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Homogenized Races?
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<blockquote data-quote="uzirath" data-source="post: 7635755" data-attributes="member: 8495"><p>When it comes to the purported "races" of fantasy worlds, I heartily agree. I have, at least since the mid-1980s, used heterogeneous races in my fantasy worlds (whether D&D or not). In GURPS terms, I build racial templates that cover basic physical differences and possibly a few other elements that are "baked in" to the race (with grounding in their creation myths). So all elves might have Magery to reflect an inherent magical nature or something like that. After that, each species can apply cultural templates just like humans. These would cover standard traits of a distinct culture. </p><p></p><p>An elf raised by greedy bankers might be as moneygrubbing as Thorin Oakenshield. There might even be an elvish culture of materialistic financiers. When I start a campaign, I typically figure out what the reference society is (usually the largest cultural group in the setting) and then define other groups in relation to it.</p><p></p><p>I haven't used alignment in many years, but we also stopped applying it to "races" in the early days of AD&D.</p><p></p><p>With that said, some regions of the world might <em>think</em> that all elves are a certain way or all dwarves or whatever. Just like the real world has stereotypes about different cultures (Americans are loud, etc.), the game world isn't immune. So if there's only one major dwarf kingdom nearby, then the humans might think that all dwarves are like that. Imagine their surprise when they land on an uncharted island and discover that it's populated by cannibal dwarf wizards who don't have any forges and are uninterested in gold.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="uzirath, post: 7635755, member: 8495"] When it comes to the purported "races" of fantasy worlds, I heartily agree. I have, at least since the mid-1980s, used heterogeneous races in my fantasy worlds (whether D&D or not). In GURPS terms, I build racial templates that cover basic physical differences and possibly a few other elements that are "baked in" to the race (with grounding in their creation myths). So all elves might have Magery to reflect an inherent magical nature or something like that. After that, each species can apply cultural templates just like humans. These would cover standard traits of a distinct culture. An elf raised by greedy bankers might be as moneygrubbing as Thorin Oakenshield. There might even be an elvish culture of materialistic financiers. When I start a campaign, I typically figure out what the reference society is (usually the largest cultural group in the setting) and then define other groups in relation to it. I haven't used alignment in many years, but we also stopped applying it to "races" in the early days of AD&D. With that said, some regions of the world might [I]think[/I] that all elves are a certain way or all dwarves or whatever. Just like the real world has stereotypes about different cultures (Americans are loud, etc.), the game world isn't immune. So if there's only one major dwarf kingdom nearby, then the humans might think that all dwarves are like that. Imagine their surprise when they land on an uncharted island and discover that it's populated by cannibal dwarf wizards who don't have any forges and are uninterested in gold. [/QUOTE]
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