D&D General I finally like non-Tolkien species for PCs

[DarkCrisis]

I started D&D in 2E. Pretty much all of D&Ding I prefer the basic Tolkien species. Elves Dwarves Humans etc.

Played WoW and yeah cow people and goblins and Orcs and whatever as PCs.

Yeah ive read all the official an unofficial splat books on monster races.

Even modern D&D with Dragonborn and Tieflings. Ugh.

Then I started reading (audiobook listening) to a series called The Wandering Inn. I fell in love with it immediately. In no small thanks to the incredible narrator.

The story is basically a girl named Erin (and many other Earthlings) are magically teleported to a Fantasy World. Oddly enough people have classes they can level in. Anything from Innkeeper to Seamstress to Soldier to Priest. The locals don't question it but Erin and the other humans do. Is it the gods manipulating things or some other force? Are they in a video game (they aren't FYI).

She appears near an Inn and starts to run it. Erin is a very good person and I think why I like it so much is our real world sucks huge ass lately and she's just a little ray of sunshine. See also the new Superman movie.

She appears in a location primarily the home of Gnolls and Drakes, and humans are a minority. She has a rough starting out by soon she's got the Inn up an running and things start spiraling into adventures. She and her friend accidently introduce a lot of Earth stuff to this new world. Like rock music and pizza. And even a new religion (oops).

There is a ton of world building. This book even made me weep for a Ghoul. A GHOUL.

A tribe of Goblins live nearby and are considered a pest to be killed. Many many chapters are dedicated to the Goblins and why they are they way they are and them trying to rise above and gain better status. Not to mention back lore about how they used to be more well thought of until The Goblin Lord tried to conquer the land.

There is even stuff about a great war with an insect species that's also trying to do better (or are they??!?!)

I can't express how much I have been enjoying this series and yeah I know try to get my players to play non-Tolkien species. Even stuff like Thri-Kreen. Current group has 1 human. The other 3 are Goblin, H-Orc, and Kobold.

So yeah, it's opened my eyes to "monster species". Better late than never, I suppose.

Also read The Wandering Inn series. It's fantastic.

 

[CreamCloud0]

i'd like to what would get created if the mould was broken a little more and the tolkien core four/five and their well-worn dynamics weren't inserted into every setting as default, what might you get with a setting where your baseline species are a lineup of, say, dragonborn, gnomes, kobolds, satyrs and warforged and that humans, elves, dwarves, halflings and orcs were nowhere to be seen.

 

[Marandahir]

i'd like to what would get created if the mould was broken a little more and the tolkien core four/five and their well-worn dynamics weren't inserted into every setting as default, what might you get with a setting where your baseline species are a lineup of, say, dragonborn, gnomes, kobolds, satyrs and warforged and that humans, elves, dwarves, halflings and orcs were nowhere to be seen.

Not quite this, but see Lorwyn-Shadowmoor (which will get an upcoming D&D setting booklet of some sort and is coming back to MTG next year). The setting is based on Celtic mythology elements and thus doesn't lack elves & dwarves and halflings, but it very specifically chose to omit Humans entirely.


"World without X" is a great setting hook. I'm sure there's other good examples of it. The trick is the further you go afield from the core 4 species, the more work you need to do to make the world feel real. It's a lot harder to establish complex and nuance societies when we're working with less tropographic history. Not impossible, but it's relatively easy to slide into "planet of hats" where each species lacks nuance or else feels like a rubber-forehead alien species because the DM and the Players aren't as familiar with the idea. Elves, Dwarves, and Halflings are very well defined in the fantasy archetypal subconsciousness due to how prevelant they are in Tolkien and everything that came after; Humans are defined as being not defined by their species but generalists with tons of different cultures. Elves / Dwarves / Halflings tend to be 1-3 different subcultures in most genre fiction / TTRPGs, before they start to get either diluted or the setting becomes so distinct you need your own story bible to keep it straight.

 

[TwoSix]

Also read The Wandering Inn series. It's fantastic.

As much as I would love to recommend Wandering Inn to people, I can't, simply because it's much too big of a series to recommend to all but the most dedicated readers/listeners.

It's currently approaching a 15 million word count; for comparison, the entire Wheel of Time is 4.4M and the entire Malazan series is 6.1M.

