Monsters and Humanoid Races!

[SHARK]

Greetings!

LOL!!! Joshua, you have a good memory! Yes, my world is huge. I can't remember, but when I said that my campaign world is similar to Jupiter in size,--someone actually posted a mathematical analysis and schematic for how large *Jupiter* really is!

Well, it's huge, but perhaps not *exactly* the size as Jupiter!

Gee, it was funny though!

As for regional differences, mechanically, well, yes, I suppose there is. Not stats, per se, but I do have different regional feats, as well as cultural feats, and additional skill ranks that a character gains depending on their background. For example, northern barbarians from coastal regions, gain Skill Focus: Sailor, at +3. They also get +3 ranks in Swimming.

Besides a few tailored skill ranks, cultural feats, there are occasional class-restrictions or bonuses, as well. For example, if one comes from the Celtic-island region, they can be a Rogue, but I have skill restrictions on what skills they can develop, and can only change through campaign circumstances. Or one cannot start as a Paladin in a barbarian culture. Or a Wizard. In addition, there are technology and equipment restrictions, based on culture and region. There are also specialized Prestige Classes that I have designed that are culture and region-specific.

I think that using spells, skills, feats, and so on, are far more interesting for example, than coming up with a hard-wired racial sub-variant for every possible terrain and climate. There are no stat-different "Desert Elves" in my campaign. I just give them a sunburn, and some different skills, and culture. However, such a group of elves is simply a group of high elves, or wood elves, adapted to the harsh desert environment.

Not that I'm unduly bashing FR, for there are some cool things in FR, but the trend of a different elf/dwarf/halfling/gnome for every season and climate is just too,....contrived to me.

My world has strong non-human races and cultures, but most of which, are outnumbered by humans. I have a dozen different *African* human cultures, three or four *Near-Eastern* cultures, eight different *European* type cultures, and probably six-eight *Asian* cultures in the immediate campaign environment. These are predominantly human, but that doesn't mean that various non-human groups cannot be influenced or adapt different human cultures. Thus, you see overlap in many areas: The humans and elves in the Celtic areas have much in common, as do elves, humans, and dwarves have in the far north, and so on.

How's that, Joshua?

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

 

[SHARK]

Greetings!

I also detail Orc cultures in different ways, as well. I develop Orcs so that they can adapt to different cultures, in forming their own regional kingdoms. It makes them more interesting.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

 

[kenjib]

LOL Shark. I don't know how you do it. I think you are really four or five people. Either that or you are independently wealthy/retired and don't have to work. You certainly don't have kids. That's for sure!

 

[SHARK]

Greetings!

Hey Kenjib! (Shark waves!) No, I don't have kids. I stay busy trying to get my degrees, and in between, I work on the campaign. I drink lots of coffee!

What do you think of my cultural variations on elves?

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

 

[SHARK]

*BUMP*

 

[ThenHeCame]

Thats a huge amount of work SHARK. I'm just green

 

[hong]

Anyone hazard a guess why they don't appear?

Because D&D is not and has never been meant to simulate myth, one-note wonders like mmadsen notwithstanding. In the 1E DMG, ColPladoh lists the various sources that were inspirations for the game. Vance, Leiber, REH, ERB, Haggard, Anderson, Tolkien all get a mention. Bullfinch's Mythology does not, IIRC.

 

[Tonguez]

if you use the standard fantasy convention that different races can interbreed, after a sufficient period of time, the majority of the population should be halfbreeds, and there would be very few pure-blooded individuals left.

IMC Humans are the dominant group and both half-elves and half-orcs are 'human'. Half-orcs are considered a 'deginerate' form and Half-elves are 'half-fae'.

Gnomes are the major small race (and stand 15 inches tall fully grown) with their spellcasting emphasised (+2 int +2 wis -2 Str).

NO Dwarves, Modified Halflings and Elves (see below)

Main Monster races include Goblins, Ogres -both 'standard' and giants (same stats, higher int and friendlier) and Sahuagin. Lizardmen are found or soem of the more distant islands and trolls are fiends (offspring of the gods of disease and insanity) who occasionally emerge to wreak havoc.

Mortal Half-trolls are also known on some islands, are often spellusing cannibalistic beings with various abilities other than regeneration (eg I have a group of female trolls who can swallow anything whole and have a froghemoth like prehensile tongue, another group have bodies protected by sharp boney protrusions)

Halflings are fae with the ghosttouch ability - they can 'touch incorpreal/ethereal objects and use them (including the ability to use the 'form/shadow' of something as if it were the physical objects). However material objects are too heavy for them to lift. Halflings gain a +2ecl for their efforts

Elves are Sidhelike fae and gain Obscuring mist, Gaseous form and tree stride abilities rather than Sleep deprevation and a NPC status (a +4ECL)

 

[Bob Aberton]

My campaign world is post-Arthurian Avalon, so its very Celtic in nature.
Elves are a race of Fey who live in a huge forest ruled by the Lady of the Lake, a Galadriel-like figure. They are small, brown-skinned, black-haired, and have some magic, like the Gnome's innate cantrips.
Dwarves are very Norse in flavor, they speak a language that it a conglomeration of Old English and various Scandinavian languages. They live underground in different clans. Lots of variation between clans.
Orcs...aren't. They are replaced hobgoblins, who are a bigger breed of the same thing (Unseligh Elves).
Halflings are very hobbit-ish as presented in JRR Tolkiens books (comfort loving homebodies).
Gnomes are the "Little People" of legend. They are mischievous and light-hearted, they enjoy playing tricks. Still, they know many things and secrets that the Big People have forgotten, and they are wiser than they look.
There are many different kinds of people, from Viking like people of the north, to a matriarchal Arab society in the south. They gain regional feats and skills.

 

[Larry Fitz]

"Paint the Sky"

If any of you have read the "Twin Crowns" setting you see yet another variation. We have some unique races (Shallorians and Kithraas) some modified sub races (Skur, Wild Elves) and a race that can best be described as an amalgam (Khesta, which are sort of a hybrid Gnome/Halfling). There is no right answer. In your world do what works best for you and your players. I would advise against making all the subraces just a different collection of statistics, they have a unique culture and history from the rest of their race. The struggle to maintain that identity in the face of racial homogenization can be interesting storytelling as well, note the various subraces of Halflings in 1st ed AD&D so blatantly taken from Professor Tokien ("Proudfeet!"). At some point in their past these various Halfling sub-races must have lived apart from each other (like Smeagol's people, who certainly did not live in the Shire), during that time the differences developed and may now be lessing with the proximity. The same can be true of several sub-races, it's even possible that several of your world's races are divergences from the same race, perhaps goblins and gnomes are essentially the same race, or Halflings and pixies... the point is that the vast number of races are but tinctures for your pallet... as a friend of mine said, "It's your world, paint the sky!"

"But I don't want to be a thief mommy! I want to be a Paladin of The Maker! Then the other kids will have to do what I say!" -Rumblefoot Curlyhair, a six-year-old Khesta.