Homebrew Worlds and Races

[Gez]

On my homebrew, Edhel:

Humans: the most numerous, as always, however their majority is smaller than usual (I've made a quick calculation for the realms, with the statistics given in the FRCS for each region entered in a spreadsheet, and IIRC I got something like 87% of civilized population is human), around 50-60%. Like in most setting, they look mostly like europeans (white skinned, any normal hair color, any eye color).

Dwarves:
Crown Dwarves, or gold dwarves. Stats as the FRCS gold dwarves. Rich merchants, cunning manipulators, with a strong reputation of crookery.
Mountain dwarves and hill dwarves: standard PHB dwarves. Hill dwarves are a bit rarer and shorter.
Coast dwarves, also called korrigans: reclusive and shy animistic dwarves, favoring the druid class. Some people think their shy nature make them related to the forest gnomes, but it is forgetting their lack of humor and their deep love for craftwork. Stats as the korobokuru, except the Small size and the fav. class.

Elves:
High elves: the "fair folk" of "high birth" and "noble blood" is fair only in name and skin completion. They are oppressive and ruthless racists. They enslaved whole naive humans and halflings populations with the "Cortez trick" (benefitting from superstition depicting them as gods). Strongly hated by all those who realize they're imposters.
Wood elves: the sylvan elves who love to dance and prance and revel wildly, but also to hunt and kill. Lovers of alcool and blood, who can either scalp you alive or give you enchanted items freely when you meet them. Feared and mistrusted for their impredicitible behavior.
Grey elves: the only one truly civilized, they prefer to stay away from the other's problem once they have learned, after several bitter failures, that what works for them don't works for others. Lovers of sea, fine craftwork, and magic, they are expert shipbuilders and captains.

Gnomes:
The little folk has a role of keeper of secrets and lore.
Deep gnomes: masters of earth and stone, they are often found with dwarves in the depth of earth. They equals the dwarves in minecraft, and both race works together to carve the underworld, create impressive devices for their work, and defend their cities from goblins and other raiders.
Forest gnomes: keepers of all secrets of nature, these diminutive druids live in place secluded from intrusion by all means wilderness and illusion magic offer.
Mystic gnomes: loremasters supreme, they search and hide knowledge, trying to prevent the most dangerous ones to fall in the wrong hands. Master diviners and illusionist, wisest of the clerics, they hid themselves and their actions so well they are only a rumor, a legend, a tell of white ghosts performing enigmatic rituals under the full moon.
Rock gnomes are the glue between all their subraces and expert traders, carrying needed goods to their most reclusive cousins (forests and mystics). They are also renowned alchimists.

Halflings: Their homeland lost, they wander. There are several tribes of hins, but each share some common cultural practices, most notably the tattooing. For those who know how to read it, the life of a halfling can be read on his body. And so much more ! Halflings taletellers are living books, and hin mages enchant their inks for strange effects (magic tattoo rules from Relics & Rituals). It is rumored that some learned high elves have captured and skinned halflings loremasters, creating macabre libraries of small straw-filled corpses.
Ghostwise, lightfoot, deepstout and tallfellow subraces exist; but they are the less worked-on race on Edhel for now.

There's also several subraces of Kobolds, Goblins, Orcs, and Bugbears.

 

[Desdichado]

Well, old homebrews never truly die, so here's some of the things I've done in the past (or am working on for the future; currently I'm not DMing anything.)

Setting I: fairly standard. I made a number of changes, mostly cosmetic, to many the races. I also included a half dwarf race. Mostly the usual suspects, though. Can be found here. Includes "planetouched" template.

Setting II: an evolved form of setting I, really. Some of the changes are slightly less cosmetic and more substantial. Those races can be found here.

Setting III: This one I don't have a web page for, but I can describe it here, real quick. There's essentially four climatic "zones" and each has effected the various races creating subraces.