 

[DarkCrisis]

As much as I would love to recommend Wandering Inn to people, I can't, simply because it's much too big of a series to recommend to all but the most dedicated readers/listeners.

It's currently approaching a 15 million word count; for comparison, the entire Wheel of Time is 4.4M and the entire Malazan series is 6.1M.

Oh yeah the audio books are 30-40 hours each and there like 13 so far? Though I listen at 2X or more speed so I crank them out. Almost done with Book 4.

I'm addicted though. You say it's to much, I say it's not near enough. Every large entry is just a joy. I don't want it to run out. It's like saying there is to much Christmas or something. Let it be Christmas all year 'round!.

 

[TwoSix]

Oh yeah the audio books are 30-40 hours each and there like 13 so far? Though I listen at 2X or more speed so I crank them out. Almost done with Book 4.

I'm addicted though. You say it's to much, I say it's not near enough. Every large entry is just a joy. I don't want it to run out. It's like saying there is to much Christmas or something. Let it be Christmas all year 'round!.

Oh, it's not too much for me. I binged the series in the summer of '21 during a slow period at work, read probably 4-6 hours a day and it still took me about 2 months to get through. And I loved every minute of it.

 

[J-H]

It is YUUUGE. I am about 9 months behind and will binge it at some point, maybe on an upcoming short vacation. I am very concerned about Wheel of Time-style scope/cast creep (I stopped around book 7 with WOT), but apparently there is a master plan and at some point it's supposed to have an ending.

I have used several concepts in my games, including Eater Goats. I like the different species and how distinct they are. They do tend to have "hats" or specializations, but those don't limit and define the characters. I also like how the world feels lived-in, and how some powers are really old and feel like it. Fetohep is one of my favorite characters, and the Quarass is pretty cool in a very hard-edged "I'm glad she's not my neighbor" way.

You could run a bunch of campaigns just in the Shield Kingdoms area. TWI also shows the limitations of RPGs. Many of the storylines only work for a novel, but would not work for a player campaign due to the number of characters and moving pieces.

Spoiler: Spoilery question about the city with the meat

What exactly is it? Trey allegedly recognized it, but I didn't get anything specific beyond it being some sort of cthonic beholder-like creature.

 

[DarkCrisis]

It is YUUUGE. I am about 9 months behind and will binge it at some point, maybe on an upcoming short vacation. I am very concerned about Wheel of Time-style scope/cast creep (I stopped around book 7 with WOT), but apparently there is a master plan and at some point it's supposed to have an ending.

I have used several concepts in my games, including Eater Goats. I like the different species and how distinct they are. They do tend to have "hats" or specializations, but those don't limit and define the characters. I also like how the world feels lived-in, and how some powers are really old and feel like it. Fetohep is one of my favorite characters, and the Quarass is pretty cool in a very hard-edged "I'm glad she's not my neighbor" way.

You could run a bunch of campaigns just in the Shield Kingdoms area. TWI also shows the limitations of RPGs. Many of the storylines only work for a novel, but would not work for a player campaign due to the number of characters and moving pieces.

Spoiler: Spoilery question about the city with the meat

What exactly is it? Trey allegedly recognized it, but I didn't get anything specific beyond it being some sort of cthonic beholder-like creature.

I would sacrifice someone for a legit TWI RPG and/or sourcebook to flavor any RPG system.

 

[Garthanos]

The idea of "monsters" who are heroes is not actually a new thing though amongst the Roundtable Knights there were at least one mayb 2 werewolves who retained their noble mind even in beast form. Not exactly a fantasy species but related I think.

The Dragonborn presented in 4th edition definitely dripped with a rich sense of their history within the gameworld. The Warlord highlighted them very well but in part the Arkhosian empire shines in racial feats and Paragon Paths and Epic Destinies and various player facing elements that do not exist in 5th edition.

 

[lall]

I’ve recently gone the other direction. One of my groups wants to play 1e and I try to have one ideal character species/class regardless of edition. Haven’t read much about 1e, but I think only humans can be magic-users without any level restriction. So the plan is for my ideal build to be human wizard in every edition and use Wish to become a fairy again when he retires. (Background is he grew up a fairy in the Faerie Plane. Upon reaching adulthood, powerful mama zapped him into a human so that he could walk (flight no longer an option) in those shoes as he adventures primarily in the material plane with all of those humans.)