Fantasy Races

[jarulf]

Like many others I'm rather bored with the standard fare of Dwarves and Elves. I've always liked LOTR but the fact that so much fantasy is more or less based on Tolkien's take on fantasy races gets a little boring.

Anyone who wants to break from the mold has several options, a few come to mind.

Go completely human. Forget about fantasy races and develop distinct human cultures, after all fantasy does not have to have elves to be fantasy.

Go back to the roots. Elves, dwarves and other beings from folklore tend to be strange and unpredictable, and in a general sense unknowable by humans. Used this way they are probably better used as NPCs.

Go weird. Try to come up with races that feel less like caricatured humans, Glorantha does this pretty well and I'm sure there are other settings out there that do as well. But don't make them too weird if you want to make them playable. And call them something else than elves.

Go evolutionary. A middle way between no non-humans and and having them. Let the other races be other types of Homo. There are many ancestors and cousins to build on. The ever-popular Neanderthals, the tiny Floresiensis (yes, I know the jury is still divided on what they really were). Imagine if they survived.

Anyone have any nice example of what you've done in RQ/BRP?

[Enpeze]

Originally Posted by jarulf

Like many others I'm rather bored with the standard fare of Dwarves and Elves. I've always liked LOTR but the fact that so much fantasy is more or less based on Tolkien's take on fantasy races gets a little boring.

Anyone who wants to break from the mold has several options, a few come to mind.

Go completely human. Forget about fantasy races and develop distinct human cultures, after all fantasy does not have to have elves to be fantasy.

Go back to the roots. Elves, dwarves and other beings from folklore tend to be strange and unpredictable, and in a general sense unknowable by humans. Used this way they are probably better used as NPCs.

Go weird. Try to come up with races that feel less like caricatured humans, Glorantha does this pretty well and I'm sure there are other settings out there that do as well. But don't make them too weird if you want to make them playable. And call them something else than elves.

Go evolutionary. A middle way between no non-humans and and having them. Let the other races be other types of Homo. There are many ancestors and cousins to build on. The ever-popular Neanderthals, the tiny Floresiensis (yes, I know the jury is still divided on what they really were). Imagine if they survived.

Anyone have any nice example of what you've done in RQ/BRP?

/totally agree
Moorcock has some interesting humanoid races in his books. (eg Melnibonean)

[Simlasa]

There a LOT of other cultures on Earth with interesting folklores to explore... personally I've got a growing interest in Hindu mythology... it's wild and colorful and passionate and chock-full-of-flavour.

My own fantasy campaign, going way back, is and eclectic mishmash set on 'the planet with a thousand names'...
There are several distinct human cultures...
A few different groups of large centipede/grub like creatures...
Airborn nuedebranch/jellyfish that enslave/partner with the smaller cousins of the centipedes...
and lots of 'magic' created object-spirit-creatures (such as horseless chariots that are sculpted to look like demons and birds or baroque metal jars that can be ridden through the sky)...
and mutants spawned in a huge 'magic' disaster.
None are just elves/dwarves/orcs under different colors...

Other games I've played have been set in much stranger places... and then there is the whole 'urban fantasy' thing too... stuff like Hellboy and Beauty And The Beast (the tv show) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer...

[Atgxtg]

If we explored the REAL folklore for elves and dwarves and such, we'd find plenty of color and flavor.

A few RPGs that use a historical base (as in the middle ages, but Dragons and Elves were real, etc.) provide very rich and interesting versions of elves, etc.

I used to run a RQ campaign set in Ireland, and drew on the old celtic myths and legends. The players found the setting very rich and colorful, more so because they had no knowledge of the setting or the stories I was drawing from.


Fortunately, Chasoium rarely publsihes the waterd down generic fantasy cultures.

[Chaot]

I once did a basic write up in which reptilian and amphibian humanoids were ancient and ruled the world. Their kingdom was challenged by upstart mammals.

On the cold blooded side, there were things like brutish crocodile men, mystic serpent men, gregarious frog men, thieving chameleons and the lizard men high lords who rode on the backs of flying dragon-like creatures.

Opposed to these forces were a ragtag group of homo erectus and cro magnon. HE was the brains, CM, the brawn. There were a variety of ape like beings as slaves. The 'knights' ride giant, tree dwelling gorillas. etc.

[badcat]

A race of demonoids which has specialization as a racial feature like insects...scouts, warriors, flyers, queen, drones. But are reptilian. Anyone remember Almuric, by Robert E. Howard?

Morlocks, for a different underground race.

You can rip off Tekumel, there are some very bizarre and different races in that, for sure. Like the Ahoggya.

Make elves just as good as the Tolkien elves, but throw in a monkey wrench like having them take double damage from cold iron. No wonder they are declining in the face of human civilization and use bows...