• In the dark, cold lower zone, vampires (not the template, this is a new NPC monstrous humanoid race) terrorize almost all the other races, and necromantic elves struggle to maintain their population by preying on the souls of anyone else they can find. Dwarves, humans and orcs all live here, mostly dark-skinned and tribal, but all loosely allied with each other. Many are members of a death cult that refuses to allow their dead to fall into the hands of the elves or the vampires.
• The next "zone" is cold and grey. Some xenophobic elves live here in hidden kingdoms. Humans usually set up outposts and keeps, but have a low population. Orcs are thin and wiry here, living nomadic herding lifestyles, and dwarves live similar to the orcs, and are known for their theivery.
• The next zone is bright, sunny and covered with thick verdant forests and searing deserts. Elves and dwarves here are much more PHB standard, while humans are more European with a vast, sprawling empire. Orcs are also more standard here than in the lower zones, and a custom race of desert-dwelling lizardfolk round out this area.
• The final climatic zone is inhabited solely by aasimar, who make up an elite set of para-military crusading groups loosely attached to the human empire below.

My latest homebrew, though chucks all the races except humans and eight varieties of planetouched (four elemental genasi and four alignment based ones, including the two new ones from Dragon Magazine.) Although humans outnumber any one planetouched race, all the planetouched races together outnumber humans, making up about 60% of the population. In many nations, humans make up an extreme lower class, outside of the class sytem, even. In some areas they live in reservations. In a few other nations, they are almost equal to planetouched and can gain lots of wealth, rise in society, etc.

 

[Tristissima]

The Races of Nomenclature

Well, in Nomenclature, my very Lovecraft-inspired queer world, the only base race is the humans, the most widespread of all, especially in the Bulge, the basically European portion of the world. Also included for games in the Bulge are:

Lpfter Dragons: Bearded, gruff humanoid dragons created by the first of the Younger Gods to fight Mokelmgian, the first Elder God to give in to the Taint, who betrayed the rest of the Elder Gods and began hunting them. He was also the one who defeated Hamada of the Red Earth, the villain who ripped the World Before apart with names and languages. But that doesn't matter to the lpfterj, so I don't know why I said it other than to talk about my world The lpfterj live mostly in the mountains to the east of the Merchant Coast (think Savage Coast), which hide the terrible Plateau of Ngast, or Ngel as it is known in the Dreamlands (which replace the Ethereal Plane), where Mokelmgian makes his home.

Cjl Elementals: The closest thing to air elementals Nomenclature has, these tall and beautiful beings were created during the War at the Beginning of the World by Hamada to fight the forces of the Elder Gods. Their leader, Bojdngon Larethian, betrayed Hamada by sinking his city to the bottom of Lake Ilah (an offshoot of the Elemental Plane of Ooze), leading to Hamada's fight with Mokelmgian. Their main center is a floaing monastery above a portion of the City of the Red Earth now known as Heyl'r. This monastery trains the most bad-ass monks and fighters in preparation to beat the Elder God Mrjnlhu back down whenever he attempts to arise.

Jkgatinous Cubej: Original inhabitants of an underground realm, this race has since been battered into savagery by the forces of the gods. They are mockeries of the humanoid form, cubish and jelly-like.

Ehmhpingj: Dark and matriarchal, these Wiccan/Pagan take-offs live in a hilly peninsula just north of the Bulge.

Goilgnj: Barbaric tricksters full of magic and pranks, these degenerate goblinoids live in a mountain range at the center of the Bulge. They often plague the human nations around them with tricks and raids.

Tristissima

 

[ForceUser]

All of the starting races I offered were human:

Viet - "Vietnamese"
Xiao - "Chinese"
Khmer - barbarian highlanders
Cham - Hindu seafarers

It's a fantastic world loosely based on midieval southeast Asia, and I wanted to limit the initial choices until my players got a better understanding of the setting. To your average American, the Orient is an obtuse land and baffling culture. I wanted to diffuse some of that, foster some understanding of everyday life in ancient Asia, so I didn't give them the "easy out" of a non-human opportunity.

There may be more races offered from time to time as the campaign progresses, but mum's the word - my players could be reading

 

[kengar]

Humans - broken into two main political groups:

Covemen- coastal dwellers in the continent's one walled city. Used to be the penal colony all humans lived in (were exiled from western continent). Since then, colony has lost touch with empire and many exiles have "escaped." City of Deepcove still has the only professional human soldiers (remnants of the imperial garrison).

Greensmen- the "exiles" who fled Deepcove and built towns in the forests. Think frontier living, wooden walls, humanoid barbarian tribes attacking from time to time. Some trade with city, but some mistrust too. (No human barbarians.)

