Races of YOUR World

[Kwalish Kid]

I'll use my first campaign of the new edition to test out everything I can. That is, I intend to include all the PHB races, probably sticking more or less to the fluff presented in the book.

Oh, but I'll probably also find a place for gnomes and some other PC races from the MM, too.

I'm going to try to include every single playable monster from the MM. Heck, I don't care if I get an entire party of monsters!

 

[Aristotle]

I'm going to be inferring as much of the PoL as possible, but I've given a little thought to this.

Humans
My setting revolves around a city-state founded by a traditional western-fantasy human culture from across the sea a couple of hundred years ago. The human empire was strong then, but has since shrunk back to it's homeland leaving the inhabitants that chose to stay in the distant city-states that the empire had founded all over the world on their own. Some of these other cities continue to thrive as well.

Dwarves
Dwarves come from the "old world" as well. Many of them came along with the humans (I'm thinking a 3 to 5 ratio with humans). The dwarves will have an eastern-european flavor, though I'm hoping to keep these flavors subtle enough to not be too obvious.

Elves
Elves also come from the "old world", long distanced from their homelands (which may just end up being on this new continent. They are far fewer in number (I'm thinking a 1 to 10 ratio with humans) and most of them have left the city to build homes for themselves in the nearby wilderness. Half elves will be fairly more common, but largely less accepted by the elves (who now see interbreeding as a threat to the existence of their race) than the humans.

Orcs
Are also from the "old world" and very few came along due to their position as the primary antagonists back home. I'm guessing a ratio of like 1 to 50 with the humans. They will be stereotypical klingons, but my exposure to klingons and orcs in Shadowrun cause me to have less issues with interbreeding... half orcs will be present, although even more uncommon than their orc parents.

Everything Else
The "new world" where the city is placed is a much larger continent, and in a much warmer section of the world. Halflings are in the "new world". They are a primitive people dwelling in floating villages in the swamps, and the friendliest culture in close proximity to the city. Goblins, kobolds, and other monstrous races are sure to be represented as tribal cultures in the mountains and rainforests that surround the city.

The savanna, and desert biomes beyond the rainforest will be home to all manner of previously unknown cultures (based on real world cultures from similar biomes). Some of them make use of the human city as the only real point of trade to and from cultures (some just as unknown) on other continents. The dragonborn and tiefling are sure to be among these. Some of them will be hostile towards the human "invasion." This will also be my outlet for bringing in new power sources, races, and monsters as new product is released.

As the light of human reign dies in the old world, this city in an untamed land is quickly becoming the center of commerce world-wide. The old world, the new world, and all of those other struggling city states littering islands and small continents around the world have become dependent on this important (but vulnerable) city.

 

[Daniel D. Fox]

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[cignus_pfaccari]

I think mine were humans, elves, dwarves, goliaths, and tieflings, though eladrin and dragonborn are easily doable.

I just hope there can be half-dragon dragons in 4e. *Mine* came out of breeding vats, in a nod to "OMGWTFBBQ if a red and a gold have babies they're stronger?" And they had two sets of wings, too, one of the original color, and one of the half- color.

Brad

 

[Jackelope King]

WOW! So, what's with all the water? What happened?

Short version: nobody knows for sure.

Long version: depends on who you ask.

The priesthood holds that mankind existed like beasts out on islands in the Endless Sea until the Seven Saints appeared and lead humanity to enlightenment and salvation on the large island of Mideros. The Endless Sea has always been and always will be, but humanity can achieve peace and happiness if they follow the teachings of the Seven Saints.

The nobles most accept the priesthood's version, only adding that the Seven Saints gave their blessing to a dynasty of kings before they ascended to the heavens. After the death of the Last King, the various noble lineages split off from one another. Some nobles also hold that their bloodlines extend back past the founding of Mideros, and that the Last King's Dynasty stretches back to before the arrival of the Seven Saints. The nobles also believe that there may be a vast continent of dry land somewhere far across the Endless Sea, at a place they say is Where Horizons End.

The exiles claim that the priesthood and their worship of false gods caused the world to be flooded with the Endless Sea. Alternatively, they believe that the priesthood knows that the Endless Sea is not, in fact, eternal, and that once there were many smaller seas.

The Guild of Iron ventures dangerous close to the exiles' blaspheme and claims that the sea may indeed be a recent creation, and that a proper application of Guild technology could allow Mideros to pump out the sea and build a series of dikes to expand the size of their island and claim what they believe to be fertile soil beneath the waves.

The gypsies believe that the world is endlessly in flux between ocean and dry, and that one day, their homeland on the hill will again be on dry land. According to the gypsies, every thousand years, the world rises and falls above and below a thick sheet of water. When it falls, the world floods and the Endless Sea emerges. When it rises, the sea vanishes back underground, leaving behind only smaller seas.

The Maltisians tell a story about how the spirits who guard their people saw the Maltisian Ogres enslave their people and wept for a hundred years, flooding the world with the Endless Sea to trap the cruel Maltisian Ogres forever on their islands. The Maltisians also believe that some day the waters will part "wide enough for a man but too narrow for an ogre to pass" and that the Maltisians will escape to freedom.

Meta-Version: It allows me to run the equivalent of planar adventures of journeying into increasingly weird and otherworldly islands (such as Bloodmoon Island, where the moon seems to weep blood at night, or the Cliffs of Insanity, whose obsidian-black surfaces are said to devour the souls of airship mariners who see their reflections in them) without needing to rely upon planes-hopping spells. Just climb aboard and airship and sail. The monsters get stranger and more terrible the farther out you go, and you never need to leave the Endless Sea to do it.

