What is your take on the races in fantasy settings, /tg/? Do you put all the clichés in your game or do you try to fight them? Do you go full humanism or do you go completely monster races all over the place?
And in your opinion what are the races that every setting should have and why.
tl;dr post pictures of fantasy races and argue about your fetishes.
>>48036837
I like them best when they're physically and metaphysically human, they just have funny bits or funny skin color.
The following are the ONLY races you should be allowing in your fantasy setting.
> elves
> humans
> dwarves
> halfelves
> halflings
> gnomes
No, no more of this tiefling, dragonborn, kender, special snowflake BULLSHIT that I am so fucking sick of. The lazy-ass D&D developers introduce six new races with every "book" they release, and you DO NOT NEED THEM. Huge numbers of races ARE NOT CONDUCIVE TO GOOD WORLDBUILDING.
Large numbers of homebrew races show that you are a lazy ass faggot piece of shit worldbuilder who needs to rely on new races to differentiate cultures rather than actually interesting cultural differences.
Lord of the Rings made many interesting and diverse kingdoms with just elves humans dwarves and orcs (orcs are okay by the way), I mean it was as simple as the differences between Rohan and Gondor. It doesn't need to be some deep design thing. Just none of this "lol every kingdom is a different race" until you don't even have two kingdoms of the same thing because you keep adding new lands to hold all of the five thousand fucking races in D&D.
This is why I've gone full EDO and my players can deal with it or get the fuck out of my group. I no longer care either way. I am so sick of pandering to these catfolk half-minotaur tieflings with angsty backstories playing edgelord classes like warlock and also being drow. Such races are good as spice, but they are NOT for the main course. But of course all the fucking mongoloidal faggots who want to play want to be that one special guy so next thing you know you've got a whole party of them.
I fucking hate my players, I'd love to hose them down with a goddamn flame thrower and watch them writhe in the sticky embrace of napalm.
>>48036889
Cancer.
>>48036892
>EDO
?
>>48036892
Are you, uh, feelin' all right, Anon?
>>48036892
Ooooh yeah, been there done that. From half-dragon minotaurs to feytouched tieflings. It really goes south easily.
>>48036892
D&D is a hell of a drug.
>>48036892
Ok. That was verbose.
I meant more in the sense what purpose do you want for the races in your game. Are all elves magical gay tree-huggers, are all dwarves short angry drunk fighters, are all humans generic bullshit fantasy setting default?
These kind of questions. I like non-comparative settings like Banner Sage where one race was humans (sigh), one was an all male horned giant race, another was made of stone and the last was centaurs that killed all the horses because they were scared!
>>48036892
>Lord of the Rings made many interesting and diverse kingdoms with just elves humans dwarves and orcs
Kek, maybe elves but literally every dwarf kingdom was the same, hobbits were just smaller countryside humans, orcs were basically mindless rape monsters
>>48036892
>Such races are good as spice, but they are NOT for the main course
...yes? I mean, that's what the book says. Standart races are common, exotic races are exotic and are treated by NPCs as weird gimmicks
>>48036837
Humans as the only (playable) sapient race is Elder God-tier. Everything else is garbage.
>>48036983
No.
>>48036963
Not to mention dwarves were a mistake, orcs were tortured members of other races and humans are fucking weird in Tolkien's lore. Also, no one cared to explain where the FUCK did the Hobbits come from. I think they are aliens, like fucking tellytubs.
>>48036983
What is the difference between an all human game and a game where all races look and act like humans (like witcher and dragon age) after being humanized?
How do I make TRULY alien species, /tg/?
Either human only or multiple races but my hard rule is "if this race could put on a hat and look like a human from behind in broad daylight it's not going to be in my setting"".
So no Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Halfings, Aasimer, Tieflings, or Genasi.
>>48036896
Seconding this.
>>48036889
You are absolutely cancerous. Stick to Japanese video games please.
>>48036837
I like to put in some of the One Piece races.
I am especially fond of Fishmen, because fishmen genetics are wonky and hundreds of genereations of intermixing basically mean a shark person and an octopus person can produce a child and it will be a dophin boy. I like them because they are fun, make for interesting and varied PCs and NPCs and are not really heavy with those retarded ero fantasies.
If a player asks for some shit like cat people, I usually take in One Piece Minks as well, which are basically the same as Fishmen, just with "normal" non-funky mamals, if they agree to roleplay it with the given restictions of being a Mink: No procreation with Humans possible, having your type of Mink REALLY have an effect on your personallity, and the typical Mink over-loyalty to anyone you like (which could also be noone if you are a jerk)
If they go for some weeb-shit cat people I tell them no.
I am not fond of Dwarfs or Elves, because they are normally just annoying in one way or another. I don't mind Elves in The Black Eye, if you really play the non-typical Black Eye elves: Autists with no sense of ownership, that thus constantly take things from others. If they go kender mode with stealing I remind them that they are not cleptomanic, but simply think its normal to share anything you have more of than you can use.
Lizards are okay if they are not faggy "hurr-durr-I'm-a-proud-dragon"s but actually lizards.