Elves- all elves IMC are Wild Elves. Barbarian tribes. The grey elves were destroyed by orcs over five centuries ago. Wild elves not evil, but territorial and mistrustful of humans. (NPC only)

Half-Elves - All sorcerers are half-elves (PCs permitted. No Wizards IMC)

Orcs - Wild barbarian tribes. Raiding and hunting. (NPC only)

Half-Orcs- as per PHB, (PCs permitted)

Dwarfs - (PCs permitted) Live in the "Holds'; underground keeps and mines. Main source of steel and masterwork metal goods for humans. Healthy trade just recently established between humans & dwarves.

"Ghashik" - Aquatic lizard-man raiders. Slavers and plunderers. Appear at Deepcove and nearby coastal settlements from time to time to burn, capture slaves (or food?) & loot. Little is known about them. Rumored to have semi-submerged city on an island off the Northern Coast. (Think Kua-toa/Troglodyte).

Gnomes & Halflings are unknown.

Other humanoids; goblins, gnolls, etc. are pretty much per MM. Though the kobolds and goblins give the dwarves a lot of grief (much trickier & nastier than straight out of MM) in the tunnels & mines.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

• Human - the dominant race, as is somewhat standard
• Dwarf - defeated technologists. They got about as far as gunpowder before suffering a harrowing defeat at the hands of a magic-using empire.
• Elf - responsible for a lot of the trouble in their area. They have since taken to repenting
• Halfling - a conqured people. Some accept their fate, others have turned to the fine art of assasination to liberate thier homeland.
• Gnome - extinct. Sorry, gnome-lovers but I couldn't think of anything to do with them.
• Half-Orc/Half-Elf - rare. Orcs are a created race in my campaign (see Elves above) and half-orcs are ones who have partially "backslid" to a somewhat human status. A change I made because I feel a little weird about all half-orcs being the product of an assult.

New-ish races

• Dark Elves - Toned down drow with a +1 to ECL
• Orcs - Hey, why not?

I'm kicking around the idea of adding psionic lizard men. They're too cheesy not to use.

 

[Sigma]

I'm building a wilderness campaign now (last campaign was city-based, so this is a change of pace). Here's what I'm writing up for my players as far as native races of the land. Most of these will be unavailable as PC's, but it's inline with what kind of tweaks I tend to make with races.

Elves, Dwarves, and Fae
No native elves are known to live on Frosthoven, though there is evidence that a large population once lived in the Greendle Forest. Oddly enough, dwarves have assumed the niche normally occupied by their pointy-eared cousins. Vancian sages speculate that the giants drove the dwarves from their mountain homes and into the forests. Whether or not the elves still dwelled in the area at that time is unknown. Some scholars believe that the dwarves could not possibly have survived in their new environment without elven help. Others believe that the elves had already departed, and that it was the fae of the forests that helped acclimate the dwarves. In any event, the native dwarves of Frosthoven are a distrustful, insular people, who viciously defend their Greendle Forest home.

Humans
The humans of Frosthoven are by and large nomadic tribes of barbarians. Proud, angry, and distrustful of wizardry, they scrape out an existence hunting caribou and avoiding giantkin slavers. With the exception of the Sygivan [sig-ih-van] tribe, the barbarians are hostile and have been known to attack trappers and hunters with little provocation. Those in the Sygivan tribe are the most civilized, with a strong bent towards druidic magic. These barbarians have delicate features and slightly pointed ears, leading to speculation that they are the descendants of the elves of Greendle Forest.

Halflings
When Frosthoven was first discovered, the thought of halflings inhabiting the island seemed absurd. Five foot tall snow drifts are common in the winter months, difficult for a man to traverse, and assumedly, impossible for a halfling to manage. When scouting parties returned with news of halflings wolverine riders, it added to the race’s reputation for ingenuity and adaptability. Not quite as hostile as the human barbarian tribes or dwarves of Greendle, the Muskies (nicknamed by the colonizers for the strong odor given off by the wolverine mounts) are one of the few natives willing to conduct trade and offer safe passage. Dwelling in the low foothills outside giant territory, the halflings make their living as nomads, occasionally raiding their larger neighbors.

