This keeps happening, why? No, really... why?

[SpiralBound]

And chameleon people, and spider people, and scorpion people.

I was going to say they had only one elf type, but you almost have to count the winged elf dudes.

Okay, so we've got one published setting that goes beyond the "big three". Looks like I'll be checking out Red Steel. Let's hope that this will turn the tide somewhat.

 

[SpiralBound]

The 2Ed Red Steel campaign setting (I though it was cool, never got a chance to use it though) had turtle people, dog people, and cat people.

There have been steriotipicaly a large variety of elves, even in fiction, so people use that as a stepping stone for the subraces. Personaly, I like how Eberron treats them (other than drow, they are socialy different so different favored weapons, but no other differences)

Hmmm.... You may have a point there. Also, I seem to recall that 2nd Ed AD&D had a bit more of a focus on Elven subtypes than other races too... This may have begun the trend.

As far as a cat race, don't know what to tell you other than there appears to be a high demand for them. There aren't a lot of official WOTC ones I've seen that are easy to deal with. That might fix that a bit.

Perhaps, although this doesn't explain the lack of other (animal)-people races. WOTC hasn't published a lot of differrent animal races period.

As for dragons, maybe that's why the game is called D&D . Dragons are mysticised and made to be grand and powerful creatures. Can't blame a player for wanting to emulate that in some way.

True, and I don't fault a player for that. It is disappointing to not see any other powerful mosters get the same treatment though.

 

[yennico]

Green Rornin ran a book on half breeds just for this. Don't know how good it is though...

The half-breeds in this book are:
Aellar: Elf/Giant Eagle
Alicorn: Elf/Unicorn
Blinkling: Blink Dog/Halfling
Burrower: Gnome/Umber Hulk
Decataur: Centaur/Elf
Green Folk: Human/Lizardfolk
Grendle: Dwarf/Troll or Human/Troll
Half-Gnoll: Gnoll/Human
Half-Goblinoid: Gnome/Goblin, Goblin/Halfling, Dwarf/Hobgoblin, Elf/Bugbear
Half-Kuo-Toa: Dwarf/Kuo-toa
Half-Ogre: Human/Ogre or Orc/Ogre
Houri: Elf/Nymph
Jovian: Giant/Human or Giant/Orc
Kestrel: Halfling/Harpy
Lasher: Dwarf/Roper
Lurker: Cloaker/Gnome
Merg: Human/Merfolk
Mind Ripper: Any humanoid/Mindflayer
Morlock: Gnome/Trodgdolyte
Piper: Elf/Satyr or Halfling/Satyr
Spring Child: any Humanoid/Dryad
Sthein: Elf/Naga
Trixie: Gnome/Pixie
Watcher: Dwarf/Gargoyle
Wendigo: Dwarf/Winter Wolf
Woodwose: Elf/Treant
Wretch: Hag/Orc
Wyrd: Elf/Ogre Mage

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

Whoa! Lots of freaky combinations of freaky things getting their freak on

Prolly got something to do with quantum.

 

[iwatt]

People keep trying (and failing) to create a Race so graceful and attractive as the......Dwarfs

 

[Ferret]

The cats have been explained, elven subraces have become like personal opinions, its the way you see elves, or a cool new angle. Also the arrogance etc. is easily ignored and often not even contemplated, compared with agility, intelligence, flying, living in the underdark, being in touch with nature to list a few of the 'cool' traits.

 

[Kemrain]

Yeah, it does seem like there are a huge variety of "cat people" that are created. I blame that crazy anime stuff.

One area that seems woefully underdeveloped is different kinds of half-celestials and half-fiends. It seems to be that a Baatezu and a Yugoloth would spawn very different progeny, or even the difference between a Half-Succubus and a Half-Glabrezu.

We've gone into Demons and their kin a lot in the game I'm in at the moment. Great stuff. And, while we do have a race of cat people, they're cat-like in appearance, but not exceptionally so in behavior.

- Kemrain the [Evil].

 

[SpiralBound]

Well then, here's another question for those who feel like answering:

If you WERE to create a "new" race, and it wasn't going to be a "cat man", "alt.elf", or "Half-Drac", then just what WOULD you create? A "Lemur Man", "Stone Dwaf", "Half-Basilisk"?

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Okay, so we've got one published setting that goes beyond the "big three". Looks like I'll be checking out Red Steel. Let's hope that this will turn the tide somewhat.

Then you will also enjoy the fact that Red Steel ditched the Race=Culture trope. In Red Steel, culture is more closely associated with nations (or groups of small baronies). If you are an elf or dwarf in the Savage Baronies, you have the exact same culture as humans in the Savage Baronies... and those elves and dwarves down the coast share the culture of the humans of the same area.

The humans and elves that live in the nation of majority Rakasta (the local catfolk) share the same culture as another example.

Luckily for you, the entire setting is available for free at WotC's site and the official Mystara fansite.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Well then, here's another question for those who feel like answering:

If you WERE to create a "new" race, and it wasn't going to be a "cat man", "alt.elf", or "Half-Drac", then just what WOULD you create? A "Lemur Man", "Stone Dwaf", "Half-Basilisk"?

When I was building a home brew back when I was in high school I came up with a "squirrel-man", and something of a "sub-giant". The giants of the setting were realy gigantic, and these sub-giants were about the size of Dark Sun half-giants. I also made halflings an evil race.

At the time, I was pairing up each PC race with a corrupted version. Dwarf-Goblinoid/Orc, Elf-Drow, Gnome-Halfling, subGiant-Giant, Squirrelpeople-Lizardpeople.