RavensPath Posted August 29, 2004 Report Share Posted August 29, 2004 If you were building a fantasy campaign and didn't want to use the 'standard' races, but only human base, how would you modify them to have different races. For example: an empathic race as well as a regular human race. Very little if any differences in physical form. One just has empathic powers. What would you create? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dog Soldier Posted August 29, 2004 Report Share Posted August 29, 2004 Re: How would you modify humans How about a strictly carnivorous variant? Maybe not exclusively meat eater but heavily weighted to the meat eating end of the scale with an intolerance for most plant food. That would have serious social implications. Make them more robust and quicker as well. Perhaps have them living in some sort of symbiotic alliance with your empaths to provide a jarring contrast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug McCrae Posted August 29, 2004 Report Share Posted August 29, 2004 Re: How would you modify humans I believe neanderthals had an 80% meat diet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug McCrae Posted August 29, 2004 Report Share Posted August 29, 2004 Re: How would you modify humans I'd have a dark skinned evil race to be non-politically correct. None of them would be good, not a single one. A race that lives in harmony with nature is de rigeur. Can't avoid modern day environmentalism. Some sort of gender weird race. They have three sexes, or only one, or they switch or something. A race with an extreme communist ant-like mentality. Perhaps they're a psychic gestalt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zed-F Posted August 29, 2004 Report Share Posted August 29, 2004 Re: How would you modify humans IMHO, the most important would be to figure out how they got different first, and then determine what effects it would have. For instance, you could have a group of people who came from an island whose soil had an abnormally high concentration of heavy metals. This would make them less fertile, but potentially have tougher bones and be more resistant to infections (most bugs couldn't tolerate the metal content in their blood.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arcady Posted August 30, 2004 Report Share Posted August 30, 2004 Re: How would you modify humans I wouldn't modify them. Just make a series of cultural package deals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NuSoardGraphite Posted August 30, 2004 Report Share Posted August 30, 2004 Re: How would you modify humans I'd have a dark skinned evil race to be non-politically correct. None of them would be good, not a single one. . Why can't the "evil race" be light skinned or pale skinned or something. Why do they have to be dark skinned? Personally, I find the idea of an "evil race" to be completely unrealistic, unless they are some sort of Hive-mind society where there is no freedom of thought. Simply put, I would make a race that wasn't necesarily evil, but who's culture and ideals are so different from that of the PC's society (or collection of societies) that they seem evil, but if the PC's were to spend time amongst these people, they would find out differently... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eosin Posted August 30, 2004 Report Share Posted August 30, 2004 Re: How would you modify humans Why can't the "evil race" be light skinned or pale skinned or something. Why do they have to be dark skinned? I do believe that my sarcasism meter pinged when that was posted....I could be wrong but I thought it was pretty funny myself. Actually, his whole post is darn funny - gender benders, enviromentalists, & communists round out the dark skinned evil race who absolutely cannot be good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMcL63 Posted August 30, 2004 Report Share Posted August 30, 2004 Re: How would you modify humans I'd just go the cultural package deals route myself. The idea of different races is a nice one, but if you only wanted a single species, then I suggest that you'd have to be careful to avoid using the different races as excuses simply to reintroduce the familiar fantasy species in disguise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tetsujin28 Posted August 30, 2004 Report Share Posted August 30, 2004 Re: How would you modify humans I would only modify stats if it actually made a difference, e.g. people from low-grav planets or the like. Otherwise, I'd use cultural packages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted August 30, 2004 Report Share Posted August 30, 2004 Re: How would you modify humans Cultural packages would be a good idea. I did some Middle Earth Mannish and Elvish cultural packges for 4th Edition. The current FH has a few packages such as nomad or warrior. Perhaps you could tweak them a bit to suit your needs. If you really must play with characteristics, I'd suggest ending up with a zero net cost. For example, if you want a group that is stronger but slower than normal, you may give +1 to STR and CON and -1 to DEX. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Markdoc Posted August 30, 2004 Report Share Posted August 30, 2004 Re: How would you modify humans I DO run a game in which humans are the only player race. I have a few variants (a really big subrace called ogres and a really small sub-race who fill the hobbit/pygmy space, a scaly-skinned version from Mars and a really tall race with bad back problems from the moon) - but all of these are simply variants on a theme. The real differences are cultural. cheers, Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trencher Posted September 3, 2004 Report Share Posted September 3, 2004 Re: How would you modify humans The real world gives us, pygmies and albinos. The first could live in shrub infested forests and the second instead of being an exception could be a race that lives underground. In any case if a you modify stats and powers for a human race then it is not really that human anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NuSoardGraphite Posted September 3, 2004 Report Share Posted September 3, 2004 Re: How would you modify humans Lets not forget Samoans. Average Body 13? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest WhammeWhamme Posted September 3, 2004 Report Share Posted September 3, 2004 Re: How would you modify humans Well, if you distort them enough, you can get anything (I had this weird sci-fantasy gameworld...), but... Cave Dwellers. Pale, huge eyes, can get by on smell/taste/touch/sound alone. Hairy, bestial 'yeti/sasquatch/etc' - strong, wild, developed sense of smell and taste. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eodin Posted September 3, 2004 Report Share Posted September 3, 2004 Re: How would you modify humans With the idea of humans as the common ancestor, Either have the Selkies (Terran Empire) or Atlanteans (Marvel Comics) inhabiting the oceans Have Winged humans inhabit the mountaintops Have Heavy worlders (Terran Empire) live deep within the mountains Each species can have it's own big piece of the world, and yet have trade or clashes with the others. Plus, humans can be English or Zulu or Chinese or... Selkies can be North Atlantean, South Atlantean, Pacifican, ... Winged Humans can be native to the Bighorns or the Andes... Heavy Worlders can be from Applachia or from Urals or... So lots of room for subcultures even within those races I personally find that a lot more satisfying than 4 dozen sentient races roaming around one world... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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