>>48037032
Dehumanize its characteristics and give it other weird perks. The key is lack of communication. The less you understand something or can relate to it on a conscious level the more 'alien' something feels. Give it emotions you can relate to or a way to communicate and suddenly it gains human characteristics through humanization.
This is very useful for making horror fairies and weird shit too.
>>48037072
Reskin 'em without changing character.
>elves
Plant-men
>dorfs
Ant-men
>gnomes
Sparrow-men
>halflings
rabbits
>>48037072
I think so too, but more on an anthropological level. If it looks too similar to the point they could interbreed than it is the same fucking race, just an off-shoot species.
>>48037107
How do I give alien fuckers motivations and emotions that I can't relate to without devolving into "lolrandom fuck players"?
>>48036892
>EVERYTHING MUST BE D&D OR TOLKEIN ELSE YOU'RE A SPECIAL SNOWFLAKE FURRY FAGGOT WHO ONLY WANTS TO YIFF AND MAGICAL REALM
You can still be "that guy" even with the most boring races available. How about instead of taking it out on the setting you just stop playing with idiot players, or better yet stop being such an autist yourself.
I only like using the default races. Really I prefer to just use humans since in fantasy, any other race is just "HUMANS WITH AN INT OR STR MODIFER". Worst fucking offender of this in my eyes is Dragon Age
>DUDE OTTOMANS WITH HORNS LMAO
>DUDE IRISH TRAVELLERS WITH POINTY EARS AND BOWS
>DUDE MEDIEVAL JEWISH TRADERS WHO ARE REALLY SHORT LMAO
I also laugh at retards who think playing as rat or lizard people or something adds any depth. You're doing the exact same shit in the exact same way as a human would. But yeah, I just let people play as the standard line up of the setting because I'm not a stickler like that but I do reject retarded shit like super duper special snowflake anime races
>>48037129
Ya confusing things.
Different species don't interbreed and give fertile offspring. Races are parts of same species.
>>48037132
Use the God's Machine motivation. They are there to fill a purpose, but whatever that purpose is is your prerogative. It gains bonus points if you can make it so people can't work out what it is.
Like, the Predator is pretty human-like right? But have a society and a communication system that makes no fucking sense, and that is alien in alienation. The Shrimps from District 9 are also good examples of miscommunication at work.
My best advice is look to what worked in the past and work from there. Also, some human characteristics can be pretty terrifying if isolated and magnified.
>>48037165
TRUE! Thank you for catching it.
>>48037155
How are qunari the Ottomans in any shape or form?
Not even trying to defend Dragon Age, but that's fucking retarded, lad
>>48037165
But in my magical realm they do, and females elves are specially known for partaking in this.
>>48037181
>>Are you feelin' OK man?
>HOW CAN YOU DEFEND THIS SHIT REEEEE
I choose to believe that this is an elaborate bait.
>>48037181
Yay, a new copypasta.
>>48037181
Virt, put your trip back on
>>48037181
Woo boy, anon. Dial it down a bit.
I don't even disagree with youmuchbut jesus man
>>48037181
What the fuck did you just say to me you little bitch?
>>48037181
...
Yeah, no, I am with this guy >>48037205
>>48037018
The tone and setting feel less grounded. Elves and dwarves are totally redundant in the Witcher games. From what I can tell they were added solely because he thought fantasy needed them. It's pointlessly derivative of Tolkien.
>>48037198
The developers said that you scumfuck cuddie
>>48037238
I agree with you in the Witcher mostly because we never hear of their struggle to fit in human society or WHY they are fitting in in human society (outside of the first game, but no one wants to play that).
What do you think would make a setting feel more... stable and down to earth?
>>48037181
>Please explain why the FUCK you are ENTITLED to play some shitty ass race that doesn't even fit into the setting?
>putting words in my mouth
stahp
>>48037254
No races unless they are enemies and have behaviour that doesn't resemble anything akin to that of great apes
>>48037240
Then the devs are retards, doesn't make it any more true though
Also, you shouldn't just parrot others without putting any thought into it, you sheep-fucking down syndrome fuckwit, I will kill you
What if
hear me out for a second
what ifwe removed humans
>>48037181
>>48037263
But how would you come about it. It is known that homo sapiens kinda eliminated any sort of threat there was to them with the passing of years, so why would there ever be anything other than 'generic human'?
That is the question I wanted to answer before I begin worldbuilding races for my setting, honestly.
>>48037264
It's true though
>medieval caliphate
>Qun is their religious text
>Qunari are followers of the qun
>are interested in militaristic expansion
>also have a scholarly class
90 IQs everybody
>>48037271
heeey, that's a curious idea
>>48036837
I'm not really much of a stickler for races. If something is setting appropriate (and doesn't break the system) then aces, go for it.
If it isn't setting appropriate by default you get a chance to justify it being there, but you can't just teleport in a Dragonborn into an environment where they don't otherwise exist. Case-by-case thing.
