This is how I run my...

[Kzach]

For me:

Take the underlying concept behind all those examples, i.e. that something turns into another thing because of what it does and what it is, and that's one of the fundamental conceits behind my homebrew setting.

I basically expanded on that concept as the basis for the evolution of all the races and gods and then created a history based on that process spanning a dozen or so thousand years.

 

[Janx]

In my one game Dwarves hate any kind of arcane magic they distrust divine magic. This is because they do not have the ability to cast any kind of magic. They have a burning hated towards gnomes because of their ability to cast magic and have enslaved them.

Similar to my take for a Babylon5 as D&D naval campaign.

The dwarves were the Narn. no magic, hated the gnomes. The gnomes were imperialistic and had enslaved the dwarves in the past. The dwarves didn't have magic because they hadn't been granted such powers from the gods

i think both take the old D&D concept that dwarves can't use magic, but then take that standard and twist it with a different aspect.

 

[Stormonu]

I've been working on my own game system, and tried to come up with some interesting twists for the popular races:

Hyenas are the larval form of gnolls; A gnoll is born into hyena form for 75 years until it evolves into a humanoid form.

Hillenfaey (read: halflings) were minor nature spirits who took humanoid form to experience the pleasures of the flesh

Dwarves don't reproduce by mating; they lierally carve offspring from stone and via a special ritual impart some of their own life force into the carving.

Elves and goblins were formed of the gods (day)dreams and nightmares. Goblins were once as fair as elves, but the darkness in their hearts eventually corrupted to match their black hearts.

I've long had a dragonborn-like race in my game called the Allgalue; they were a space-faring race that fled the destruction of their world and were hunted down for their "black magic" (high technology). For the longest time, they hid themselves among other races via magic, and only recently have begun to throw off the illusions to reveal their true nature once again.

 

[Twichyboy]

For my spelljammer campaign i've made a few changes to the races

-Dwarves cannot use arcane magic, and instead use technology to emulate the other races magic, and thus the dwarves use rifles and cannons with their spelljamming ships

-High Elves are shorter lived then normal elves, have lawful tenancies, and are very imperialistic

 

[Crazy Jerome]

I've played around multiple times with a mix of pseudo-classical elemental theory, fantasy myth and genetics, and vulnerabilities. Usually the point is to link races together that don't normally have a connection.

For example, I once ran a game where trolls, goblins, and elves were are linked at the elemental level (primarily via "wood" through a semi-fey aversion to "cold iron"). This meant that any weapon that was bane for one was equally bane for the rest. Dwarves, being the main race that had to compete with trolls and goblins for room, liked to make "troll-bane" or "goblin-bane" weapons. Naturally, elves didn't like this. But it was the elves running the trolls and goblins out of their natural habitat that made them compete with dwarves in the first places.

Dwarves and most other races had their own vulnerabilities and connections. The big advantage that humans and orcs had over everyone else is that their elemental heritage was so diffuse and muted that they had no special vulnerability. Other races called them "mutts".

BTW, though that has obvious undertones of making something like trolls just a poor misunderstood displaced tribe, it wasn't played that way at all. A lot (though not quite all) of the "displaced" were up to some nasty stuff that needed to be stopped, but the underlying themes caused a lot of Catch-22 situations for the players: Keep the big troll killing axe, or really tick off the elves whose help you need?

I'm playing around with something similar right now for a homebrew, though the effects are a bit more subtle this time (i.e. not deliberately designed to cause massive trouble for the players).

 

[Smoss]

I made a couple of blogs about creatures and races in my world that are different. A lot of it involved turning myths and legends into ordinary creatures. Combining things in a satisfying lore way...

For example, my lizardfolk live in a swamp - this swamp is in a cool area, but kept warm by sulfur springs. So they tend to smell like rotten eggs. A common name for the lizardfolk? Troglodytes.

Wargs and barghests are the same creature. "Gargoyles" are just a large (ugly) falcon species that blends with stone.

And to really frustrate people, I made my dwarves to be stereotypes of germans instead of scots...

For more info:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/blogs/smoss/6429-design-blog-2-creatures-myth-legend.html

http://www.enworld.org/forum/blogs/smoss/6444-design-blog-3-race-alien-our-own.html

Smoss

 

[Rechan]

Take the underlying concept behind all those examples, i.e. that something turns into another thing because of what it does and what it is, and that's one of the fundamental conceits behind my homebrew setting.
.

Well only the Gnolls and the Bugbears change; kobolds are normal. I was just describing their psychology.

Dwarves don't reproduce by mating; they lierally carve offspring from stone and via a special ritual impart some of their own life force into the carving.

I've seen you post this throughout the years and I always dig it. Although man, a gnoll takes 75 years to get its two legs? Harsh.

 

[Kaodi]

What happens when you combine Dungeons & Dragons and the Curious Case of Benjamin Button?

A world where every kobold used to be a dragon, .

 

[Michael Silverbane]

Here lately, I have been sorely tempted to run goblins as gremlins. Fey creatures that exist solely to cause misfortune. Spoil grain, break or weaken built things, poke holes in pockets, rust metal, dig holes in the road to trip up horses (or steal the nails from horse shoes), etc.

Only when they get in big numbers are they a real threat, because they have no reason to fear people, no reason to sneak about. Although it means that bigger monsters have no reason to have goblin foot soldiers, since the buggers are hard to control and would just mess up the bigger monster's stuff.

I think I'm going to steal this for the campaign that I'm just starting. Not only will goblins be purposed with wrecking stuff up... I think they will also spontaneously populate where they are 'needed' (i.e. heavily civilized areas will have large goblin problems, whereas wilder areas will see fewer goblins).

I also often have dwarves spontaneously populate from the heart of their dwarven mountain homes... Which opens up a fun chicken v egg question.

Kobolds are created by and the servitors of dragons, and have varying colors to go along with their dragon masters. In my upcoming campaign, the characters are going to start running into different colored kobolds working together, which will be a relatively new development, and a sign of trouble to come.

 

[Stormonu]

Well only the Gnolls and the Bugbears change; kobolds are normal. I was just describing their psychology. I've seen you post this throughout the years and I always dig it. Although man, a gnoll takes 75 years to get its two legs? Harsh.

It's actually a take off of some japanese mythology I read; that once an item reaches 100 years of age, it gains sentience (whether a katana or a fox that becomes a kitsune). So, in a manner of speaking, gnolls "grow up" quick .