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Message: <blockquote data-quote="GreenTengu" data-source="post: 8033053" data-attributes="member: 6777454">I think the traditional PC races could EASILY be villains in their own rights rather than the traditional "just be bandits". Making the reasons they are the antagonists tie into what is already known about the race will make it feel so much more organic. Bandit works well for the races who don't really have anything, don't have control over any land, cannot really grow their own food or they have too much pride to make their way in life as anything but warriors and there is no one to pay them to fight.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Elves are tired of other races cutting down their forest for lumber-- no, they are not going to negotiate. No, they do not see any reason to handle this "peacefully" rather than out-and-out exterminate the infestation. No, they aren't going to just find somewhere else to live or write themselves off as obsolete and bequeath rulership of the world to these "humans" who don't live even a tenth as long as them. They might also capture humans for use as servants or as "close enough to elf" like bodies on which they can perform magical experimentation.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dwarfs will wipe out a settlement because their grandparents unknowingly offended the Dwarfen clan and the grudge was just never settled. They might also wipe out the humans because the humans are an obstacle to their economic interests or they feel it has infringed on their mining rights. They might also decide to break into a palace or such that is hording a large amount of gold and stealing it with the reasoning that all gold belongs to them.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Gnomes homes are not always so clearly marked, they can be invisible on the surface. Rather than going to the surface to tell people to stop trouncing across their roofs or more clearly marking their homes, they might decide to just start setting up lethal traps that kill people for unknowingly "invading". Gnomes also work well in the "mad scientist" role where they create something dangerous and unleash it on the world without considering the consequences. They might even send their clockwork creations to attack people just to test of their battle capabilities.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Halflings tend towards being thieves-- and while it is an old D&D tradition for the "thieves guild" to be friends to the PC-- why would a crime syndicate that is involved in robbing people blind and fencing their items and extorting "protection" money from the rest of the populace be necessarily friends to the PCs? Halflings being the mafia in the cities in a D&D world would make all the sense in the world.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dragonborn and Tieflings hardly even need to be explained. Dragonpeople and Devilpeople were traditional bad guys going all the way back to the dawn of D&D before 4th edition arbitrarily decided that they were by-and-large "good guys". The idea that Dragonborn would be submissive lapdogs to humans and their ilk really boggles my mind. Nothing that has ever been written about Dragonborn culture has ever made sense-- they should be ruling over the Kobolds and enacting the personal interests of the Dragons, which far, FAR more often than not, even for the good-aligned Dragons, is going to directly conflict with the interests of the ever-expanding empires of humans and other humanoids. Dragonborn armies should be marching across the land and driving back the infestations of the mammalian races. And Tieflings should be predominantly drawn to aligning themselves with Devils and Demons-- their whole mystical nature would intrinsically push them in that direction. Tieflings should be tearing open rifts to the outer realms and allowing their fiendish cousins into the material plane far more often than they are being heroic or fighting such creatures.</li> </ul></blockquote>

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