>What race should every fantasy setting have
I guess humans so people have a baseline. Everything else should exist to serve the setting specifically. If there isn't a suitable place for elves then don't involve them, simple as.
>>48037271
Did that. It feels... ok. You can't totally dehumanize the races, but you can make them exaggerations with pretty good success.
>>48037284
Qun doesn't resemble islam in the slightest
Qunari are turbo austere which is literally the opposite of the decadent Ottomans
Militaristic expansion is what everybody is doing you nigger
>>48037310
I bet my PC could kill your PC
>>48037244
>>48037310
What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I’ll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I’ve been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I’m the top sniper in the entire US armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You’re fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that’s just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Marine Corps and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little “clever” comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn’t, you didn’t, and now you’re paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You’re fucking dead, kiddo.
>>48037282
What do you mean? Shit can still kill humans if we aren't prepared like Rhinos or Sharks. Also the mastery over the environment didn't really happen until the industrial revolutionary.
Best illustrative example I could think of would be an extremely intelligent, gigantic spider. Since it's a spider it is going to be reclusive by nature and despite being intelligent wouldn't be adept at communication or diplomacy (wouldn't even have the organs to communicate with humans in any meaningful way). Better at crafting traps and using simple tools.
Boring and tired example I know
![[Long sustained yelling].png](https://i.imgur.com/fujupDU.png "[Long sustained yelling].png")
>>48037310
>>48037310
Funny part is I don't even disagree with you. You are just making it really hard to like you.
>>48037310
I'm gonna post all of these dumb fish pictures
>>48037190
Thank you
>>48037306
>"Guys watch be a reductionist contrarian so I can argue with people on the internet xD"
I'm right, you're wrong - this isn't red dit. Go back there. You aren't saving face.
>>48037310
You really do sound exactly like Virt there
>>48037271
I'm actually working on a setting where there aren't naturally any humans, though it's more /lit/ related than /tg/. It's an interesting thought exercise.
>>48037356
Is this amateur bait hour?
>>48037319
Yes. Now allow me to play a tiefling paladin, I promise he'll be hell of a guy
>>48037366
>mfw they all still act according to hominin neurology
I gurantee your setting is garbage not even worth burning to keep a fire going
>>48037271
>what is Lorwyn
>>48037334
No no, it is a good example. To iterate on it I'd like to point out humans don't share much habitat with sharks nor rhinos, although in the rhino's case we kinda decimated them this last centuries.
So what I meant was why wouldn't a race smarter, stronger and/or faster than humans have knocked humans out of the ballpark? That is to say, if we do share the same habitats, hunting grounds, etc. Hum. I guess I kinda answered that question there, didn't I?
Of course, excluding theological meddling in fantasy settings altogether.
>>48037390
>>48037390
Why don't you come and say that to my face instead of online, bitch and we'll see what happens
>>48037384
Lorwyn was kinda cool.
>>48037394
What's fun about this idea is that this has already happened! Homo sapiens and neanderthals used to exist side by side but in the end one species had to out-compete the other.
>>48037394
There can be more than one apex predator in an ecosystem. In fact, lions/tigers don't actually hunt humans unless there is something seriously wrong with their bodies like their teeth rotting or some kind of locomotive disability. As long as humans stay out of their habitat then they likely wouldn't have a reason to come into conflict with each other
>>48037415
>If you agree with me, you agree with me.
Yeaaaah, that is not how it works, Trump boy.
I agree with your sentiment, but I disagree with your means of conveying them and believe you should be less verbose about your pet peeves.
As I said, I have been there with you.
Nothing to do about it than try to come to terms with your feelings, mate, be they teenage angst or manchild impotent rage.
>>48037390
Bro just stop
>>48037310
Eddie are you okay?
Are you okay eddie?
>>48037424
We fucked them too. Neanderthal DNA is found in the genes of every race except Africans.
>>48037424
There have been a bunch of other homo species too
>>48036892
Sometimes when i see these post i wonder if they truly believe this
>>48037390
This is you. This is what you sound like.
>>48037455
Huh, it's annie not eddie. I had no idea.
>>48037424
>>48037456
Yeah, this guy has it.
There's a huge debate going on if homo sapiens and neanderthals were as different as we think they were.
>>48037457
Yeah I know but I don't know if any of them intermingled and lived with homo sapiens as extensively as the neanderthals did.
>>48037460
I saw it.
>>48037390
what the fuck is EDO
>>48037445
To think of a multispieces evolution track is kinda brainwrecking, to be honest.
I guess that is why settings normally go "god did it".
>>48037424
Whether humans had anything to do with neanderthal extinction is highly controversial. We aren't even precisely sure if they cohabitated in any meaningful degree or not
>>48037472
Well they might have started different but that's the thing isn't it? When you have two groups of creatures living together who are capable of breeding with one another...well, the differences between the two of them tend to blur quite quickly.
The neanderthals might have just been fucked to death, completely absorbed and assimilated into homo sapiens through extensive interbreeding.
