various anthro creatures. Dragon 179 covered the Lupin, 181 the Rakasta, 182 the Aranea (giant spiders with humanoid hands that can shapechange into a human form), 185 had various reptilians such as the Shazak (lizardfolk), the Gurrash (alligatorfolk), and Cayma (smaller lizardpeople), 186 had the Chamelon Men and Phanaton, and 200 had Enduk (winged minotaurs).

The Creature Crucible is a four-part series of sourcebooks dedicated to playable monsters. Tall Tales of the Wee Folk had the Hsiao, philosophical owls with divine magic, pooka who are fairies who can look like various kinds of anthropomorphic animal and whose magic focused on time manipulation, and Wooddrakes who are not actually dragons but fairies who can take such a form as well as that of humans and demihumans. The second book, Top Ballista, had the Faenare, who are vaguely described as elf-like bird people but otherwise have no art, leaving their “furriness” ambiguous. Nagpa are wicked vulture people with a talent for magic, and tabi are winged monkey-like creatures. Rounding out the book are sphinxes. The third book, the Sea People, had the Kna who are nomadic goldfish merchants, the Shark-kin who I believe are renamed Sahuagin, and the Kopru who are eel-like amphibians. The fourth and final book, the Night Howlers, is all about lycanthropes and provided ten different kinds of werecreatures.

Generally speaking, there’s a broad variety of anthropomorphic creatures in Mystara, but given the lack of a central sourcebook and oftentimes conflicting canon one needs to dig a bit deeper in order to find exactly what they want. Even with that being said, Mystara is perhaps one of the best official pre-5e D&D settings for finding playable furries. The fact that Basic D&D is highly compatible with most modern OSR retroclones on the market means that it shouldn’t be too difficult in converting them for play in more modern books such as Old-School Essentials.

 

[TerraDave]

Rakasta, riding Sabre tooth tigers, are definitely in Ilse of Dread. (along with a nefarious spider race) Both are in Castle Amber, and one of the lawful Ambers has given himself a dogs head.

These were popular modules, so you could say that furries featured prominently, in at least the B/X version of D&D.

 

[The Glen]

Commission: Races of Mystara Lineup, artist unknown

Artist is Mischa Cel Frumos. She's one of the two major Mystara artists today. Surprised you didn't mention the phanaton, the flying guy on the art here. There's a ton more in the Red Steel creature compendium like the goatmen, an orangutan humanoid and host more

 

[Not a Decepticon]

Artist is Mischa Cel Frumos. She's one of the two major Mystara artists today. Surprised you didn't mention the phanaton, the flying guy on the art here. There's a ton more in the Red Steel creature compendium like the goatmen, an orangutan humanoid and host more

Speaking of goatmen, Bruce Heard wrote to give them in-depth look on his blog. It's quite old unofficial material, but interesting.

 

[Libertad]

Artist is Mischa Cel Frumos. She's one of the two major Mystara artists today. Surprised you didn't mention the phanaton, the flying guy on the art here. There's a ton more in the Red Steel creature compendium like the goatmen, an orangutan humanoid and host more

Thank you for letting me know the artist. Added their name to the post!

I actually did bring up the phanaton in the post when talking about the Tortle and also the Dragon Magazine articles. That said, it's interesting to hear about the creature compendium, but I didn't get much opportunity to look into it. I try to be thorough in my write-ups here, but that job can be hard to do when you have to look through so many articles and/or sourcebooks.

Speaking of goatmen, Bruce Heard wrote to give them in-depth look on his blog. It's quite old unofficial material, but interesting.

When it comes to "unofficial" work by a setting's authors, I tend to hold them as higher than other fanon material given their connection, but still useful to note that it's not in any 1st party sourcebooks. Eberron fans have a term for this re: Keith Baker's articles and writings called "Kanon."

 

[Libertad]

Artwork from Midgard DMs Screen & Character Sheets for 5th Edition​

A world of dark fantasy and deep magic, Midgard began as a setting inspired by Central and Eastern European history and folklore rather than the Western fantasy counterpart cultures that predominate D&D. Over time, Midgard grew into an expansive setting all its own, with support for various rulesets and a variety of full-fledged adventures and regional gazetteers.

In terms of Lore, the sourcebooks divided Midgard’s people into Major and Minor races, the terms being used for how much political and cultural sway certain groups have had over the world. Of the nine or so Major Races, about half of them are anthropomorphic animals: dragonborn*, kobolds,** minotaurs, and ravenfolk. Kobolds feature prominently in the Free City of Zobeck, which is Midgard’s Greyhawk/Sharn equivalent in being a major hub of adventure. Former slaves of a wicked family of shadow magic-using nobles, the kobolds took part in a revolution overthrowing the old order and now live in an expansive Kobold Ghetto. They are an impoverished lot, yet possessed of a greater means of autonomy than in prior times. The Mharoti Empire is a major superpower in the setting ruled over by various clans of dragon nobles, and the dragonborn are a race of super-soldiers uplifted from kobolds. Minotaurs are a seafaring culture who once had a great city by the name of Roshgazi that was decimated by the Mharoti Empire, while the Ravenfolk are a widespread group distrusted for being spies and thieves but who claim to have close ties to Wotan and other gods.

*Called Dragonkin in pre-5e rulesets.
**Who are the namesake publisher’s favored mascot.

Virtually every notable race in Midgard has their own unique form of magic that originated among their culture. While many races have major nations or population centers, most have regional variants and subcultures. For example, Mharoti kobolds are notably more arrogant than their kin elsewhere, as they are higher up in the social system than non-reptilian races. Or how the Bearfolk of the Shadow Realm are extraplanar immigrants from the Northlands who managed to carve out one of the safest and most resilient places against the landscape’s natural corruption.

