Shared world races:

[Puck]

Race possibilities
I have a few suggestions for races. I know that this was discussed and consensus seemed that there would be no races but the decision was still up in the air. I had worked on a number of races for my homebrew world and thought that I would put them up on the sacrificial pyre of the Shared world.

Years ago I tried to create a world with races distinctly different than Glorantha, but wanted to have much of the same feel. I liked the way high fantasy races that people were familiar with were taken, given different names, and then fleshed out in unique ways. I did not want to use the same races Glorantha used though, and wanted them to be unique. The problem was Glorantha had somewhat muddied the water and used many of the high-fantasy type names and races already: trolls, elves, dwarves. Orcs are far too Tolkienish. What that left me with was Goblins (I know the name was used in Glorantha but not seriously fleshed out the way the other races were). I then stretched this race name as far as I could and used goblins as my major non-human race. I always envisioned them as more realistic than fantastical more like Frazetta than animie.

Well, I called the race Trogod, goblin is simply the human slang term for the race. Trogod evolve very quickly based on their environment and there are a number of different subspecies (different parts of the shared world can have different types of Trogod as fits the writer, originally I had trolls as species of Trogod). The premise is that by nature goblins tie themselves to different animal totems and their features and magic are all highly influenced by the totem they adopt. This would leave a lot of options available for writers while keeping to a single racial theme.

In my world many of these Trogod were gathered up and enslaved by a group called the Azchirgnoth (more on them later, but basically Rurik’s Akershule gone bad), (I was shocked by the similarity of the names) these slaves lost many of their totemic ties and live on the edges of human settlements. Others ran to the hills and forests to hide and adapted to their environment.

Anyway, I began writing up the Trogod races for mrq. I am going to attempt to post them on the wiki as it is a little long to put in posts here. I am hoping it can be easily modified or deleted from there as it is just a suggestion and only in rough-draft, mrq, and totally unfinished form. (Much of the later stuff is just notes and random musings). Also, the first bit was written to tie the Trogod into my homebrew world but I left it in as it may inspire ideas in others. If the entire bit is rejected out of hand I will understand as a purely human world has its charms.

Goblin notes here:
http://basicroleplaying.com/forum/sh...ns-trogod.html

[tzunder]

No races? I think odd species would be just gr8.. I'd suggest you also describe Trogods in different tech levels.. how would they work in a SF game..

[rust]

While the Trogods doubtless are a very fine fantasy species, I doubt that
they would do well in a science fiction setting. In my opinion they are too
much like humans to make a convincing alien species, like for example the
Puppeteers or the Trinoc of the Ringworld RPG. Even if you would give them
a very alien culture and technology, they would still look more like some
strange human sub-species than like aliens, I think.

[Puck]

No races? I think odd species would be just gr8.. I'd suggest you also describe Trogods in different tech levels.. how would they work in a SF game..

As they were really created for a very specific fantasy world I never really gave it much thought. I am not even sure they will really work with the common fantasy world.
That is the nice thing about this forum though. Hopefully people can take ideas and go with them. I would be open for any suggestions to make them a better sci-fi fit.

In my opinion they are too much like humans to make a convincing alien species, like for example the Puppeteers or the Trinoc of the Ringworld RPG.

The Goblins following Peruth(the cat) would not be too much different than Kzin; maybe a little smaller and less agressive. I guess it would depend on the type of sci-fi. I couldn't see them working with very realistic techy sci-fi, but with a little work they may fit into space opera or fantasy based scifi like Star Wars.

Again

they are too much like humans

I am very glad you percieve them this way. I was afraid people may read them as kind of cartoony. In the end though they will can be whatever people want to make of them. I believe I will need some help and advice to port them over to sci-fi and would like to get my hands on the actual Brp book and read the sci-fi stuff before I try.

[soltakss]

In a Fantasy Setting, I don't mind standard RPG species, as long as they have their own cultures and background. Elves, Orcs, Trolls, Goblins and Giants all have their place, as do Minotaurs, Centaurs, Satyrs, Fauns and whatever other creature you want to include.

Make them rare if you want, forced to the fringes of the world, but don't ban them completely.

In a Sci Fi Setting, I don't subscribe to the idea that all alien races have to be completely non-humanoid. There is the idea of Seeders - ancient alien races that seeded developing worlds with their own DNA and that influenced evolution to favour similar (bipedal humanoid) species. That would be an explanantion why a lot of alien species are bipedal humanoids with common genetic traits.

Of course, there's always space for some completely inhuman/non-humanoid intelligent creatures, but they should be rarer. If you have several Seeder species, you have the possibility of several types of non-human species families with different degrees of inter-relation. You could also have isolates - species that are not related to others.