>>48036956
I personally ascribe to the not very human elves. 7-8 feet tall average with some taller than 9 feet, and also extremely lanky. Despite that they're fairly tough and significantly stronger than a human, as well as being exceedingly lithe and sharp sighted. Also I like my elves to have solid black eyes, almost alien like.
As a downside they have stronger magical affinity than humans, but that's also a negative because it means magic affects them much more strongly. In practice they take the full amount of damage from magical attacks, like say an Elf gets hit for 4 damage from a magic missile, they take 4 damage, whereas a human would only take 3 damage and a dwarf would only take 2.
Note, stuff like fire or disintegrate still hits a human or dwarf just the same, but they're basically 25% and 50% better at taking magic damage than elves are and also get +1 and +2 to magic related saves.
There are other things such as extreme xenophobia and how most elven cultures are totally resistant to change, so even though they're stronger, faster, smarter and more longlived than a human they only fight with magically created and infused wooden stuff grown from trees while humans enjoy iron and steel. Also how elves can't actually touch iron with steel having a similar although diluted effect to them.
Some more flexible elven cultures use silver weapons and armor infused with magic to strengthen it.
Dwarves I mostly like the way they are, except they're a bit more keen on grudges and violence and not particularly peaceable folk. They war against humans and elves as much as they do orcs. They're also not midgits, standing 4 and a half to 5 feet tall with extremely stocky builds. Humans average between 5.5-6.5 feet in the setting by the by, with barbarians being more disposed to 7 feet while backwater serfs might only be 5 foot on average.
>>48037496
Gives another meaning to Borg assimilation, does it not?
>>48037494
We know that humans fucked Neanderthals enough to get them into our DNA so some cohabitation must have taken place at some point.
>>48037181
>Holy shit, fucking neck yourselves, you pieces of horse crap. I am so sick of fags like you ACTUALLY DEFENDING this shit. Please explain why the FUCK you are ENTITLED to play some shitty ass race that doesn't even fit into the setting?
It's a game and who cares?
These ragepastas deserve suptg
>>48037516
I like making orcs have actual culture too. Super violent cultures, that generally keep them in a tribal state but with distinct kingdoms popping up as well. Still semi tribal in nature, such as the king being the strongest orc most of the time. But Orcish scholars exist and orcs are about as intelligent as humans, just with much shorter tempers and no magical affinity, although they still have shamanistic and druidic ability. Average between 6 and 7 feet tall, stronger than humans.
I like my humans to be a mix of European and Nordic, Far Eastern in general, and Native American as the three main subcultures of humans you'd find.
>>48037491
Dolphins are pretty smart comparatively
Fucking retards live in the water (no access to fire for construction/metallurgy), don't have opposable thumbs/manipulative appendages, and don't have a written language and they've been doing just fine for themselves
People think evolution is teleological which is a wildly incorrect. Evolution isn't working to create super strong or super intelligent megaspecies. Survivial of the fittest (which wasn't a term used in the origin of species or by Darwin) better understood as anything that gets the job done. Some species are generally fucking useless like the dumbass dodo bird but it found a perfect ecosystem for itself to live in before getting wrekt by humans.
>>48037516
Interesting take. You went kinda Warhammer Fantasy there. I often dislike the term elves, I will use the olden Arturian names like Sidhe or some alterations of such.
I like how you took that 'fey are hurt by cold iron' there and made a somewhat Dwarf Fortress culture for the elves, growing wood as armament and such. Pretty cool.
>>48037529
Its only in the DNA of some western europeans central/east asians. Also keep in mind the compounding of successive generations
>>48037586
Precisely. Evolution does not always select for sentience. In fact, if you're species is already well-adapted then it probably does the opposite.
The greatest and most common crime most settings commit is to attribute a set of behaviors, traditions, and personalities to all members of one race independent of anything else.
A group of X in a desert might very well organize themselves and have a sense of values that might seem backwards or barbaric to a group of X in a lush forest
>>48037596
Yeah I took a bit of inspiration from Warhammer, also from Battle for Wesnoth and threw it into classic D&D. Not super different but not just bland and samey either.
>>48036892
>basically an elf
>three varieties of midget
All you need is 'human', 'pretty snowflake human' and 'cute or ugly short midget human' depending on how weeby it is.
>>48036889
I'd have to agree anon.
It's a lot more fun that way.Fuck the haters.
>>48037390
Color me morbidly curious, but what is EDO and "Anime" class?
>>48037586
That is my dilema, honestly. I am not debating against animal intelligence, just that what defines humanity is the capability to shape an environment to whatever purpose we need. There has not been another species as good as us in this, much less and entire different genus, or family, that could do the same.
And how I work with fantasy settings is I go waaaay far back, to the point genetic code is not even shared between certain different, let's say 'races' to use the fantasy misnomer there.
>>48037652
That is cool man, you are entitled to have your cake, no one will take it from you.
