Races of Destiny

[Filby]

(I forget which world has them as a separate race that only breeds true amongst themselves - I like that idea a lot)

There might have been another of which I'm unaware, but that concept was practiced in the fully online "Red Steel" campaign setting. It was set on the planet Mystara, but in the "mainstream" Mystara setting ("the Known World"), elves and humans were simply infertile. Red Steel was set in a very magic-rich region, which may be the reason it was possible.

Of course, in a Mystara-themed article in Dragon Magazine, we are introduced to a race of half-elf/half-ogres. Go figure.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Who needs 'em?

Half-breeds seem superfluous. Though I would like to see a "Races of Blood" or something on the Goblinoids/orcs.......I'd looooooooove to run or play in a goblinoid-centered campaign at some point (goblin rogues, hobgoblin fighters, bugbear rangers, blue psions, orcish barbarians.....mmmmmmmm)

 

[Olive]

whoever it is doesn't seem to be aware that TSR's not around anymore.

WotC's DnD books are given numbers with TSR in the front. While Wizard's themselves don't list them, I get updates from a retailer in Australia with the product numbers, and they always begin TSR.

So the rumour may or may not be true, but the fact that the RPGNow people are givng numbers with TSR on them is a point in it's favour, not against.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

I don't get the relation between "Destiny" and half-breeds... Could someone of a higher cognitive faculty point it out for me please?

 

[Dark Jezter]

Who needs 'em?

Half-breeds seem superfluous. Though I would like to see a "Races of Blood" or something on the Goblinoids/orcs.......I'd looooooooove to run or play in a goblinoid-centered campaign at some point (goblin rogues, hobgoblin fighters, bugbear rangers, blue psions, orcish barbarians.....mmmmmmmm)

IIRC, Forrester (who no longer posts on these forums) had a story hour a long time ago where the PCs were goblins and kobolds fighting against genocidal elves.

It's something that might be fun to try out myself someday.

 

[kuje31]

There might have been another of which I'm unaware, but that concept was practiced in the fully online "Red Steel" campaign setting. It was set on the planet Mystara, but in the "mainstream" Mystara setting ("the Known World"), elves and humans were simply infertile. Red Steel was set in a very magic-rich region, which may be the reason it was possible.

If two half-elves in the Realms breed they also make another half-elf.

 

[Orius]

If you were a big bad ogre, would you want to have sex with some puny human?

Well, some people are into midget sex, maybe it's something similar with some ogres.

 

[Vocenoctum]

Eh. I've always found the idea of half-human races kinda dumb. Are humans just the hoochies of the multiverse or something?

At least I can understand humans. How do they explain all the half-dragons though?

I mean, tyranosaurus half red dragons? how drunk was that red dragon?

 

[arscott]

Note that there's no official source offered for this announcement, and whoever it is doesn't seem to be aware that TSR's not around anymore.

TSR is part of the Retail order number, which is a series of three letters followed by as string of numbers (Which you'll also find on the spine of the books, IIRC). Wizards continues to use the TSR designation for its roleplaying book order numbers, but it does use WTC for its ccg games.

 

[Deadguy]

Well, humans make for about 90% of the population of humanoids. That might explain some of it. Moreover since humans are so diverse and have such wide array of preferences, I don't see why there couldn't be humans who'd jump at the chance to mate with an orc, for example. Especially since the offspring will turn out super strong.

In my Shatterd World campaign I very deliberately included an innkeep and wife who were a Human male and an Orc female. I might've played it a bit for laughs, making him a rather small and timid man, and her a big brute who was a little simple. But I was told that it really came across that they genuinely loved each other very deeply.

I included it as a moral example, in a town divided over the place of Orcs that had once been slaves (and had been released by the intervention of a powerful adventurer Wizard who was morally opposed to slavery). But it also made players see what Shakespeare described best in A Midsummer Night's Dream:

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind.
Therefore is wingèd Cupid painted blind.
Nor hath love's mind of judgement's taste
Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste!

I like the idea that in a multiracial world there will be loves formed that defy convention, and that in a magical world, blessed by the Gods, those unions will produce offspring freely.