Non-Human Centered Campaigns

[Nahat Anoj]

I've posted this on RPG.net, but I think it would be cool transcendent to post it here as well.

Three of my coworkers have expressed interest in playing D&D - one is an experienced player, one has some experience with the Balder's Gate game, and one is essentially a newcomer who has long been interested in playing but only wanted to play with people she knows and likes. Her sister, who is not a coworker of mine, has also expressed interest in playing. All four are women, which by itself is something of a novelty - I've never been in a group where four women showed interest in playing D&D at the same time. We'll probably get another player or two to join.

The experienced player and the newcomer want to play Elves - the former a Rogue, the other a Ranger. The newcomer's sister wants to play an Eladrin Warlock. I don't know what the Balder's Gate player wants yet - she has showed interest in Half-Elves, but she is going to look over Races & Classes and see if anything else interests her.

If the party is mostly Elves, I think I'm going to do something I haven't done before and start out the campaign in a non-Human dominated area. I'm thinking an Elven tree community, maybe borrowing elements of Lothlorien from Middle-Earth and Ashenvale from WoW. Indeed, I have to thank WoW in part for this idea - while I know it is trivially easy to play any edition of D&D in a non-Human area, I never really took to the idea until I played WoW. In that game, the various cities of the various races are the focal points for many race-specific quests - perhaps I lack creativity, but I never thought of doing that before (personally, I think it was more my assumption the D&D *had* to be humanocentric and some degree of condescension at the idea of it being otherwise, which I now believe to be unwarranted IMO)

I already have an idea for an overarching quest line, but I think I'm going to buy Corwyl, village of the Wood Elves, a product published by Green Ronin. That may give me some more ideas.

So I'd like to hear some other people's ideas about having a predominantly non-Human campaign, or at least one where Humans play a much smaller role than they traditionally had. It could either be ideas you've done in the past, or ideas you have with the current crop of 4e races.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

I plan on creating a somewhat Earth-like setting one day. Where it is just Tieflings, Humans and Dragonborn.

The Humans are the majority race, but they do not hold power, they are commonly merchants, farmers, accountants, etc.

The Tieflings rule over their vast Roman Empire. They live a debauchores lifestyle with little what we would consider ethics. Many Dragonborn are enslaved by the Tieflings for their armies and for servants.

Dragonborn rule over the smaller Egyptian empire, while they do not take Tiefling slaves they are extremely hostile towards them.

War is almost inevitable between the two empires.

 

[DandD]

Try the "Points of Light"-campaign idea that the game designers suggest. Humans exist, but aren't the dominant species at that world, and neither are elves, eladrins, dwarves, dragonborn, halflings or tieflings. The last big empire has just crumbled some hundred years ago, and all lies in ruin. Time for your possible all-non-human party to wander around and encounter tons of new exotic locations, places, landscapes, and other races living in their sheltered communities, while all around outside, monsters and other dangers lurk.

 

[Nahat Anoj]

Try the "Points of Light"-campaign idea that the game designers suggest. Humans exist, but aren't the dominant species at that world, and neither are elves, eladrins, dwarves, dragonborn, halflings or tieflings. The last big empire has just crumbled some hundred years ago, and all lies in ruin. Time for your possible all-non-human party to wander around and encounter tons of new exotic locations, places, landscapes, and other races living in their sheltered communities, while all around outside, monsters and other dangers lurk.

Oh, I most certainly will use PoL. I love the basic setting assumptions, gods, etc. It's just that the way things are shaping up, I'm thinking of having the starting town be Elf-centric as opposed to Human-centric. I've never done that before .

 

[Magus Coeruleus]

If you end up with an all or mostly elf group I highly recommend you check out OD&D GAZ5 The Elves of Alfheim and mine it for ideas. I tentatively plan to run an all-elf campaign set there (a version thereof, rather) if/when I start a 4e game there. I'd be happy to share ideas if applicable, e.g. on integrating concepts like the Feywild, class restrictions/variations/etc.

 

[Khuxan]

Many Dragonborn are enslaved by the Tieflings for their armies and for servants.

That's interesting - my planned campaigns typically also have dragonborn enslaved by tieflings.

And eladrin are either overlords of the elves, or the elven nobles that abandoned their kindred hundreds of years ago and still believe they have a right to rule the elves.

 

[arscott]

Ooh. What if your campaign takes place mostly within the Feywild?

 

[Graf]

The question, the fundimental question, is really how different you want your elves to be?

Are they basically just long lived pretty looking humans?
Are they different? If so how?

If you're not sure, instead of trying to make all of this up talk to the players about "what being an elf" means to them.

 

[Derro]

The question, the fundimental question, is really how different you want your elves to be?

Are they basically just long lived pretty looking humans?
Are they different? If so how?

If you're not sure, instead of trying to make all of this up talk to the players about "what being an elf" means to them.

What he said.

There is some pretty good elf literature out there. It may not all jibe with your vision of 4e but it's good to mine everywhere.

-3.5e Races of the Wild has some decent elf stuff
-3e Races of Faerun as well
-2e Complete Book of Elves, broken mechanically but not without some interesting elf-flavor
-Anything Elfquest, from comic to game. Again maybe not your cup of tea as it is rather a different envisioning of elvish culture than base-line D&D.
-Quite a few 3rd part 3e elf books. I believe both Green Ronin and Mongoose released a book. Might be more crunch than you want if you'll be using them with 4e though.
-OD&D Elves of Alfheim as somebody mentioned above is pretty good. Very conceptual as to D&D elves and took them that much further from their Tolkienesque roots.
-Anything Dragonlance with a good amount of elf culture might be inspirational. It might just be my memory playing tricks but I seem to remember getting a very distinct impression of how different elves are from humans from Krynnish works on the subject.

Here at Wikipedia is their collected link of fictional elf stubs.

I've played the all elf campaign a few times. Of course it was always drow... Maybe not the route you want to take with an inexperienced, mainly female group. Might be a bit harsh.

 

[theskyfullofdust]

I once played an all dwarf-party campaign, based in the mountains and the underdark; using mining, exploration, rescue mission type quests.

You could also borrow from literature for more elf-ideas: Feist's Rift War saga, and Brook's elves in his Shannara books (although there're little different from humans really, just more magical).