>>48037639
>Battle for Wesnoth
>>48037622
Yeah, humans are also super inefficient in some aspects. Our engorged brains require larger craniums, skulls and brain cases. Due to this our infants take WAY longer to develop independence because of balancing issues. Human infants take a notoriously long time to develop outside of the womb, even for primates, and require lots of additional care before they can move on their own. We also give birth to extremely tiny litters (1 individual per generation of offspring typically)
>>48037415
>Get the fuck out. Tiefling paladin what a fucking joke. No fucking way. I am sick of allowing these gay-ass third party classes and I sure as fuck am not allowing them playing classes they wouldn't even be allowed into.
Yeah, fucking third-party classes like Paladin. You know, last week, this guy tried to bring this weird homebrew to the table, some dumb class called a "Fighter," and it got bonus feats EVERY OTHER LEVEL. Talk about some broken-ass faggotry.
>>48037688
Human reproduction is also fucking scary, man. I wonder how to deal with it in other races.
>>48037415
Both tieflings and paladins are core, dude
REEE guy is bait. But kender don't have a place in any game.
>>48037688
Yeah. It might seem to weird to us, who are born with it, but for most animals intelligence to this degree just isn't a survival trait. Advanced brains just aren't fucking worth it for most animals.
I had it best explained to me by someone pointing out what would happen if a shark was born with incredible levels of intelligence (for a shark). The answer was that it would probably be way shittier at Being A Shark then regular sharks and would probably be an evolutionary deadend.
>>48037730
Yeah, also big heads result in surprisingly a lot of birthing complications - like the mother dying as the most obvious ones.
>>48037639
Battle for Wesnoth was some good stuff. Have you seen Sovereignty Crown of Kings? Have some similar feeling, although quite the different execution.
>>48037675
Damn right.
I'll bake a cake huge pile of races that are basically humans with bits tapes who all live in theme parks of different human cultures.
And I'll fucking eat it too.
>>48037748
You must be a jerk then. It says in the book that only jerks dislike kender.
>>48037769
Never heard of it. Not sure how I feel about $20 but it might be worth it. I think I might try it out, thanks.
>>48037765
Oh, not only that! Did you knew that the fetus regulates the functions of the mother's body? That if it gets ill it will try to destroy the mother's body to try and stay alive? There was a copy-paste explaining this shit, pretty cash.
Not to mention we are the only mammals that bleed like we do for... whatever reason. The fact we survived as a species is a joke the universe didn't share with no one else.
It's scary shit, man. I wouldn't want to have a vagina, that's for sure.
>>48037802
If you are unsure, download a pirate copy, play a little and if it catches your fancy then dig in.
I can't guarantee anything, but after I played for hours I decided it was worth the bucks.
>>48037181
>>48037764
It would also require A LOT of additional calories to sustain that complex brain. Brain size doesn't necessarily correlate with intelligence (whale shark has huge brain but is stupid as fuck compared to humans), what matters is the structure usually and from there which structures are larger in mass comparative to body ratio. (Example: dogs are "smarter" than cats because they have larger frontal lobes - people think cats are naturally aloof compared to dogs when in reality thats a anthropomorphic trait imposed to cats when in reality cats don't follow commands well because they just don't have the brains for it)
These complex structures require huge amounts of calories to sustain. In humans its like 25% of daily calories are spent in the brain.
>>48037774
Again, man, we tailor each game to the taste of us individually. I'd share that cake with you no trouble. I can have my rainbow cake later anyways.
It's not about what's best, it's about what's good at different times under different situations.
>>48037852I normally build a races culture and shit with the players playing it that race.Collective worldbuilding is really fun.
>>48037848
>(Example: dogs are "smarter" than cats because they have larger frontal lobes - people think cats are naturally aloof compared to dogs when in reality thats a anthropomorphic trait imposed to cats when in reality cats don't follow commands well because they just don't have the brains for it)
Gonna need some sauce on that.
>>48037870
100% agreed. After all the game is played between a buncha people, not in a vacuum, so all we can do to better share it is a good idea.
>>48037848
This triggers cat owners pretty hard.
>>48037890
Yeah, people get more invested as well.
Ryuutama has great town system as well where you can fill it in round robin for each question.
I like to build maps with a flowchart program as well nice and easy.
>>48037879
Don't have no sauce, but it is true in a sense.
For example, it is known that dogs understand we are not the same and think we are just as cute and endearing as we think of them (they get the same endorphin peaks we do).
Meanwhile cats can't distinguish our differences for what they are and just see humans as big dumb hairless cat-babies that they have to babysit and are often annoying.
>>48036837
I approach worldbuilding from the perspective of internal consistency. Shit just has to make sense. Culture, politics, religion, race, etc. is all based first and foremost on whether or not it is reasonable given the premise of the game.
Races are differentiated by their physiological characteristics, they don't have inborn personalities or worldviews.
I don't really consider it low fantasy but the conventions surrounding races that I appreciate the most are frequently regarded as low fantasy. So I don't do elves as the immortal forest people, I do them as a homo superior race - they're descended from the same (typically Dark Souls-esque Lordlike) race as humans. They are as different from homo sapiens sapiens as we are from pygmies or abbos - pretty significantly but not to the point of being a completely divergent species.
