General Race Questions

[Priest_Sidran]

Hello everyone,

Its been a while since I made my own post here. The scivy is this I have been working on a Campaign Setting, with the intent of puting it into PDF format for ease of use among my gaming group and for potential sale worthy products at some future date.

1. What I am wondering is how the ENworld Homebrew folk would handle Ethnic subtypes of mundane races such as human, elves, and halflings.

2. While creating a world what amount of Races is your minimum / maximum.

3. What forms of races do folks want most, I.E. More elves (doubtful), more unique races (hopefully), etc.


AS AN ASIDE NOTE

Eventually I am going to start looking for contributers to the writing, because I am quickly getting overwelmed by the amount of work involved being I am a one man band. In that vein I am working on a setting bible which details (but does not stat out) most every mechanic, class, race, etc. Anyone who wants to help, or wants more information can email me at Sid7e_NB @ myway . com.

I am looking for Feats, Core Classes (which are one hundred percent written, and have been tested for balance), Spells (the same as classes), and perhaps one fellow writer, which I will designate Staff Writer, though the title comes with no pay to start. This is mainly a recruitment for someone that enjoys Setting construction, and the detailing of creative works.

At this time I can give a campaign synopsis, as well as a few projects should anyone want to tackle a task.

 

[Roger]

What I am wondering is how the ENworld Homebrew folk would handle Ethnic subtypes of mundane races such as human

I wouldn't touch it with an 11' pole, but that's just me.


Cheers,
Roger

 

[Arkhandus]

I also tend to avoid making any statistical differences between different ethnicities of any given race in D&D. A human is a human is a human.

Different subraces I don't mind, like the differences between dark elves, high elves, wood elves, etc. because they're actually different in special abilities and such from being a magical race with a wierd history. But I'm not too fond of subraces, and there are only a few cases where I see them as fitting in (like the different subraces of hengeyokai or spirit folk in Oriental Adventures; each is descended from a different kind of nature spirit so of course they differ in physical, mental, and magical traits). There has to be a good reason for a subrace to exist.

 

[Ilium]

And on question #2, I feel that default D&D has way too many humanoid(ish) races. In my game, there are seven "speaking peoples" who have significant numbers and real cultures. There are also small numbers of ogres, trolls, giants and other intelligent monsters, but only the seven have anything like nations.

Even seven is pushing it, but I wanted to include all 5 of the standard PC races, plus goblins and orcs.

 

[Meeki]

Generally I like to diversify my races. For:
dwarves I use mountain dwarves, hill dwarves, and desert dwarves (homebrew)
- side note on dwarves i take away their weapon proficiencies and their bonuses for ocs but NOT giants
elves I have gimped elf (standard elf), wood elf, modified gray elf, plains elf (homebrew also), and wild elf.
humans I just have humans, for now
gnomes I dont really let pc's use, i'm modifying them to be more nature/fey like with no LA
halflings i have standard halflings, generally not played
orcs i have black orc, green orc (MM orc), gray orc, and "blue" orc or thun orc(homebrew orc basically no minuses to int and only +2 str), half orcs i dont really like but I allow
half elves i generally also do not allow. the race is poorly designed and i see no need for half elves in my world

I tend to try to diversify culture and then if I see a need for a diff type of humanoid I add them in. IMHO Work on thinking about the culture of your world then fit races in later.

 

[Shane_Leahy]

I would diversify humans based on culture more then race. Humans from the sea faring area may choose these feats, may add these skills as class skills regardless of class, may never choose these skills, etc etc.

Now if certain human ethnic sub-types are almost always from a certain region/culture then there would be diffrences but not because of the sub-type.

 

[Priest_Sidran]

I would diversify humans based on culture more then race. Humans from the sea faring area may choose these feats, may add these skills as class skills regardless of class, may never choose these skills, etc etc.

Now if certain human ethnic sub-types are almost always from a certain region/culture then there would be diffrences but not because of the sub-type.

This is the way I am planning on doing it, though some ethnicities gain some elf like qualities, and some gain some dwarf like qualities.

The inspiration for the Setting comes from stories like Andre Norton's Witchworld, and Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover among other things. As for actual ethnic differenciation I am using a blend of ideas from Thieves World (Green Ronin), and Forgotten Realms (Races of Faerun). At this point, their are 22 ethnic groups of men, some inter-related, while others are otherworld ethnic groups. The Idea of Portals, and Gates from one world into another is not an old idea, but one that finds its way into the setting, and thus the reason for s many lines of men.

So for you who replied I thank you, and for those to come I hope to hear your take on the subject.

 

[Tonguez]

I would diversify humans based on culture more then race. Humans from the sea faring area may choose these feats, may add these skills as class skills regardless of class, may never choose these skills, etc etc..

I agree. I tend to consider the human bonus feat to represent the 'Culture' of the PC and because humans are a diverse and adaptable lot they all get to have a different feat.

I'm also partial to given out extra class skills to further define ethnicity

stay away from stats

2. While creating a world what amount of Races is your minimum / maximum.

For DnD I'd cope with a minimum of 1 race as long as its human,
for max it depends on how usefully they can be integrated into the world

3. What forms of races do folks want most, I.E. More elves (doubtful), more unique races (hopefully), etc.

More Gnomes
More Goblins
More monsters (Not Alt-Humans)

 

[Nifft]

Yep yep. Culture or region benefits rather than sub-racial benefits. If Elves did one good thing this edition, they popularized hate for sub-races.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Maldor]

i want to see a balanced LA+0 Kobald PC race
and don't ever try to say they are balanced now