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Message: <blockquote data-quote="doctorbadwolf" data-source="post: 7822367" data-attributes="member: 6704184">Okay, jokes about ancient musical modes aside, I said I’d give my game’s take on this stuff today, and I’ve got a solid half hour before work. In general, how far from the stereotypes I go depends on whether I’m running homebrew or a published world. In FR: I don’t “respect” the FR canon all that much, in terms of trying to stick to it in a given campaign. I like the novels, even when they’re not so good, but my group’s game belongs only to us. So, I change a lot, while working from a base of the 4e era Realms. My dwarves don’t much resemble the Scottish stereotypes of a Salvatore novel, my halflings aren’t quite as underestimated, my forest gnomes aren’t nearly as secluded and insular, and my “monstrous races” are nearly all fully capable of being Good and of having cooperative cultures that trade with the their neighbors. But, I don’t completely rewrite the world, so orcs, goblinoids, etc, aren’t well liked or trusted by most folk outside their cultures. The only places that a PC of those races is in danger by virtue of their race are in places that are meant to be presented as Bad Guy run places, though. Villagers are smart enough to see 5 travelers of various races, recognize adventurers or mercenaries or the like, and know that they’re about as much of a danger as humans. So, potentially a lot, but no reason to assume they will be. In Eberron: The setting itself doesn’t use traditional takes all that much, so it isn’t much of a worry here. That said, since the Eberron take tends to be fun and interesting, I tend not to wildly change them up. My homebrew: I tend to create these from scratch, starting with finding a home for one of my favorite races, or for a cultural concept I’ve had at some point. My world of islands has fisher-nomad Dragonborn modeled partly after Pacific Islanders, Fey goblinoids, a Persian-influenced old elf empire, and kobolds and halflings and Goliaths sharing a mountainous kingdom with airships called The Cloudlaw. My buddy’s gnomes are mountain-folk and river-nomads, split between the great trade river where they are a big part of the riverboat workforce, a Swiss Alps-esque mountain where gnomes run banks and mercantile financing operations, and a northerly mountain range where the gnomes are Celtic inspired polytheistic animists whose culture partly revolves around the Great Trees that were broken during the Demon Wars 1000 years ago, but whose legacy lives on in town sized tree stumps and hollows that serve as clan-holds, town walls, and holy sites. Another stereotype I avoid when I can is that of the small folk being easy to push around, or only avoiding invasion by luck and hiding. Nah. Halflings are scary as well when roused. Better at hiding means better at ambushing. Small and nimble means better at finding cover and sweeping into and back out of enemy formations. Imagine them mounted on goats. Good luck. Now imagine gnomes doing a lot of the same stuff, but add in better tech than anyone else, natural illusion magic, and the ability to speak to squirrels and birds and whatever else. You can walk through a forest gnome town without even seeing it’s there, huh? Imagine walking through a Gnomish army in the same way. The trap is sprung from within your ranks, and they’re gone before you can even recover enough to try to vaguely counter attack.</blockquote>

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