Does your campaign world have any "strange" races in it?

[Wik]

I've had quite a few over the years. In my current campaign, there are a few non-standard races, mostly from 4e sources:

Minotaurs, called the "Hala'ra" by themselves, are semi-mystical wanderers who seek to return to their ancestral home city, known to foreigners as the "Mazeworks" or "Kael Tessera".

Genasi are semi-arabic in nature, wandering their arid plains in loosely allied tribes. They are obsessed with weather, and have a warrior culture devoted to fighting demons (which makes a lot of sense in my campaign world).

the only created race I currently have, though, are the Otterfolk. These are playful people that are pretty much just sentient otters, with hands (of a sort). They hide from most sources of trouble, have an obsession with dreams and the recording of history, and are terrified of iron.

They don't particularly like paper (it doesn't mesh well with their chosen habitat), and carving in stone is next to impossible (because they hate the bad-smelling iron), so they rely on special shamans to record their history and interpret their dreams.

They make their primary living selling "Healing clams" to merchants (the clams being the primary ingredient in healing potions and other medicinal draughts), in exchange for various worked goods.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

the only created race I currently have, though, are the Otterfolk. These are playful people that are pretty much just sentient otters, with hands (of a sort). They hide from most sources of trouble, have an obsession with dreams and the recording of history, and are terrified of iron.

They don't particularly like paper (it doesn't mesh well with their chosen habitat), and carving in stone is next to impossible (because they hate the bad-smelling iron), so they rely on special shamans to record their history and interpret their dreams.

They make their primary living selling "Healing clams" to merchants (the clams being the primary ingredient in healing potions and other medicinal draughts), in exchange for various worked goods.

Ach- I wish I had been talking to you when you came up with this idea...I'd love to have helped.

Without diminshing the role of the Otterfolk shamen, you could have had them use knots as their "written" language. Their hands should be strong & dexterous enough, and there are plenty of materials that would have been suitable- kelp or ligaments for example. "Punctuation" could have been in the form of shell or stone bits with holes in them.

They could have also used sharp stones to etch whalebone, baleen or walrus tusks in their own unique form of scrimshaw.

And their spellbooks? In the former case, they could have looked like a wild textured bead mat. In the latter, a whalebone carved in 3 dimensions, dyed with certain inks derived from sea creatures (like squid ink or the infamous "royal purple" extracted from the murex snail).