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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6100105" data-attributes="member: 4937">I'd ask for a setting without the Tolkien races, but I know that isn't going to happen either.The main PC races in my homebrew are Human, Drawf, Elf, and Hobgoblin, but I couldn't bear to port in Gnomes and Halflings and rather loath the latter appearing outside of Middle Earth were they belong.&nbsp; Dwarf, Elf, and Hobgoblin are all questionable and I feel cheap for using them but the concept of each is so iconic that its hard to come up with races that don't end up the same in slightly different dress - see Vulcans as elves, Romulans as dark elves, and Klingons as Orcs in Star Trek for example.&nbsp; For 'little people' I have the Sidhe who more than double for both and Goblins which capture territory owned by neither.&nbsp; I also have a variaty of other fairy options, and two unique to my campaign world - the Orine and the Idreth.&nbsp;&nbsp; The Orine are a large nomadic slightly avian beautiful passionate to the point of insane warrior people.&nbsp; The Idreth are a mustached hunched back bow legged people who are also called the 'born old', because even their children look whizened and because they are born with a collective racial memory and so are knowing and aware from infancy.&nbsp; Both attempt to capture some ideological space not occupied by the tradional D&amp;D races.I of course wouldn't expect my particular list of races to populate any official setting, but I would at least expect at least the same degree of imagination and variation from the norm with some sort of cosmology that explains why these particular races are there.&nbsp;&nbsp; I'd also expect non-human races to both have strong tropes and be sufficiently varied that the entire race can't be represented by a single individual.Honestly, I think you could replace all the races/nations in my world with human ethnic groups and it would still make sense.&nbsp; I do however think you'd be losing areas of exploration.&nbsp; I use my races more for the science fiction style exploration of 'alien' than as markers of good guys and bad guys.&nbsp;&nbsp; There are plenty of things more inhuman that can be used to explore morality and ethics.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 6100105, member: 4937"] I'd ask for a setting without the Tolkien races, but I know that isn't going to happen either. The main PC races in my homebrew are Human, Drawf, Elf, and Hobgoblin, but I couldn't bear to port in Gnomes and Halflings and rather loath the latter appearing outside of Middle Earth were they belong. Dwarf, Elf, and Hobgoblin are all questionable and I feel cheap for using them but the concept of each is so iconic that its hard to come up with races that don't end up the same in slightly different dress - see Vulcans as elves, Romulans as dark elves, and Klingons as Orcs in Star Trek for example. For 'little people' I have the Sidhe who more than double for both and Goblins which capture territory owned by neither. I also have a variaty of other fairy options, and two unique to my campaign world - the Orine and the Idreth. The Orine are a large nomadic slightly avian beautiful passionate to the point of insane warrior people. The Idreth are a mustached hunched back bow legged people who are also called the 'born old', because even their children look whizened and because they are born with a collective racial memory and so are knowing and aware from infancy. Both attempt to capture some ideological space not occupied by the tradional D&D races. I of course wouldn't expect my particular list of races to populate any official setting, but I would at least expect at least the same degree of imagination and variation from the norm with some sort of cosmology that explains why these particular races are there. I'd also expect non-human races to both have strong tropes and be sufficiently varied that the entire race can't be represented by a single individual. Honestly, I think you could replace all the races/nations in my world with human ethnic groups and it would still make sense. I do however think you'd be losing areas of exploration. I use my races more for the science fiction style exploration of 'alien' than as markers of good guys and bad guys. There are plenty of things more inhuman that can be used to explore morality and ethics. [/QUOTE]

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