Races

[Eosin the Red]

So, I am working up my setting and getting many of the final details worked out (when not playing RPG) when I started thinking about races. I am getting ready to get some more artwork commisioned but got stumped on the style to go with. Near as I can tell there are 4 styles of Races in Fiction.

1. The Star Wars Style - wierd, nothing like humans in looks.
2. The Star Trek/Babylon 5 Style - human with slight variations but occasional races that are somewhat out there. Mainly thinking about Cardassians, Klingons, Mimbari, & Narn types with very little Pak Mara or floating energy beings.
3. The Tolkien Breed - You know Orcs, Trolls, Elves, and Dwarves.
4. The D&D Style - everything in the MM, tally hooo!!!

Personally, I am leaning towards style number 2. The problem is figuring out what stylistic changes have occured and why they did occur.

What says the crowd?

 

[DragonLancer]

When it comes to D&D I prefer the standard races as presented in the PHB. Lets call it option 3. Depending on how you have designed your world and its attitudes you could a couple new races (say, lizardfolk) but I would stay away from anything that replaces the Half-Orc. You only need one door-opener race.

 

[Eosin the Red]

I want to clarify a little...

When I say races what I really mean is opponents other than animal types. FREX: A minotaur is a unique creature in mythology but there are dozens of them in most D&D worlds, if not an entire race.

This is what we did for minotaurs --- Minotaur Mythology

I am not allowed to cross paste - sorry.

As you can see, we turned them from a unique mythological creature into a race with a cognizant backstory [not air tight]. We have similar type of stories for some of the other creatures that we want to use but now I am wondering if outside of the human core we shold protray things as style 1,2,3, or 4.

Does that make a little more sense?

 

[Sniktch]

Really I prefer style 1 to 2 I think, but I've always been much more of a Star Wars fan than Star Trek or B5. If you're talking opponents, though, I like as big a mix as possible and would pick #4.

 

[ForceUser]

After 20 years of D&D I find the standard races (including humans) to be boring. As a DM lately I have offered the option of playing certain low-powered monstrous humanoids from the MM, such as lizardfolk. As a player I try to veer away from the usual, the boring, the mundane as much as I am allowed. I would love to run a completely alien campaign sometime with no humans or elves etc. provided I can get my players to go for it.

 

[Dogbrain]

4. The D&D Style - everything in the MM, tally hooo!!!

The D&D style for races is actually "humans in very thin makeup", if you look at how they are all played and portrayed.

 

[Turanil]

The D&D style for races is actually "humans in very thin makeup", if you look at how they are all played and portrayed.

I would say the same of most Star-Wars / Star-trek / or B5 races...

As for the question, before choosing 1, 2, 3, or 4, I would like to know what this campaign world is going to be: science-fiction? weird high fantasy? traditional medieval fantasy?

 

[pdkoning]

1. The Star Wars Style - wierd, nothing like humans in looks.
2. The Star Trek/Babylon 5 Style - human with slight variations but occasional races that are somewhat out there. Mainly thinking about Cardassians, Klingons, Mimbari, & Narn types with very little Pak Mara or floating energy beings.
3. The Tolkien Breed - You know Orcs, Trolls, Elves, and Dwarves.
4. The D&D Style - everything in the MM, tally hooo!!!

Personally, I am leaning towards style number 2. The problem is figuring out what stylistic changes have occured and why they did occur.

What says the crowd?

I would go with 3 combined with a bit of 4. In a campaign setting I am creating, there are Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, Gnomes - all standard so far, but also Kobolds, Dryads, Faun and Catth (Cat-like). I think a few 'exotic' races gives your setting an extra finishing touch. (As long as they fit in the setting of course)

 

[ForceUser]

The D&D style for races is actually "humans in very thin makeup", if you look at how they are all played and portrayed.

Obviously, a game is limited in that respect by how well the players can portray the uniqueness of alien cultures. This isn't easy. One of my GMs, unwilling to watch his players play demihumans who act exactly like humans, has outlawed non-human races altogther in favor of a wider range of human ethinicities based on real-world groups. I suppose in his mind it's more acceptable for someone to screw up playing an Italian than to screw up playing a dwarf

In any event, I'm in the opposite camp, meaning that I don't expect every character to be portrayed as well as Orlando Bloom's Legolas and John-Rhys Davies' Gimli. As long as players are enjoying their characters and putting effort into their role-playing, I can accept less-than-perfect renditions of non-human cultures.