Gnomes
The only gnome population in Frosthoven is a small enclave located in the Furnace Mountains. One of the few non-nomadic races on the island, the task of protecting their homeland has made the Cauldron Gnomes into xenophobes. In their quest to control the entire Valley of Steam, the gnomes launched a war of genocide on the neighboring kobold tribes. It took them less than a decade to slay every kobold in the valley, leaving them the masters of the Cauldron Lakes. These hot springs are known to contain arcane energies, but no outsider has been able to confirm what those might be.

 

[Knight-of-Roses]

Reasonable Races

My current campaign ("the Isles of Reason") is an Ancient Greece styled campaign. The main campaign area (the Greek Isles) does not use any of the standard non-human races. Instead there are:

Aviani, race of winged humanoid considered by some (including themselves) to be blessed by the Gods.
The Aviani are small and slender, though their small frames belies their strength. The average height for a male Aviani is 5'4" (162 cm), while females average only 5'3" (160 cm). Their wings have a full span equal to twice their height.
Aviani tend towards fair hair and eyes the color of the sky. Their wings are almost universally white or pale grey of color, though occasional Aviani have colored feathers at their wing tips. Black hair is considered unlucky among the Aviani, they are said to be ?courting a storm?.

Centaur, the powerful half men half horses dominate the plains around their home city of Magnopolis. Only recently organized into the Kingdom of Centaurs from a group of feuding tribes, they are still looked upon as being barely civilized by their neighbors. They are strong of body and of will, indeed many are too headstrong and willful. Centaur are often too fond of wine, tending towards violence when drunk.
Those centaurs that survive the rough and tumble of early life and service in the army of the Centaur King are usually become more restrained and often grow wise.

Merfolk, the children of Poseidon and Amphitrite. When the rage of Poseidon broke the island of Calas and sunk the city of Talrosa, Amphitrite took mercy on the children of the city and gifted them with the ability to live under the waves. So they still live in the city of Talrosa, now submerged beneath the sea.
The Merfolk come in many forms, those with fish tails, dolphin tails or two scaled legs that end in flippers. But all have the ability to take fully human form and live on land for a short time (days, weeks at most).
In their native state, the Merfolk have a distinct blue or greenish tint to their skin. In their fully human form, this tint remains but it is hard to notice. Although they have the same average height as humans (when in human form) Merfolk are both stronger and denser than a human of equal height and build.
A few Merfolk have cross-slitted eyes, but all Merfolk tend towards eyes that share the color of the sea. Most Merfolk have hair that is the same color as humans, but with the same tint as their skin, but a few have hair that is blue or green.

Satyr, the race of satyrs are closely connected with nature (too closely some would say). They are frequently slaves to their passions, especially for drink and carnal pleasures. But they are as hardy as the goats which their lower body resembles.
Most of the satyrs live in the Centaur Regium but a fair number are in exile at any one time, traveling until they can return to their homeland or find a new one. The satyr race is primarily male (only one in fifty is female, called a tyrsa) but they can mate with most humanoids with the offspring usually (nine times out of ten) being a satyr.

Outside the Isles, there are elves among the Celts and in Persia and the Middle East there are Genasi.

 

[Infinite Monkey@Work]

On Jeva (campaign world) most of the good races live on mile high pillars thrust out of a tainted and evil planet-spanning swamp.

Kalai - Humans and Kuba (Halflings) live in a single combined culture on top of the pillars. Humans are PHB standard, kuba are PHB standard halflings, except they are about the height of dwarves. Kuba and Humans are the only raes that can interbreed (assuming a tall kuba and a short human), with offspring being the race of the mother.

Vanara live on and farm the sides of the pillars.

Gnomes are technologists, have reached gunpowder. They live in encalves (smokezones) within kalai cities.

Durn (dwarves) are split into two distinct species, which live together. Durn-ak are PHB standard dwarves, who work as craftsmen. Durn-an are 8-9 feet tall and adapted to underground life. They work as miners.

Elves are divine servants of Jeva (the planet is the good God of the campaign) and live in the swamps, keeping bacak the vast evils through unknown means.

 

[tsadkiel]

In my Oz game, there are humans, half-elves (but not elves - they've cross-bred themselves out of existence), Munchkins (halflings), Mannikins (from the "Mythic Races web enhancement), and Awakened Animals. There's also the occasional smattering of Planetouched.

Gnomes of a sort exist, but they're eeeeeevil and not PC material. And there's a plethora of bizarre minor races, but no one's wanted to play one yet.