[rust]

@ Puck:
Yes, you have a point there - in a Star Wars-like space opera I would pro-
bably prefer the Trogod to one of those races who look completely different
from humans, but act and talk like the people next door.
If you think of space opera, it should not be too difficult to adapt the Tro-
god. In the end you would only have to replace their magic (they could
still believe that it works, so it could become their religion ?) with techno-
logy and "modernize" their culture, I think.

@ soltakss:
The idea of the Seeder races ... it would be a possibility, but I have to ad-
mit that I do not like it. Our DNA and our entire biochemistry are closely lin-
ked to all the other parts of our planet's biosphere. The Seeding could only
work if the Seeders would seed entire biospheres, because otherwise the
"humans" on other worlds could not even eat native plants and animals, be-
cause a different biochemistry would either prevent them from deriving nou-
rishment from them, or would kill them off immediately. And if the Seeders
would indeed seed entire biospheres, all the inhabited worlds would look mo-
re or less the same ...
However, I am one of those "Hard SF" guys (at least most of the time) and
therefore have a sad tendency to spoil space opera fun - you may just as
well ignore my "grunts" in such cases.

[soltakss]

I've never understood Hard SF.

No FLT Travel, No Jumps through Hyper Space, no HyperSpace, no weird alien species, no immortals, no Psionics, just slowly moving through space to some asteroid or acelerating for months until you reach near-light sped, decelerating until you reach a planet, then going home the same way to find that your baby's grandchildren have grown old and died.

Not my idea of fun, to be honest.

But, there again, I liked Car Wars

[rust]

Well, my SF is not that "hard" ... FTL drives and hyperspace tunnels do exist,
since astrophysicists do not rule them out completely (at least some do not),
and weird aliens also do exist - although they usually have to be very alien
to be believable. As for immortals and psionics ... sorry, no.

[Trifletraxor]

Great work Puck! I'm also in favour for different races to play.

SGL.

[Puck]

Gr

eat work Puck! I'm also in favour for different races to play.

Thanks!, gives me energy to keep going.


An other idea for race, or really a background story, are the Azchirgnoth (Azchir to make it easier to remember). This again is just a proposal. I think with some nipping and tucking they could fold into Rurik’s Akershule. I will descibe them as I originally conceived them here, but of course a lot of edited or adjusting may be necessary, and of course welcome, to make them fit other people’s world ideas.

In the distant mythic past the Akershule I will use Rurik’s now familiar name) had one among them named Koru-su who lusted for power, and was not content with his normal allotted life span. He started messing with things that were forbidden (possibly the gates). Eventually Koru-su was ousted from the council and banished along with a number of his followers. Hundreds of years passed and then when many of the original banishers had died or grown very old Koru-su re-emerged.

In his exile he had made secret pacts with things from the gates and they whispered secrets to him whereby he could become like the gods. Druaga, Lord of the Undeath taught him the secrets of the immortality (not what he imagined though, in order to become truly immortal Koru-su had to become undead). Kosharo, the Mutant Twister of Life had taught him how to create creatures of his own to fill his legions. Although he could not create his races from scratch, he could crossbreed, twist and form others to his liking as well as force them to submit to his will. These creatures are called Kracheeth or simply the created.

Koru su defeats his old nemesis’ and sends his generals and sorcerers, the Azchirnoth, out to conquer the world. To make a long myth short several surviving members of the Akershule sneak though the Azchirgnoth armies and his guards and Slay Koru-su. The Azchirgnoth who have been sent out with armies to conquer and enslave the world set themselves up as independent kings. Immediately after Koru-su’s demise they begin vying for power. Vast wars are fought between the Azchirgnoth. Sorcerers begin trying to create(or possibly summon) nasty kracheeth of their own to throw at one another, they also create diseases to ravage one another's hosts. Though an era rife with slavery and warfare the Azchirgnoth wear each other down.

Finally, much like in Rurik’s Portal, a hoard of northern, horse-riding barbarians arrive on the scene. Through divination, the remaining Azchirgnoth witch kings realize that their time is at an end, their empires are fated to be crushed by the barbaric hoards. (Now here is the important part) Instead of succumbing to their fate, the Azchirgnoth begin to build tombs for themselves hidden in the back countries of their kingdoms. There they deposite ritches and vast libraries of knowledge. They hide and protect these tombs with traps both clever and magical. They too have learned Duaga’s secret of immortality and they lock themselves and their servants up in these tombs and go into the deep slumber of the undead hoping that someday the world will again be ripe for their rule.




The two important things a background like this could offer would be Kraecheeth (unknown horrors created or summoned from a past age that still inhabit the backwaters of the word), and a reason for undead guarded tombs and such. Each writer/contributor could create Kaecheeth that hid is his area of the world or borrow from some-one else if they like. They could come up with stories about the particular Azchirgnoth of their territories as well. Or, of course, they could ignore the thing all together as the Azchirgnoth overlooked or never invaded their part of the world at all. I realize the names are kind of nutty, but they can be changed as well from territory to territory.

….Just and idea to hopefully keep people thinking.