D&D General trying to make an alien-themed race but they keep turning into elves, help.

[bedir than]

can you elaborate on how that second point would work?

What is the narrative need that is being filled? Why do the players want to meet or play these peoples? What will their characters learn by playing with/against/for them? What plot points in your story require the new race?

Answering those will tell you what the race is

 

[Mind of tempest]

How about Mercantile?

a viable possibility but would that not flood the market with magic or genre-shifting?

What is the narrative need that is being filled? Why do the players want to meet or play these peoples? What will their characters learn by playing with/against/for them? What plot points in your story require the new race?

Answering those will tell you what the race is

can you provide examples so I know what a correct answer looks like?

 

[Steampunkette]

Depends on what they're selling... or buying.

 

[bedir than]

can you provide examples so I know what a correct answer looks like?

There aren't right or wrong answers. It's your table.

One of the racial changes in my world is that goliaths aren't just from the mountains. They are instead from any extreme environment. I considered making new races, but when looking at what's already in the system there was already an example of what a larger peoples with some adaptions to extremes. Create minor tweaks and I was done. Now there are desert, forest, hot spring, jungle, etc variants. The narrative role is satisfied.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Depends on what they're selling... or buying.

well yeah, but fantasy aliens got to be selling something strange and that needs to be accounted for plus some people dislike a proud merchant race in world-building as it ruins the fantasy feel for reasons beyond my mind.

There aren't right or wrong answers. It's your table.

One of the racial changes in my world is that goliaths aren't just from the mountains. They are instead from any extreme environment. I considered making new races, but when looking at what's already in the system there was already an example of what a larger peoples with some adaptions to extremes. Create minor tweaks and I was done. Now there are desert, forest, hot spring, jungle, etc variants. The narrative role is satisfied.

I am asking for examples to be able to figure out how to get one to work, think of it as reverse engineering success.

but what is the core goliath narrative then?

 

[bedir than]

what is the core goliath narrative then?

It's the same, but expanded what territories they reside in. There's no reason a competitive, fierce people who are family and tribal centered needed to be confined to mountains. So rather than invent a half dozen new races I gave them optional features.

Step one: my world has harsh lands where the peoples in them have tighter bonds than typical, because these bonds help them survive. Etc etc

Step two: is there a similar peoples already? Yeah, kinda

Step three: can I tell this story by expanding the mechanics and keeping the lore? Absolutely

Did I care that this is unoriginal? No

 

[Mind of tempest]

It's the same, but expanded what territories they reside in. There's no reason a competitive, fierce people who are family and tribal centered needed to be confined to mountains. So rather than invent a half dozen new races I gave them optional features.

Step one: my world has harsh lands where the peoples in them have tighter bonds than typical, because these bonds help them survive. Etc etc

Step two: is there a similar peoples already? Yeah, kinda

Step three: can I tell this story by expanding the mechanics and keeping the lore? Absolutely

Did I care that this is unoriginal? No

no, what I was asking was what is the baseline story for the goliath as I am literally unable to see what the base story is?

 

[CleverNickName]

I don't know where or how this "aliens are space elves" thing got started. It must be a new thing, like cell phones and the YouTubes.

 

[bedir than]

no, what I was asking was what is the baseline story for the goliath as I am literally unable to see what the base story is?

I provided short hand, but you can read it here

The Goliath Race for Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) Fifth Edition (5e) - D&D Beyond

At the highest mountain peaks — far above the slopes where trees grow and where the air is thin and the frigid winds howl — dwell the reclusive goliaths. Few folk can claim to have seen a goliath, and fewer still can claim friendship with them. Goliaths wander a bleak realm of...

www.dndbeyond.com

 

[Guest 7034872]

It is gratifying, indeed, to see that @Mind of tempest has learned the lesson that so many of us have already learned.

Elves, like cockroaches, serve no function but to breed and survive. They have occupied that special part of every gamer's brain ... the part that says, "What if me, but better ... more agile, more smart, more magical, more awesome?"