Campaign Background

[Maccabe]

I happen to like the fantasy genre, but I am tired of;

elves, dwarves, hobbits etc.

I wanted to create new races, for an online game, as well

as an interesting background. If anyone here has any suggestions on generating races, I'd like to hear them.

Will people even want to play the game without the old standard races...........?

[PhilFleischmann]

Assuming your players are all humans, the most important thing to keep in mind when designing races is to make sure the players can relate to them. That's the advantage of the traditional races (elves, dwarves, etc.) - people know and understand who and what they are.

 

I once played in an excellent FH game in which all the races were "animal-men" There were ten different races, as I recall:

 

Baboon-men and Vulture men - the "priestly" races, each with differing views on death.

Elephant-men - wizards

Ostrich-men - aristocratic folk who had formerly enslaved the

Rhino-men - strong, tough

Lion-men - warriors, obviously

Zebra-men - masters of illustion

Hyena-men - tricksters and rogues

Scorpion-men - the bad guys out to control the world

Ant-men - lackeys of the Scorpion men.

 

The GM was careful to give each race a cultural "personality" so that we could understand each ones M.O. and philosophy. Each race had historical dislikes of certain other races and the players had to figure out how to get along. It was great fun.

[assault]

I seldom/never use the Tolkienoid species. Generally, all PCs are human in my games.

 

The most common flavour I use is Shakespearised Greek and Roman Mythology.

 

Essentially, I take Homer and Virgil, take the heroes out of their chariots and put them on horseback. Add a few tweaks, like replacing the kings of the city states with republican oligarchies, and there you go.

 

Not a hobbit in sight.

 

Alan

[AnotherSkip]

The closest things i have to Gnomes/Dwarves is an anthromorphic crystal pudding race.

There is a rare Immortal race of constructs, who avoid fire and the sun and ingest magic to survive.(about as close as you can get to Elves)

Asiatic Centaurian Insectiods

Human Sized inherently berzerk Sugar Gliders

a few shapeshifting races,

and Humans.

 

 

Hobbits Elves and Dwarves dont have a chance of surviving in _this_ world!!!

[farik]

quick inspiration: pick and choose from Star Wars races. Since the setting is space opera, most of the races easily convert to fantasy races since most of the "planets" have very limited climates. Instead of being from "The Desert Planet of Talinus 4" they can just be from "The Desert of Talinus" it's quick it's easy and you have prewritten descriptions you can share with the players after a minimal amount of editing.

[Legendsmiths]

The biggest challenge of creating non-tolkeinesque races is how they fit in the world and how players will understand to play them.

 

If you put a good amount of effort into understanding and communicating how these races work, the players will dig it. If you just throw out a bunch of racial packages, you'll lose the flavor.

 

Personally, I dislike animorphic races, especially for common household pets. It raises really odd situations. For example, if you have a feline race, can people own cats? Will the feline race own cats? Are their activists? How do cats react to the feline race and vice-versa?

 

Oddly enough, lizard races don't bother me, but that may just be tradition.

 

I like the suggestion of Star Wars races, they have quite a few and would work very well.

 

You could also look at Talislanta. The latest edition would be pretty easily translated into Hero. Or Jorune.

[Enforcer84]

I have been working on the animal races from the Breath of Fire (1-4) consol games.

 

They include

Tiger based race: These are a warrior peoples who have been transformed over the course of the games into a native american -esque culture. Warriors with a naturalistic bent. They are aside from a few exceptions, a human race with tiger stripes and fur.

 

Gigantic Armadillos: Large and physically powerful, they are a peaceful race that focuses on aggriculture and "training", something of a martial background.

 

Oxen: These are the dwarven equivalent; strong, renowned for their prowess at creating weapons. Often miners or laborers.

 

Rabbits: Gnomish equivalent: Tinkers and inventers.

 

Winged Humans: Magic users par excellance.

 

Humanoid Plants: Tree Huggers/Elf equivalent

 

Moles: The miners.

 

Horse race: Basically a group of warriors.

 

Canine Race: Talented Rangers/Thieves

 

Frog race: Chivalric and ambitious or Swashbuckling and lazy. One of the two...or both.

[Captain Obvious]

Originally posted by mudpyr8

Personally, I dislike animorphic races, especially for common household pets. It raises really odd situations. For example, if you have a feline race, can people own cats? Will the feline race own cats? Are their activists? How do cats react to the feline race and vice-versa?

 

Humans are primates, and seem to have no particular problems with people owning monkeys as pets.

[Legendsmiths]

But cats are everywhere, as are dogs, and have been pets for a very long time. Monkeys are only in a few regions of the world, but I understand they have been pets there as well.

 

Regardless, I'm sure this is more of an irrational thing than anything. I like my animals to be animals and my races to be unique. Your argument about monkeys/humans is relevant however, and if I owned a monkey it might mean more to me.

[Catseye]

FWIW, there have been game settings that were all human (eg Chivalry and Sorcery) as well as non-tolkien exo-races (eg Empire of the Petal Throne.)

 

If you are trying to create new races, the furries are the easiest because they are made up of familair components. They may also be the easiest for your players to relate to for similar reasons.

 

If you go that route though try not to just do the "it cats like a talking cat" thing OR the "its just a funny looking human" thing. Think about how you envision them acting and try to give them a mix of human and non-human qualities. Then ask what in their physiology and/or social psychology makes them act that way? How is their society structured? What are their ideals and models for behavior?

 

This way you avoid them EITHER being walking-talking house pets OR people in animal-drag.

[Captain Obvious]

The next campaign I run, I'll be getting back to original sources. Dwarves will have a Susceptibility to sunlight, elves will have a Vulnerability/Susceptibility to iron, etc. Different enough that they'll lose a lot of that D&D feel, not so different that players will look at them and ask WTF.

 

I also plan on throwing in some native American creatures, for those that just can't tolerate elves and dwarves any more.

[farik]

It might just be the Holiday season but I'm tempted to write up elves for our upcoming campaign as being closers to Santa's elves than to Tolkien's elves. Short, craft oriented, naive(sp?), etc.