Would you allow half-races?

[tarchon]

If you get half-orcs and half-elves, why aren't there any elf-orcs (orves?)?

 

[Roadkill101]

I have five player races in my homebrew campaign. All of which are derived from two species of man, one of which is extinct (due to warfare over religious doctrine). Humans are pure human stock of the surviving species. Dwarves and Haflings are the mutated descendants of the the now extinct branch of man. Elves are the mutated descendants of a well mixed population between the two branches of human branches. Catlings are a genetically created (both scientifically and magically) species of man, bred from the extinct branch of man and great cat.
None of these races are inter-breedable as a general rule. Only one in a thousand pairings results in an offspring. Where such offspring result only one in a thousand are fertile, which makes a half anything a unique rarity.
Any and all other sentient and humanoid races are a result of genetic engineering (as in the Catlings) or migration from other prime planes.
All of this is plausible through a semi-detailed history involving some divine machination for the
campaign.
So no, I don't allow half races in my campaign.

 

[Rasyr]

I voted yes, but then again I am biased having written, for HARP, a system that allows a character to be a half-blood or a quarter-blood of another race (thus allowing a Dwarf who is part Gnome and part Halfling if that is what the player wants).

However, having said that, in the Cyradon setting that ICE just released (as PDF) on Friday, there are some races that cannot or will not combine. Some of the reasons being biological and some being social (the Arali Elves just being too snooty overall to even consider breeding with lesser races - even other types of elves).

However, biological breeding is not always the only way to have a half-breed character. If a player comes up with a good background reason, I would surely allow other types of half-breeds than those normally possible. Perhaps the character is the result of magical experimentation and escaped from the lab when he was young, or perhaps he was fused with another person during a magical ritual gone awry. The possibilities are huge, and unique characters can be extremely fun to play (so long as they are not unbalanced).

So..... my answer has to be a "Yes".

 

[AFGNCAAP]

Yes, but with limits...

PC-wise, I allow a few half-races: half-elves, half-orcs, & gnomes (which are half-dwarf/half-halfling IMC). Feytouched & planetouched are allowed sparingly (they're more "tracebloods" rather than "halfbloods", but same basic premise).

Any sort of half-blood stuff reflected via a template (like half-dragon and half-fiend) aren't allowed for PCs, & only used sparingly for NPCs.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

What are your ogres like?

Not as strong (+6 rather than +10 Str) nor as stupid (- 4 Int - but that is not as bad as it seems, they are slow thinkers, but very thorough - in circumstances where they can take 20 for intelligence based skills they can take 30... taking thirty times as long a they crunch every possible variable. Good mathematicians and chess players, lousy at something that needs a fast response time.) Their ancestors were chaotic evil, most modern ogres are lawful neutral. They get along best with dwarfs. Humans and elfs are too flighty to keep up with. Commonly hired as mercenaries, they serve in nearly every army.

Does this mean (subject to use of ladders and balance checks that Dwarfs and Giants can breed?

Ogres are the biggest giant that a dwarf can attempt to breed with 'the old fashioned way'. However it has never once occured, since neither the ogres or dwarfs find each other physically attractive, and are not biologically given to rape. Artificial insemination might be possible with a larger giant, but while an offspring is possible stillbirth would be much more common. Ogres suffer a similar problem breeding with other giants - biologically they are closer to dwarfs than to the other giants.

This is interesting - mind if I steal it?

Go right ahead.

The Auld Grump

 

[Starglim]

Thanks . And thanks for the hint where I might have got that idea from. It's probably more than 20 years ago that I read his books. I'll look whether I still have that one; no idea what the title was .

It seems to me like a combination of Minority Report and Ubik. Could also relate to the Quasi-Dead in The Chronicles of Riddick.

In an earlier campaign of mine, most goblin/orc breedings produced pathetic ugly weaklings but a minority produced a superior race called skarn, stronger and meaner than goblins, smarter and more dextrous than either parent. They formed secret enclaves of assassins that would take skarn infants from the orc and goblin tribes and raise them to kill, terrorising the humanoid tribes. They had a lot of exotic throwing blades and double weapons (this was 1e so you can probably imagine the ugliness of homebrewed double weapon rules).

 

[Runesong42]

My campaign is loosely based on a "Discover the New World" concept. As such, the orcs and elves have not even been discovered yet (being from the New World), and as such, there are no such crossbreeds as half-elves or half-orcs. I don't think I'm even going to include orcs in my world. Many, if not all, of my races are all part animal. I have wemics, lizardmen, kuo-toa, and seriously considering kenku and grippli.

And no, they can't produce offspring from humans (but CAN... well... you know).

- Dru

 

[Turjan]

Not as strong (+6 rather than +10 Str) nor as stupid (- 4 Int - but that is not as bad as it seems, they are slow thinkers, but very thorough - in circumstances where they can take 20 for intelligence based skills they can take 30... taking thirty times as long a they crunch every possible variable. Good mathematicians and chess players, lousy at something that needs a fast response time.) Their ancestors were chaotic evil, most modern ogres are lawful neutral. They get along best with dwarfs. Humans and elfs are too flighty to keep up with. Commonly hired as mercenaries, they serve in nearly every army.

Ah, thank you, that's very interesting . Reading your description, I had more the impression of some remote and peaceful farmers, who might be able to answer the secrets of life. How do they fare in battle with their wit? At first, I was imgaining some battles in slow motion .

It seems to me like a combination of Minority Report and Ubik. Could also relate to the Quasi-Dead in The Chronicles of Riddick.

Thanks. I found that I still have UBIK, Martian Time-Slip and The Simulacra on the shelves, but I read a lot more by him from the library. Memories are still a bit hazy, though.

In an earlier campaign of mine, most goblin/orc breedings produced pathetic ugly weaklings but a minority produced a superior race called skarn, stronger and meaner than goblins, smarter and more dextrous than either parent. They formed secret enclaves of assassins that would take skarn infants from the orc and goblin tribes and raise them to kill, terrorising the humanoid tribes. They had a lot of exotic throwing blades and double weapons (this was 1e so you can probably imagine the ugliness of homebrewed double weapon rules).

That's also an interesting concept, something like a secret intelligence society of the 'demihuman' tribes . That idea is really good; I cannot nick it wholesale, but I like to think about how to implement this in my homebrew . It's somewhat reverse from Glorantha trolls, who most of the time produce the weak mutant trollkin, whom they use like slaves or as cannon fodder.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

In my latest homebrew, there are 4 "noble" races, descended from 4 heroes that saved the world a couple of centuries back (there's a reason / story behind how 4 heroes produced 4 lines of descendants). Each bloodline has its characteristics, but if two people from different bloodlines have children, there's a good chance that the offspring will be a "bastard", ie a plain human.

So everything that's half-something in my world results in being a normal human.

AR

 

[Commonblade]

I am fine with half-races. I believe that Orc's should be a player race. Goblins too! If they let you choose a evil alignment then they should start us off with evil races as well. I have many other beefs with the way races affect things but we can save it for another day.