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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 9848830" data-attributes="member: 6790260">1. Human, aka "wanderfolk". Variants: Earthfast (all IRL humans, default option), Starbound (elan, slann, Gallifreyans, Kryptonians, Kalashtar, etc.), and Dual-Blooded (those with one human parent and one other ancestry parent).2. Elves, aka "feyfolk". Variants: Sun, Moon, Star, Void (read: "high" elf/eladrin, "wood" elf, drow, and shadar-kai).3. Dwarves, aka "stoutfolk". Variants: Gold/mountain, Copper/steppe, Tin/ocean, Iron/cavern (aka underdark).4. Dragonborn, aka "scalefolk". Variants: "Imperial"/urban, Badlands/desert, Jungle/forest, Coastal/aquatic.5. Forgeborn, aka "metalfolk". Variants: Guardian, Envoy, Archivist, Sower.6. Halflings, aka "hinnfolk" (my blend of halfling and gnome). Variants: Lightfoot, Stoutheart, Cragstep, Ghostwise.7. Orcs, aka "wildfolk" (my goblinoid catch-all). Variants: Orc, Firbolg, Hobgoblin(/Goblin), Bugbear.8. Planetouched, aka "pithfolk" (made from the "pith" of other planes). Variants: Aasimar/Deva, Tiefling, Genasi, Scatha* (feywild/shadowfell).9. Tyrians, aka "beastfolk". Variants: Whiskered, Hooved, Scaled, Feathered. (The word Tier means animal/beast in German; shifting to "Tyrian" implies nobility and uprightness, a fun contrast with their feral implications.)10. Verdants, aka "greenfolk". Variants: Dryad, Wilden, Floran, Saguaran.11. Satyrs, aka "revelfolk". Variants: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter.12. Shifters, aka "werefolk". Variants: Wolf, Bear, Lion, Rat.With this set, you cover damn near every typical option somewhere. Loxodon? A type of Hooved Tyrian. (Elephants are, after all, ungulates!) All the "mix of human and other" tidied up nicely, with players deciding what it means to their character, and opening the door in the future for dual-blooded of any two ancestries, not just that.I feel quite confident that these being offered as the core playable species would ensure that almost nobody ever needed anything else. The only other categories I can think of beyond this are undead (esp. vampire/dhampir), metamorphs (changelings, ooze-people, sapient mimics, shardminds, that sort of thing), and insectoids (like Thri-kreen).Nearly everything else cab be covered with the above categories. I will admit to a special fondness for plant-people and satyrs, even though neither of them is super popular/commonplace and I don't even personally feel like playing them all that much. I just really like them and think they're very thematic. I already have concepts for the Undead too, namely, "soulfolk": Vampire, Revenant, Skeleton, Ghost. Metamorphs, aka "meltfolk": Changeling, Plasmoid, Mimic, ??? (still thinking on the fourth--suggestions?) And then Chitinoids, aka ???? (not sure yet): Bee, Ant, Spider, Moth.Nearly everything else can then be implemented over time as specialized/bespoke/variant instances of the other stuff above. E.g. Yuan-ti? A specialized variant of a Scaled Tyrian. I suppose one could argue that satyrs are also kinda-sorta a form of Tyrian, but I personally see them as distinct, a type of fey being tied to celebration and ritual rather than to the land proper. So, with the three additional categories of Undead, Metamorphs, and Chitinoids added in major supplement books, you've got an extremely solid, diverse framework that covers tons of things intentionally well, and a wide variety of things at least loosely, enough that well-equipped GMs should be able to hammer out their preferred implementation of more out-there options if needed.*This is derived from the Irish Gaelic word for "mirror". That is, Scatha are those whose "pith" comes from the mirror planes, Feywild and Shadowfell.Edit: I will also add that this assumes that we keep 5e's thing of allowing most (if not all?) playable races to decide whether they are Medium or Small. E.g. small-size Dragonborn or Scaled Tyrian = "kobold", small-size Hobgoblin = "goblin", etc.Also, I might actually have found my fourth and final human variant, namely, Goliath/giant-kin/etc. Quite common in fantasy media to have regular ol' humans and then also BIG STONKIN' humans that are seen as different but not stigmatized for being so (e.g. Everquest's "Barbarian" race, GW2's norns, FFXIV's roegadyn, etc.) Not sure yet...I'll have to keep thinking on it.</blockquote>

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