What role do reptile people play in your setting?

[frankthedm]

Dragons- First and Strongest of the 'mortal' races. They were birthed when the gods first awoke to cleanse the world of the insane horrors that inhabited it. Most of the horrors were destroyed, but some fled to the stars and others hid, the ones that fled to the magnetic poles were sealed in their strongholds by the freezing breath of frost dragons, those that fled to cities in the sands were sealed beneath black sand glass by lightning dragons. The acidic breathing dragons were tasked to dissolve all traces of the horrors they could find above or beneath the waves, and the fire breathers were sent to the mountains to seal and horrors hiding there in molten rock. All were given mastery of the air so that they could confront any horror that tried plunging to earth from the black beyond.

Serpent men - Ancient magic using race, one of earliest and longest lived of the earth born races. Their patron God Yig, is dangerously old, possibly shaped by their narcissistic beliefs from a much more ancient entity. It is not known if the Mortal's gods were the ones who brought them to be.

Lizard men, Another ancient race, they have fallen into degeneracy. The remains of their long lost civilizations seem to offend their current gods, who order their priests to destroy whatever is found of the old ways.

 

[adwyn]

I haven't included Lizardmen IMC since the white box days, and my kobolds have never been reptillian.

I did though introduce a crocodilian race of humanoids a while back. They're primary role is in being big baddies in the swamps, so they have no big cities, or even small settlements.

Beyond that most of the campaign has been in regions too cold for lizard folk, though I've had several adventures that focused on trying to hunt down hibernating bullywug wizards during winter.

 

[Doc_Klueless]

My current homebrew is a world made up of 90% water. The dry lands are archipeligos recently (in geologic terms) thrust up before the sun.

Lizardmen, Kua Koa, Sahuagin, Kobolds, etc are the descendents to Empires gone to seed. They are the original indiginous occupants of the world. All others are simply lost colonists, exiles or refugees from other worlds now destroyed or inaccessable. This allows me to make sense of several things, most notably:

• How did so many sentient creatures evolve on one world? They didn't. The New World is at a crossroads of multi-planar activity. It's easier there than other places to crossover. This allows me to introduce any monster or race that I feel like and still have it make some kind of sense.
  
• Where did all the ruins and dungeons come from? They are underwater cities/lairs/homes exposed to the air. I figured a great defense from forces that can come at you from every direction would be to build your homes in tunnels. That way you can channel the enemy. Also means that many rooms/hallways/entrances can't be accessed unless you can fly OR the races that now inhabit it have put in stairs. PCs are always missing some of the choice stuff since, like most ground pounders, they tend to think to look in two dimensions, so to speak.
  
• How can cultures with thousands of years of evolution behind it not evolve past the Medieval? They had to leave behind much of their learning, books, tools, etc., when they came to the New World . This set them back, but they are making headway in that direction again (Airships, crude cannon/firearms, etc. Heck, there is even rumors of a strange, mystical device known as a Steam engine.)

 

[GrayIguana]

I love Reptilians

I'm sure I've posted this somewhere before, but I describe my homebrew as "Planet of the Apes" meets D&D, except replace the apes with lizardmen.

Reptilians (ie lizardfolk) are the dominant race in my world. They are the most advanced, and extremely organized. They have a basically lawful society with all bowing to a central queen. A few reptilian races have been bred to fill certain niches. Hulkbred are the equivalent of hill giants, for example. Some are the result of PRCs. Humanity is a slave races and an occassional food-source.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

In a friend's homebrew campaign, the players thaumgineered anthropomorphic dinosaurs for use as soldiers in a war. I didn't know this when I made my (absurdly munched out) half-dragon anthropomorphic tyrannosaur for our epic game, which was something of a neat coincidence.

Brad

 

[thalmin]

I'm sure I've posted this somewhere before, but I describe my homebrew as "Planet of the Apes" meets D&D, except replace the apes with lizardmen.

Reptilians (ie lizardfolk) are the dominant race in my world.

Boy this sounds familiar.
Over a thousand years ago. While humans and demihumans (mankind) were at war against the orcs and goblins (the darkfolk) the dragons decided to intercede. They brought in the lizardfolk races (I have several) and destroyed mankind. Then they wiped out the weakened darkfolk. They inhabited the cities and took over the captured lands. What remained of mankind and darkfolk was either kept as slaves, or raised as cattle. Of course, without worshippers, the gods of mankind disappeared.
The PCs are not lizards, but rather human or demihuman slaves. In my 2E campaigns they started out at 0 level, and had to engineer their escapes, survive a hostile wolrd, and train themselves as adventurers. The 3.5E campaign had them starting as 1st level slaves (a class similar to commoner with more skills but NO weapon proficiencies.)

The lizard races common in my world include the saurs (non-aquatic lizardfolk), trogs (larger llizardfolk), daks (lightwieght fliers), kobes (kobalds), and chosen (large draconians). I also have a number of races my PCs haven't yet encountered.
I have been running my lizardworld campaign (in one incarnation or another) for over 15 years, since 2E first came out.

 

[Y.O.Morales]

I'm still tinkering with my Homebrew, and the only reptile races that will make it are the kobolds (the variation from S&S Strange Lands -- kobolds just got cooler) and, probably, lizardfolk.

However, those kobolds and a few surviving good dragons are only a small yet powerful organization that popped out from the Spirit World (after being dead for millenia -- sp?) to stop the merging of the two worlds (and the invasion of the previous civilization). Their homebase is a moving 'island' concealed by mists (much like Avalon). However, that 'island' in fact is a gigantic creature that resembles a jellyfish. Debris, dust, and seeds have formed the earth layer on its body across centuries.

Anyway, sorry for getting a little off-topic there. Just rambling.

 

[Wild Gazebo]

In my current homebrew, Lizardfolk are an Aztec type culture at the hight of thier power. They have ziggarats and floating crops and beautiful cities with great art and multiple gods. They are masters of dream magic and incorporate it into various holidays and coming of age rituals. Its best to avoid Lizardfolk in the middle of a 'dreamquest' in my campaign. They have a strictured caste system based on the colour of thier skin, occupation, and birthplace. They speak a very bastardised version of draconic and use pictograms and petraglyphs for thier written language.

 

[Gez]

They were created by the Serpent spirit in imitation of the hominids.

Except the Kobolds. Kobolds are the only descendant of the cursed Cobalt Dragons, who have disappeared.

 

[DMH]

I did though introduce a crocodilian race of humanoids a while back. They're primary role is in being big baddies in the swamps, so they have no big cities, or even small settlements.

How do they exist without some sort of housing (temporary or permanent)?

I added the naga to the question because I think they are one of the most underdeveloped old edition intelligent creatures. And I like the 3 original ones