I don't really like dwarves as a race because they don't make much sense, and I absolutely hate all the freakish little man races like halflings and gnomes.
Most of the races in my games are just different subspecies of men. So in addition to the elf-like waifish and delicate homo superior, there are also tall, strong, resilient homo superior (which fill a role similar to dwarves); standard homo sapiens who have intelligence and social cohesion going for them; and then, generally as the antagonists, a dark, squat, feeble-minded race that breeds like rabbits.
>>48037870
Mmm, that's the good shit. I like it when you make a character in a specific race or culture and you have the freedom to say 'ah, I'm not as surprised as the rest of the party, X is more common where I come from' and such and having the DM go along with it.
>>48037394
If you go by humans as being a jack of all trades, they are better generalist survivors. Don't excel at any environment or niche, but can establish populations at more places.
Elves and dwarfs are specialists. They excel at their given environments but suffer outside from it.
But while this provides space for each to grow, elves and dwarfs will entrench into their best locations, while humans spread and sex around to the point of needing/wanting resources from races which are quite similar in their needs.
Cue humans being more numerous and ocasionally invading elven woods and dwarf hills.
>>48037415
Feeling better after letting all out?
>>48037879
>assblasted cat memester detected
Lmao just google it. Look at the comparative sizes of a dog's frontal lobes to a cat's. A dogs body to brain mass is a 1.5 to 1.6 percent of its total mass while a cat's is like .08 to .09. They just aren't comparable when you consider how much more cortical tissue that a dog has compared to a cat
There have been so many studies on the cognitive performance of dogs that really you shouldn't have any trouble at all finding a good journal that supports what I'm saying. Just use a free scholarly registry to find an article about canine cognition.
>>48037933I like to plan out like a broad story arc for the game beforehand as well so everyone one has something they can enjoy together.
>>48037908
Since I draw ok I like to do it right there and then and go around the table asking people worldbuilding questions like "what is here, what is this town name, what does it imports, what does it produces, who lives there" and then we go making stories and jokes as people create their characters and I work on the plot and setting for the adventure. It's pretty rad.
Since I am an old school faggot I am still playing D&D, but gladly upgraded to 5e from pathfinder. Much smoother and simpler system, and feels just... HUMM.
>>48037957
>its brain to body size ratio is greater
>therefore it's smarter
That's not even close to being respectable science. It's the tendency, but one can't just compare sizes. For instance, a very quick google search tells me cats have roughly twice as many neurons in the part of the brain that does problem solving.
>>48037968
>Since I am an old school faggot I am still playing D&D, but gladly upgraded to 5e from pathfinder. Much smoother and simpler system, and feels just... HUMM.
You should still check it out senpai.
The town creation rules for the game are totally system agnostic.
>>48037942
Setting I am trying to create has no humans, but have 'human-like' races (the playable ones, of course), and I tried to approach it differently. There is only some places humans can live because everyone else everywhere else are bigger, meaner, scarier and more numerous than they are. Thus the need for individual strength in 'adventurer' rolls. Humans have to be special snowflake adventurers because they don't have strength in numbers. And since they also lack in most departments (dumber, weaker, slower and more fragile than most other races) they also tend to be the most inventive and far-reaching.
I found out I like to write things that make sense and adventuring VERY RARELY makes sense, so instead of accommodating I just built humans around adventuring. It feels right for a game setting.
>>48038020
Oh, no problem, I like meddling in different settings. It looks pretty easy to use too.
What is it you said, Ryuutama, right? Is it a system?
>>48038044
Yeah senpai.
It's a really light-hearted JRPG about going on an adventure in the classical sense.
My group has never even been in combat and it's mostly SoL but you can do all kinds of stuff with it.
But it great for the kind of collective world building deal, like each player is supposed to design the village that their character comes from and stuff.
>>48037933
I remember Chris Perkins once somewhere and Steven Lumpkin and Adam Koebel all mentioned something like that. I think it was constructive narrative. Like, the GM asks the player "what do you see?" instead of the player asking the GM "what do I see".
I must say I thoroughly enjoy it, but it makes for interesting games when the BBEG is drinking in the first tavern the players waltz into.
>>48038076
That sounds like the kind of shit I dig. I might have to go deeper.
I often steer pretty clear of JRPGs, mostly because I grew up with the otaku culture, so you bet your ass I watched naruto until my eyes went sore, but this looks well made.
And there is something to be said about something well made no matter where it comes from.
I appreciate you taking the time to show me the ways of the samurai, friend. Will not go to waste.
>>48037765
Most birthing problems stem from the fact that our upright walk has shifted the place where the vagina is typically placed in relation to our hips, both because it is less in the way there and because the hips changed position.
Other mamals have no troubles giving birth, because their vaginas are placed somewhere with more space and a better angle. Basicaly human babys come out at a shit angle and our hips have not accomodated yet and gotten wide enaugh, because evolutionary pressure is not high enaugh. Basically we are too good at surviving. But thats also why we find wide hips attractive (even sometimes women in men, that shit still carries in you genes as a man), it gives a higher percentage of survival for offspring. We just didn't have the time yet to fully evolve to that point because the homo sapiens is still a relatively young species.