Of the Minor races, there are Bearfolk and Gnolls mentioned in the core rules, and various sourcebooks expanded on new races particular to certain regions and locales. The Southlands is one of the more major regional sourcebooks, adding catfolk, lizardfolk, subek (crocodile), and tosculi (wasps) with their own societies, lands, and cultures. Although technically Minor Races in the greater setting, each of them was given distinct flavor and plot hooks. For instance, the lizardfolk are a rising civilization in the far south that are divinely inspired by a giant egg believed to hold one of the World-Serpent’s children. The subek are werecrocodiles who are vicious during the flood season, but peaceful and contemplative on the other months. This causes them to retreat from society for others’ safety when they feel the rage start to overtake them. The tosculi are a warrior culture that builds their hives from the corpses of their enemies, and are influenced by an archdevil; individual tosculi who break off from the hive-mind have a greater degree of autonomy, and it is this stock from which tosculi PCs are drawn. As for the catfolk, they are a diverse people created from various gods, and have major concentrations in Nuria Natal (Fantasy Ancient Egypt) and the Lion Kingdom of Omphaya.

Catfolk in particular have a rather interesting meta-history of various distinct races on account that Pathfinder and Dungeons & Dragons had different feline humanoids. This caused many among the fandom to debate to what extent certain catfolk were reflavored for particular systems vs being their own unique beings. Kobold Press appears to have settled for the latter option, and there’s 3 subraces of catfolk in 5th Edition: Basteti (catfolk created by the goddess Bast), Nkosi (catfolk created by Titans, a progenitor giant race who once ruled a vast empire), and Werelions (origin unknown but can be either natural or afflicted).

There are more anthro races beyond the default setting and Southlands, but they tend to have more specialized and marginal roles and influence, with less material for them with which a DM or player can use. One of these races is the Satarre. They are worm-like reptilians that seek to destroy the World Tree, the metaphysical outline of the cosmos, in order to usher in the apocalypse. Most such material presents them as monsters in Kobold Press’ bestiaries or small articles and mini-sourcebooks involving them as antagonists affiliated with cults. The Ratatosk are humanoid squirrels that are actually celestials who live among the World Tree’s various cosmic branches. They had a mini-sourcebook of their own, being rather unique in this regard for 5e races, going into detail on their society and culture as well as uses in a campaign.

Artwork from Zobeck Gazetteer for 5th Edition​

In terms of Playability, Midgard has a wealth of options for anthro PCs spanning Editions and rulesets. The tricky part is that so many different kinds of handbooks have been published for the game, not all of which match 1 for 1 in terms of transferred content. Compounding this is that even when it comes to the Major Races, not all groups are necessarily omnipresent throughout the base setting. Barring major empires, a lot of plots, intrigues, and threats take place at the regional and kingdom levels. The Minotaur are a major race, but they tend to live around the southern and western lands near the oceans. Dragonborn are omnipresent in the Mharoti Empire and its vassal states, but are rare in regions beyond these borders.

There’s a line of Heroes and Player’s Guide sourcebooks offering new playable options for Characters, several of which have been reprinted in later publishings for more complete collections. Such options included Werelions (a distinct variety of catfolk, publishing between various rulesets caused Midgard to have a lot of overlapping felines), Sahuagin, Ratfolk, the hedgehog-like Erina, the celestial Ratatosk, and the reptilian Satarre who were previously the province of villains.

While it doesn’t have options for them as PCs, the Book of Drakes for Pathfinder 1e fleshed out detail on these smaller cousins of true dragons, who in Midgard are dragons that bond with popular physical features and concepts of nearby civilizations. For example, Bakery Drakes are beloved presences for their penchant at aiding in cooking all manner of delicious foods. Rules were provided for PCs who wanted to have them as traveling companions.

Most PC-facing Midgard material is for 5th Edition currently, but player’s guides were published for 4th Edition D&D, Pathfinder 1e, and Swords & Wizardry. The Advanced Races line for Pathfinder 1e was a series of sourcebooks expanding on various races in Midgard, focusing on giving them expanded roles in the world and fleshing out their societies. Kobold Press’ Lineages & Heritages: Supplement 1 for their Black Flag 5e retroclone has rules for gnoll and lizardfolk PCs.

Even 13th Age got support, albeit the PC races were an option in an appendix of the Midgard Bestiary for 13th Age. In fact, this system as well as Pathfinder are peculiar in that they have rules for Roachling PCs that were never updated to 5e. Roachlings are bipedal roach-like humanoids who are feared and distrusted by most others on account of their bug-like appearance. While they reappeared in 5th Edition, they were exclusively NPCs.

While not technically furry, several races are tauric in having the lower bodies of animals but humanlike upper bodies. Centaurs, alseid, and lamia (who have snakelike lower bodies in contrast with traditional D&D) are all playable options, with the centaur in particular having had a presence in the world since the first standalone setting guide.

PS I should note in this case that both Dragonlance and Mystara had rules for centaur PCs, as well as fauns (satyrs) for the latter setting.

All in all, Midgard is a very furry-friendly setting, from its lore to its rules to its NPC art. The real question is what kind of anthropomorphic race one would be most keen on playing, and if their favorite rules system supports them as an option. Pathfinder 1e and D&D 5e players have plenty of choices, but other systems are a much riskier gamble.

 

[The Glen]

When it comes to "unofficial" work by a setting's authors, I tend to hold them as higher than other fanon material given their connection, but still useful to note that it's not in any 1st party sourcebooks. Eberron fans have a term for this re: Keith Baker's articles and writings called "Kanon."

Mystara calls it Official Fanon. Bruce filled in a huge number of nations of Alphatia that never got a mention on their own book. Some of it was such high quality it was widely adopted. Thorfinn's maps and Marco's Codex Immortals comes to mind