Ever play a single race campaign?

[Davelozzi]

The campaign we played for much of junior high and high school was all elves, but only about half of them actually seemed elvish, the others were just pointy eared humans. At least one was actually raised by humans.

We didn't originally set out to have an all elf-campaign, we just started with a couple of players who both chose elves. A couple of their elven NPC friends rounded out the party, and when it came time to name the group, they chose the name the Nether Elves, as this was a FR campaign, and the enchantress was interested in the arcane secrets of ancient Netheril.

Later, as more people joined the campaign, there was sort of a feeling that they had to play elves if they were to be accepted as full party members, which is why we ended up with a number of pointy-eared humans. Last time that we briefly reconvened the campaign, we finally let that go and had an actual human join the group.


All in all, I think an all-one race campaign could be good if it was planned that way and maintained a focus on that races' goals and culture, but I would certainly not do it again for a game that was going to be a more regular mix of D&D adventuring.

 

[krichaiushii]

I won't claim experience with this, but I will claim interest.

The question becomes who actually develops the single race culture? The DM, the players, or both working together?

And if you are looking for ideas on Dwarven culture, IIRC there was an old Dragon article dealing with Dwarves and their beards. I particularly remember the elaborate knotwork and braids they wore the told other Dwarves of their achievements, professions, and social standing. I also recall that the worst punishment was to have the beard burnt off and the offender exiled away from Dwarven lands, with his name stricken from any roles of honor.

Perhaps specific ideas about possible Dwarven culture and sources should go to another thread?

 

[DM_Jeff]

Elves

I've been running an all wild elf campaign for the past few months, using the bare bones campaign ideal from Green Ronin's Corwyl and Dezzavold sourcebooks as the backdrop. I've got a really good bunch of dedicated roleplayers and they're really eating it up. Without a doubt NO ONE is 'humans with pointy ears'.

Bonus: Immediate focus and 'party glue'.
Bonus: Allows old-time players to look at the campaign's other features in new ways.
Bonus: Everyone starts equal and must focus their talents and interests in unique ways to compliment each other.
Bonus: Running the 'elf council' I can take a much more active hand in offering adventures that don't come from 'the hooded guy in the tavern'.

So, it's worked really well. And they love Races of the Wild.

-DM Jeff

 

[Ferrix]

You can see our very own PbP forums for at least two examples of such games. An all Kobold game(which rocks) and an all Halfling game(which I know nothing about other than Ferrix is great). They work, and there's actually tons of diversity within the groups.

Thanks AMG.

You can check out the two games here: Koboldquest run by Krug and Halfling Quest run by me. When I saw Krug's game, I had actually been thinking about running a kobold only game, but then he did, so I put off the idea until I hit upon the halfling quest idea, and so I went with that. Maybe I'll keep this up and run various other Quest games focusing on different races (dwarves, elves, etc.) to help flesh out the quest world that is being developed.

I have also played in an all human (no magic) game using the generic classes from UA and am currently working on a human centric game for another PbP which can be found here.

I find that with a single race game, it can really increase the connection the players feel between their character and the other players characters. An excellent example was the massive amount of work all of the players, and even the alternates, put in on my halfling quest game. They helped generate members of their small town, working on a timeline, and so on. This can really help to create a detailed locale for the characters to start from.

 

[Reprisal]

All Human Campaign

I'm currently running an all-human campaign set in the Kingdom of Karrnath in Eberron. Not only are they all human, which I suppose is a minor achievement, but they had been one of three classes at the start. They're starting to branch out, but there's not been much in the way of serious inter-PC conflict that would inevitable erupt into someone's character dying. At this point, I'm starting to think that unless the players are more than prepared to humble their PCs in the face of others (such is the way of compromise), the DM should probably impose some sort of stricture on how disparate the characters can be in terms of race, class, and origin.

Limited choice at the beginning, or limited actions during the game: I'm starting to think that this might be the optimal choice for a DM with several new players, or a DM with several individualistic Players/PCs.

A somewhat provocative statement, I know, but it seems sound from a precautionary standpoint anyway...

- Rep.

 

[Ferrix]

Limited choice at the beginning, or limited actions during the game: I'm starting to think that this might be the optimal choice for a DM with several new players, or a DM with several individualistic Players/PCs.

A somewhat provocative statement, I know, but it seems sound from a precautionary standpoint anyway...

- Rep.

I actually think that's a great idea, and if I run a game back home with my standard group who can be very individualistic with tweaky characters I very may well end up forcing a single race game.

 

[Gnome]

I haven't run one or played in one, but now I have an idea for one where a town decides to exile all half-orcs from the city based on their heritage. It would also solve the part of how you would introduce the PCs, and why they band together.

I doubt any of my players would be interested, though, since half-orcs suck big time.

 

[Buttercup]

I'd love to run (or play in!) an all dwarf campaign. All halfling wouldn't be so bad either, and of course all human would be more than fine. I wouldn't be interested in an all-anything-else game.

 

[painandgreed]

In 1E, I ran an all elven campaign. We were working on a shared homebrew world and I decided to make my island an "emerald isle" of elves and fey. to flesh it out I ran people through the GDQ series. Worked really well. Strangest thing wa having an entire party of magic-users/<something else>: the fighters cast fireball, the thieves cast fireball, the clerics cast fireball, etc. If they got the jump on something or could otherwise bring all their artillery to bear, it was as good as over. They may not have had the best hitpoints but when everybody in the party can hit the main bad guy with a lightningbolt, the fight doesn't last long. Beside the modules, we actually did lots of politics and magic development. With five magic-users in the party and centuries to develop neat new spells, that's exaclty what they did. Everything was pretty laid back and adventures took years to complete. When given orders to decend into the D series by the elven emperess, she gave them two years to prepare and leave. They not only took that two years (which I thought was just going to be an elvish touch) but guards actually had to show up and escort them outside the city walls with some neat new spells half completed. they went off and adventured and the first city they came across (a mind-flayer city in another one of the vaults in the D series, hey, their money was good), they settled down and spent another year and a half finishing the spells before continuing on to the Vault of the Drow. One of the PCs, the only one to play from 1st level on up, had a half-elf kid (fromt he time he spent as an ambassador to the humand kingdom on the mainland) from before the campaign started and by time the campaign was over he was almost of a playable age.

 

[Nifft]

Two elves and a dwarf died. The group is now all human. So, kinda.

-- N