 

[I'm A Banana]

So I let players play what they like, and then retro-engineer the world to include those races, plus whatever I feel I need for plot reasons.

This is my preferred method. Still, sometimes it gets supplanted by a setting. So in Planescape, I'm playing Planetouched (a broad category that includes tieflings, aasmar, nil, chaonds, zenythri, astara, aethera, genasi, etc.), Githyanki, Githzerai, Bariaur, Exiles (a broad category that includes rogue modrons, reformed slaadi, risen fiends, fallen celestials, etc.), humans, the core races, the psionic races, and whatever else the PC's desire to toss at me. In Oathbound, I'm playing dovers and silvers and frey and psychic jellyfish and airship-flying jackal-fiends and pretty much whatever sle the PC's desire to toss at me. In Dark Sun, I'm mostly human, with some athasian elves, or muls, or half-giants. In Ravenloft, I'm pretty much human. In OA, maybe I'm Nezumi or Hengyokai. In Northern Crown, I'm more about nation than about race.

I like the challenge of synthesizing a coherent world from whatever the PC's desire to be. I still have fond memories of my bugbear/haze/pixie/human campaign.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

I am thinking for my campaign after this one of doing something similar. I have the base-races of my world. But any race they throw at me I want to see how I bend and twist it into a somewhat primitive, Ancient Egyptian kinda of feel, like my other races.

 

[IanB]

I've been toying around with a sort of 'reverse colonization' sort of idea, where the PC races are happily living in a New World type area and some technologically superior ones come sailing across the ocean and start colonizing their area. I'm not 100% sure where I want to set things like the technology level of the various sides, etc., but I know that I will probably have the different 'tribes' in the new world - and the different nations colonizing them all represented with different races. I'm not going to go for any 1:1 mapping of real world culture:fantasy race as I think that would be a little too much, but you might see the human tribe being coastal/archipelago fishermen who bear the brunt of the initial problems when the dragonborn discovery fleet arrives from overseas, while the elf hunter-gatherers in the less rich nearby jungle area are less impacted, and the fabled dwarven 'cities of gold' are what drives hobgoblin explorers into the hinterlands, whatever. Something like that.

My initial thoughts are something like this for a break-down of where people are:

"Native" races/tribal groups:

human
tiefling ("lost" tribe of humans or something probably)
dwarf
elf
half-elf (maybe, maybe not)
halfling (dark sun-ish maybe?)
goliath?
shifter?

"Invader" races/major nations:

dragonborn (the most colonization-oriented nation)
hobgoblins et. al. (the most plunder-oriented nation)
kobolds (the most trade-oriented nation)
gith? I want a 4th group I think, 4 makes for a good number, and this could be the 'religious conversion' focused group?


And then stuff like orcs and gnolls might appear as servants, slaves, or mercenaries for the others but wouldn't have a major on-screen presence. Maybe one of the invader groups has invented the warforged? And of course, there would be pirates.

The feywild/shadowfell thing could be reinvented as the "spirit world" or some such.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Hmm... I know you don't want to copy real-life cultures but the Feywild becoming "Spirit World" idea got me wondering if perhaps the Elves could have a connection to this Spirit World, and so have Spirit-Animal totems or Animal-Gods. Perhaps some of them could even exhibit more animalistic characteristics.

 

[Mercule]

Assuming I upgrade the setting that's served me since 1E (and it's a coin-flip, ATM, but not because of 4E):

Humans: I strongly prefer humans to be the baseline, and it shows. Humans cover the vast majority of the planet, come in all sort of races (as on Terra), and have too many states to enumerate here. A lot of the 4E "Races and Classes" bits sound like they'll port well with only minor flavor changes.

Eladrin: Long called grey elves, the eladrin are celestially touched. They are without souls, but their spirits are reincarnated when they die. Grey elves are magically talented, but their predisposition to isolationism (their nation is set far from human lands) has kept them somewhat static, as a race.

Elves: Almost a forgotten race, the elves are a splinter sect of a splinter sect (that middle group may fall into either elf or eladrin, I'll have to wait for the book). The elven race lived near humans and eventually fell prey to their wars. The wood elves have spent most of the last half-millennium in slavery to a despotic empire. Those who have escaped live at the borders of the empire, seeking to free their families. The once peaceful race has turned more martial and territorial -- rarely do outsiders survive long enough to realize they've entered elf territory.

Dwarves: Dwarves fall into two nations. The first is a religious people deeply dedicated to their gods. They have reputations as hard workers, masters of any craftwork (especially smithing and masonry), and folk who prefer to be left alone.

The second, more northern, nation have fallen away from (or been forsaken by -- depending on whom you ask) their ancestral gods. They have retained their pride is craftsmanship, but otherwise tend towards deceit and trickery. They are also known to be expert wizards, though their focus tends toward enchanting items.

Hobgoblins: This is a warrior race. If you are fortunate, you will deal with the Dthek hobgoblins. Their people are honorable, if brutal by human standards. The Dthek still seek to reclaim their desert kingdom from the undead horrors unleashed by a war centuries past and they revere some of the same, benevolent deities as the humans. Other hobgoblins regularly higher themselves out as mercenaries of the highest caliber. While their cost is steep for those seeking their service, it is their targets who pay the highest price, for hobgoblin cruelty is legendary.

Trolls: Not the scraggly green sort that are hard to stop, but a hearty and intelligent race with a tie to the plane of shadow. Trolls are well known shadowcasters, which casts suspicions on their motivations at times. This race has only recently made its presence known and has many secrets.