Question on fantasy races

[jsears2002]

I just wrote down the references everyone just listed, like Dark Sun, Glorantha, and RIFTS and are going to check them out, one by one, to see what I can find. Will be back after that.

 

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

Reskinning or modifying racial cultures is the easier way to go. A good example imho is the Eberron setting or Dark Sun. They use the standard races, but they're very distinct from the vanilla versions.

Even easier: don't assign cultures based on race. Even if you decide a race's pychology is different from humans' why does that mean they can't have variety and/or share a culture with another race? Create cultures and races independently and then assign the most common racial members to a culture.

Worried this might just exacerbate the problem of "humans with pointy ears"? Then eliminate the pointy-eared humans. Use kobolds and gnolls instead of halflings and orcs. Add some visual variety.

 

[Herobizkit]

I was about to share the same sentiment. World of Warcraft has (presently) 10 playable races, 5 "good" races (human, night elf [physically like Drow, but good and on the surface], dwarf, gnome, Draenei [basically a Tiefling from an alien plane]) and 5 "evil" races (Orcs, Trolls, Blood Elves [evil High elves], Tauren [Minotaurs] and Undead [intelligent Ghouls]).

For me, that's all the racial diversity I need for a decent campaign. Adding Humanoids as serious contenders for land and such instead of your typical snap-snarl-drool-trogdor-smaaaash low-level encounters, you'll find a much more enriching campaign world.

Example? Orcs in WoW are more Klingon-like in demeanor than bestial savages. Trolls are all tropical shamans with Jamaican accents. Tauren are quiet, peaceful First Nations-type people. Blood Elves have they typical world-view of Grey Elves - magic is everything and all races are beneath them, but also have a Paladin class with a dubious power source. The Undead are just tryin' to live life as cursed beings, spoiling nature wherever they go and not giving a damn about it.

Dwarves are (still?) your scottish-accented, beer-swilling warriors but they also like gunpowder. And muskets. And tanks.

Night Elves are all about Nature and protecting it from evil, but they also feel a responsibility to the whole dang world (likely because they are the oldest race of that world) and just want everyone to get along.

Take a stereotype and add your own flavor.

IMC, for example, I embraced the Norse flavor of Dwarves and made them marauders and sailors rather than stonecutters. My Elves are Wild Elves of tropical rain forests, preferring to be Druids and Rangers rather than Mages. Gnomes are a dying race in my world, but are also the go-to sages and scholars IF you can tie one down long enough to talk to one - they always seem to be on the move...

 

[jsears2002]

Thank you for the examples. Those actually helped me to get a clearer picture of what I wanted to attempt with my races!

Now I just have to decide which ones I want.

 

[Herobizkit]

Keep us posted on what you decide.

 

[Afrodyte]

Even easier: don't assign cultures based on race. Even if you decide a race's pychology is different from humans' why does that mean they can't have variety and/or share a culture with another race? Create cultures and races independently and then assign the most common racial members to a culture.

I've been waiting for someone to say this for years.

 

[jsears2002]

Update!

I started looking around for what I thought would be fun, interesting, and different. When looking through the 3.5 Monster Manual (the first one), I ran over the picture of the Hound Archon. Now, I know that in NWN, if you had the right setup, you could summon these and they kicked some ass. In the MM, they have stats for playing an archon. But the stats are way too good, and the level adjustment is +5.

So I think I will be taking the Hound Archon and making a new race out of them. Unsure of dealing with racial stats and abilities, I first pictured them as barbarian/ranger types, possibly being separated into bloodlines. Their fur could be different colors depending on where their packs call home. Possibly tattoos for those in the warrior caste (picturing Blade from Blade Trinity). I think the Alpha Male as leader might be too cliche, but maybe a council of elders - male or female leaders from each pack meet on some regular interval, - or maybe they have a spiritual leader and worship their ancestry.

I ended up going with Elves too. However, instead of putting elves in forests, I will be putting them as city dwellers. There will be some forest homes, but not the majority. My idea here was that during some event, the elves had to make a choice and for that choice they saved themselves from a plague or just annihilation, but lost the connection to the forest. Some of their race still tries to seek atonement, maybe others believe that the elves have grown weak and soft.

I'm dropping Gnomes i believe. I think that they will become an ancient civilization of inventors and mystics who got too crazy with their experiments and research and paid for it in the end. However, Gnomish research and invention brings great leaps in scientific and arcane research. Many groups, from the arcane orders to private collectors pay drop dollar to acquire these items (either to previous owners, adventuring parties, or procurement groups).

With Gnomes gone, dwarves will become the new industrial race. Not just good with fire and anvil, the beginnings of machinery would be right up their alley. I'm not sure how far to take this yet, but I figured with them living the way they do - not under mountains but at least building into the side of them, that they probably find most of the Gnomish equipment.

I don't know about halflings yet. I havent' come up with anything.

Outside of races, I also had an idea about a great kingdom, one where the major races came together, out of some need in the past. The kingdom was formed and was ruled by a great council, with members of each race being involved. After the issue was resolved and many lives saved, the kingdom thrived for a little. Then politics and backwater treaties started to creep in and the whole thing eventually crumbled from its high horse. Maybe people left the city - either in mixed groups to start other towns or individually back to their own racial homes. The ones that stayed eventually fell into small civil war over core issues, and the great army of the city had to intercede to break it up. With the threat eliminated, the army split into two as two Generals had differences of opinion and created two other kingdoms, both of which tried to learn from the mistakes of the previous. One has a monarch while the other has something else.