>>48038130
It's cool.
One quick piece of advice though is that mechanically the system is "lethal" but you should be treating "death" like in a regular RPG and more of a setback or problem like someone getting injured and needing help or the party getting kidnapped rather than outright death.
I am a bit of a huge faggot when it comes to races, it's kind of a big part of my values, beliefs, ideals and all that other kind of stuff, and I realize most people really dont like that, so I either try to completely disregard the race from the game, or try to sneak my opinions and ideals and stuff without it being too obvious, and it always ends up very interesting and fun to people, cant forget that fun is what this is all about in the first place.
I simply can not believe in evolution, but not also believe in some form of eugenics. I just cant. Different environments shape objectively different life forms. There's no escaping this.
Another huge one: genetics and culture. Babies dont know how to laugh and cry, nobody teaches them this, all babies know this. Same goes with fearing heights and spiders and snakes sharp objects. We were not old enough to figure out these things are very bad, no, and yet we know them. How? Well, trough genetics, our ancestors experienced these things, and they experienced them so hard that these phobias ended up being passed on down the line trough genetics. Same with bits and pieces of culture and language but anyway there are academic articles about this, let's not get into this.
So in my worlds, different races exist, and no one is entitled to any land, evolutionary pressure didnt hit a zero yet, there are constantly new mutations and new races, and they are constantly fighting for survival or domination, some races get wiped out, some survive and thrive, and than it all happens again.
I had campaigns where the story is basically just a migration of your tribe, the whole story is just the struggles for survival of your people and nothing else, a world where all your goals and values are just securing the future for your children/people and nothing else.
>>48038018
>brain to body ratio
>not respectable science
First off, yes it absolutely is. You don't know better than academic researchers. Second of all, brain to body mass ratios aren't THAT accurate to gauge human intelligence sure (in fact, a single standard deviation smaller to the average human brain size is correlated with above average intelligence, controversially). What you probably read was that cat's has more free neurons. Big fucking deal? Whales have more neurons than any other mammal and its mostly sensory to help them accurately control themselves. Neurons don't mean anything unless they are belong to certain structure not myelinated neurons
Now fuck off, go study for your high school shit retard
I only have one human in my Star WARS party and my players role play fairly well when they actually bother to do so. The Trandoshan is equal parts brutal and survival of the fittest, the Ubese is enigmatic and not a big fan of humans or government, etc etc. They usually do a pretty good job of presenting themselves as alien and putting themselves in the mindset of a non-human, and I think that's important to encourage.
Another thing is to not fall for the Culture of Hats thing. Sure dwarves are subterranean and generally interested in wealth or craftsmanship, but if you want a Dwarven NPC they should have more character traits than just that.
I know it's not strictly fantasy but a lot of the same things about race options apply. First and foremost should be, is this an interesting character and will they make for interesting stories, then you worry about how their race influences those things.
>>48038141
That is all correct. It is a terrifying thing, a species that 50% of the time have to cut the mother's belly open to take out the baby with minimal, emphasis on minimal, complications.
If you know anything about medicine you know even a small intrusive incision in the abdomen will never be called a minimal complication.
>>48038173
*specifically myelinated neurons
Shit, ignore the "not myelinated neurons" f a ms
>>48038161
>"lethal"
Now you are singing the song of my people, dearest anon.
Last 5e game I am running with this group had 5 deaths in total. 2 at level 1, one at level 2, one at level 3 and one at level 6.
They were, respectively, killed by a cultist using a level 1 harm (3d10 damage) and then strangled by a zombie, killed by an angry Roper, killed by a falling human-sized larvae from the ceiling, killed by an unlucky disintegration ray of a beholder (bitches killed the beholder, tho) and killed by the insect plague spell from a mummy lord (bitches killed the mummy lord too).
I like my games like I like my poker, high stakes and dropping bodies.
>>48038169
>second paragraph
waaat
>>48038221
Yeah, it's just something to keep in mind if you're running a light-hearted game.
But there is a whole system in the setting for more grim adventures.
>>48037918
You had me until 'antagonist'.
I think we are far too capable of violence to even need something as tolkien-ish as an antagonist race. But then again, that goes without counting divine intervention.
Still, I liked how you made the souls reference there. I might steal that if you don't mind.
>>48036892
>Why people don't like playing with edgy teens: The Post
>>48038239
That sounds like my cake. I might run a lighter adventure akin to Dungeon Meshi some of these days (been promising it to the guys on roll20 for a while now).
This rules seem more than adequate, they fit like a glove.
>>48038270
>Dungeon Meshi
Yeah that's a great fit for this system along with things like Spice and wolf or Kino's Journey.
>>48038169
As someone who has quite the difficulty with communicating what I want, I sympathize with your struggle.
Still, read your post again and see how someone could think of it as confusing and misleading.
>>48038287
Spice and Wolf and Kino no Tabi are two other sources I forgot to draw from.