[Simlasa]

Almuric was good stuff... I'd love to see a game setting flesh that out.

I don't mind elves so much as I do dwarves... for some reason I've never cared for them... they don't make sense to me. Maybe if they were weirder... less human... more like Morlocks... yeah...

[Sorloc]

I've done a bit of thinking on Dwarves and Dwarven culture... and Elves too.

And the thing is, that I can't think of any good reason why all members of a given species would all have the same culture everywhere in the world.

In my game, I have a particular continent with 3 different Dwarven societies, 5 different elven societies, 8 different human societies, 1 halfling, 1 centaur, and 1 idiyva (feline) society.

The Dwarven societies are totally hostile to each other due to religious differences. They are separated by human lands, and occasionally clash with them as they travel to annihilate each other. To outward appearance, the cultures are the same, the languages are slightly different, and the religion seems the same. They differ on particular points of dogma, much like Catholics and Protestants, which is nearly incomprehensible to those not well-versed in the culture.

They are not based upon Viking culture; they do live underground, so do not use axes (what do you chop underground, anyway?), they use hammers and picks. Farmers are the most respected members of their community, for they would quickly die out if the farmers of the high surface did not supply them with needed food. Clothing is difficult to manufacture using underground resources, so one of the cultures eschews it completely. One of the other cultures believes clothing is required by holy writ, and the third uses it on occasion.

The elves are separated into four nations.
One, extremely hostile to humans due to the human tendency to rape the land for resources, builds stone cities in their forest, 'stealing' that forest from the more primitive elves living there. They herd these elves into controlled areas that are safe for them, so they can retain their culture and lifestyle while allowing this elven nation access to all the resources of the forest. (somewhat like 19th century USA)

Another, of lordly appearance, build the classic natural cities in the heights of the trees. More accurately, they force their slaves to construct them. The more primitive elven race here is used as a labor force to allow the elven nation to focus on arts and trade and magical pursuits, but the society has instead sunk into decadence, and is on the decline. (like the late Roman Empire)

A third is comprised of dark-skinned elves in and under a huge mountain range. Their god is money and power, and they are extremely industrious. They trade with the dwarves in their mountains, and are allied with them against invasion, but do not support their assaults. They have enslaved orcs and humans and some other races in the area, using them as miners and serf farmers in the high reaches. They pursue magical and scientific study, they have bred a new race ideally suited for mining operations, they are consummate merchants - everything is for sale in their society, for the right price, everything is legal, if you have the right permits and licenses.

There is a nation of centaurs and halflings who coexist in a hilly region, defending their territory competently using halfling missile troops mounted on centaur cavalry.


I always felt that it was important that nonhumans were treated with the same amount of thought as humans; their societies should not be simplistic, cookie-cutter things, copied from Tolkien or not. Our historical cultures always followed linguistic and religious lines before racial ones (sometimes 'race' is determined by language rather than ancestry - see Europe for examples of this).

[Trifletraxor]

Wow! Sounds like a cool setting!

Sverre.

[soltakss]

Originally Posted by Sorloc

I've done a bit of thinking on Dwarves and Dwarven culture... and Elves too.

And the thing is, that I can't think of any good reason why all members of a given species would all have the same culture everywhere in the world.

Well, the standard explanation is that they all derived from the same root/mythological source and so would share a common culture or have very similar cultures. In Glorantha elves come from Aldrya and dwarves from Mostal. In M Iddle Earth, they have common ancestry but have slightly different cultures.

But, there's no reason why they can't have as radically different cultures as humans do.

Originally Posted by Sorloc

In my game, I have a particular continent with 3 different Dwarven societies, 5 different elven societies, 8 different human societies, 1 halfling, 1 centaur, and 1 idiyva (feline) society.

What, no Orc societies? You mention enslaved orcs, so why don't they have a society? Not bugging you, just interested.

Originally Posted by Sorloc

I always felt that it was important that nonhumans were treated with the same amount of thought as humans; their societies should not be simplistic, cookie-cutter things, copied from Tolkien or not. Our historical cultures always followed linguistic and religious lines before racial ones (sometimes 'race' is determined by language rather than ancestry - see Europe for examples of this).

My view of society is that it comes down to Us and Them in the end.

Historically, Us were differentiated from Them most easily racially, as that made things obvious. Language also differentiated Us from Them fairly easily. Religion differentiates Us from Them, but is more subtle.

When a language/culture became dominant, it was more difficult to separate Us from Them because Us could include many conquered or allied people of different race, language or religion, so culture became important.

But, there has always been a gut-deep feeling of Us and Them in any society.

One thing that has bugged me for a while is this. Why are non-humans normally all the same race? Sure. Glorantha has different types of elves, but they are more of a sub-species than a race. Most other settings have elves, dwarves, orcs and whatever but no races within them.