That is as far as I have gotten. Any comments, suggestions, complaints? I'd love to hear em! You guys are the greatest!

 

[Somebloke]

The important thing about fantasy races is really the only (and even this is debatable) thing you need to do is present some interesting build options for your characters- although human does a good job of presenting plenty on it's own. Other than that you can refluff to your heart's delight. My current campaign is one where all 'races' are humans from different backgrounds (dwarves are peasants or slaves, elves are hunter-gatherers, aasimar were raised in cloisters, etc), and have rough plans for another one whereby all non-humans are a type of planetouched, blessed/cursed/remotely decended from one particular god (most of them would appear entirely human apart from one or two minor differences). Really, this is a game about imagination, and the DM needs a bit of inspiration too!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I started looking around for what I thought would be fun, interesting, and different. When looking through the 3.5 Monster Manual (the first one), I ran over the picture of the Hound Archon. Now, I know that in NWN, if you had the right setup, you could summon these and they kicked some ass. In the MM, they have stats for playing an archon. But the stats are way too good, and the level adjustment is +5.

So I think I will be taking the Hound Archon and making a new race out of them. Unsure of dealing with racial stats and abilities, I first pictured them as barbarian/ranger types, possibly being separated into bloodlines. Their fur could be different colors depending on where their packs call home. Possibly tattoos for those in the warrior caste (picturing Blade from Blade Trinity). I think the Alpha Male as leader might be too cliche, but maybe a council of elders - male or female leaders from each pack meet on some regular interval, - or maybe they have a spiritual leader and worship their ancestry.

I ended up going with Elves too. However, instead of putting elves in forests, I will be putting them as city dwellers. There will be some forest homes, but not the majority. My idea here was that during some event, the elves had to make a choice and for that choice they saved themselves from a plague or just annihilation, but lost the connection to the forest. Some of their race still tries to seek atonement, maybe others believe that the elves have grown weak and soft.

I'm dropping Gnomes i believe. I think that they will become an ancient civilization of inventors and mystics who got too crazy with their experiments and research and paid for it in the end. However, Gnomish research and invention brings great leaps in scientific and arcane research. Many groups, from the arcane orders to private collectors pay drop dollar to acquire these items (either to previous owners, adventuring parties, or procurement groups).

With Gnomes gone, dwarves will become the new industrial race. Not just good with fire and anvil, the beginnings of machinery would be right up their alley. I'm not sure how far to take this yet, but I figured with them living the way they do - not under mountains but at least building into the side of them, that they probably find most of the Gnomish equipment.

I don't know about halflings yet. I havent' come up with anything.

Outside of races, I also had an idea about a great kingdom, one where the major races came together, out of some need in the past. The kingdom was formed and was ruled by a great council, with members of each race being involved. After the issue was resolved and many lives saved, the kingdom thrived for a little. Then politics and backwater treaties started to creep in and the whole thing eventually crumbled from its high horse. Maybe people left the city - either in mixed groups to start other towns or individually back to their own racial homes. The ones that stayed eventually fell into small civil war over core issues, and the great army of the city had to intercede to break it up. With the threat eliminated, the army split into two as two Generals had differences of opinion and created two other kingdoms, both of which tried to learn from the mistakes of the previous. One has a monarch while the other has something else.

That is as far as I have gotten. Any comments, suggestions, complaints? I'd love to hear em! You guys are the greatest!

I like the idea of Gnomes as Atlanteans...or, as was put in a song by The Sword, Hyper-Zephyrians- they still have that identity as inventors, but in your world, they took things too far.

(The Sword - Fire Lances Of The Ancient Hyperzephyrians Lyrics)

You often see fantasy/horror/sci-fi settings in which the ancient and extinct masters of technology were large, and you're standing that trope on its head.

The decadent elves remind me of Michael Moorcock's Melniboneans.

As for your modified Hound Archons, may I suggest dyed fur instead of tattoos?

 

[Mallus]

Even if you decide a race's pychology is different from humans' why does that mean they can't have variety and/or share a culture with another race?

The simple answer is "because you can only ask your audience to remember so much". Elves and aliens tend to have monocultures (or an unreasonable small number of cultures) because there's only so much fictional ethnography a reader/player can take before it all blurs together and you lose any meaningful distinction.

There's a tendency among SF/F readers to want to "learn the world" (cultures, histories, technologies, magics, etc.). This helps explains all the infodumps found in SF/F. Somewhat paradoxically, this necessitates the fictional worlds they read about to be small enough to be known. Authors/setting-creators often need to simplify things. Sometimes painfully so.

Put crudely, Vulcans can have either have one distinct racial culture or no distinct culture at all.

Create cultures and races independently and then assign the most common racial members to a culture.

This is a great suggestion. You can have a small number of cultures made up of a many races, which aren't themselves culturally distinct.

Though, while I'm not usually one to bring up... ahem... realism, not all cultures are big, multi-, heterogenous affairs.

Worried this might just exacerbate the problem of "humans with pointy ears"?

FYI, "humans with pointy ears" isn't a problem, it's an admirable and hard to achieve goal. Most authors/DM's should be so lucky that their elves and aliens approach the depth, complexity, and, most importantly, relevance of everyday people.