I love how they deal with fluid commerce, coinage and free market in S&W.
Might have to watch that shit again (third time is the charm).
Shit, it will throw a span into my work, but c'est la vie.
>>48038232
Neurons bundled in a free neural pathway which is another way of saying "white matter", pathways that connect to distant brain structures. Use this resource to help expand your tiny babby mind if you need to:
http://www.indiana.edu/~p1013447/dictionary/greywhit.htm
Now shoo babby shoo
>>48038359
Good luck senpai.
>>48037181
>>48036892
>I fucking hate my players, I'd love to hose them down with a goddamn flame thrower and watch them writhe in the sticky embrace of napalm.
Do world a favour and stop playing TTRPG
>>48038372
Good luck to you too, you smooth operator.
>>48038375
I would love to know the context of this picture.
>>48036837
I prefer to go with mostly human, but with some important difference. There's a reason why they're humanoids, but there's also a reason why they aren't just humans.
>>48037107
I actually like this a lot, even for races which aren't too fundamentally different.
My orcs are basically a bit like Morlocks, being a subterranean humanoid form with pretty decent technical proficiency, and have senses adapted for that kind of nocturnal lifestyle. Their language uses sounds humans have trouble hearing, their proportions, movements, and body language is off. Their eyes are wide and staring, not really showing emotion like a human.
Learning orcish is incredibly difficult for any human, and orcs struggle with basic human language. They've got a reputation for being stupid because there are actual differences in how they hear sounds and speak, so they absolutely mangle any human language they use when they even bother trying.
Their culture isn't without parallels to humans, but their environment and physiology results in them expressing them quite differently. Now, Orcs are actually the race -most- similar to humans in terms of behavior.
>>48038299
Basically I have made games where the main goal was to procreate with specific mates and everything depended on your choice of mates and everyone really liked it.
>>48038407
so would i
>>48037238
>>48037254
>I agree with you in the Witcher mostly because we never hear of their struggle to fit in human society or WHY they are fitting in in human society (outside of the first game, but no one wants to play that).
Then read the fucking books, you idiot. Seriously, what the fuck is this statement? "I don't know jack shit about the setting, so I will complain about it".
You are at least aware the games are based on a book series with well-established universe, right?
>>48038442
Sounds like fun, honestly.
I only played in one fetish game with a group of girls. I swear, no matter the weird shit you like, your mind can't conjure the level of weird I faced that day. Went as far as replacing my character with an eunuch harem guard. My job was to make sure t he girls could do whatever the fuck they wanted (mostly because I wanted no part in that crazyfest).
A game centered around evolution and reproduction, like a hyper rogue legacy, sounds fun.
>>48038375
LMAO 419 EATERS I REMEMBER
>>48038407
You know what 419 scammers are? Basically Nigerian email scammers who trick elderly white people into handing over their life savings in a too-good-to-be-true scheme. Theres a website that baits these scammers and make them do ridiculous things in the guise that they will money out of them if they do it. IIRC this is one such picture
The races are divided into a sub type called kin. They all share the same proto-humanoid ancestor. The oldest kin are the humans, the middle ones are human differentiated by there environment and the newest ones are those who used supernatural or unnatural methods to differentiate themselves. Some are differentiated using magic, the environment. Also all races live shorter lives. That's the only way I can justify such diversity via changes in populations.
>>48036892
I agree one hundred percent with this guy.
>>48036837
I talk with my players beforehand, see what they want, then spin a setting around it. Works fine for me and all the different groups I've been playing over the years. They are happy because the setting matches their expectations and personally, I don't give a fuck about the setting content. I just run them and that's all I care about.
>>48038470
Calm your boots, compadre. I am doing exactly that, but the first book is kinda slow. I expect I will have it all under my belt by next year.
Now you can't really expect me to talk about something I don't know yet, so I will talk about what I know: the games. And in the games the races feel pretty shoehorned fantasy archetypes. Still doesn't detract from the setting, or the enjoyment of the games, or the settings overall likability for me and MUCH LESS SO for you.
So please, please, chill your socks.
>>48038530
Different anon, but why the fuck you are even reading the first book and not short stories? Those are the ones that build the setting and explain more shit than entire saga together.
Or you are saying a collection of short stories is too slow?
Or you now are trying to hide embarassment about the fact you shitposted about the setting you don't even know?
>>48036892
BTW I stopped doing home brew because of this.
>>48038503
>>48038407
Expanding on this...
Here's another such picture. They'll get them to take photos or even get tattoos sometimes in really extreme cases.
You've probably at least heard references to 419 scammers. It was an early internet type thing, usually you'd get a strange email from a guy claiming to be a desperate african prince asking that he stores his fortune in your bank account while he flees his war torn country. Usually elderly white people would fall for these not being familiar with the internet
They're called 419 for a nigerian area code, the vast majority of the scammers are nigerian nationals for whatever fucking reason.
>>48038528
Sure, but what do YOU want to run?
Being a forever GM for so long as I have I know pretty damn well a GM worth his salt will run good games to anything, but the best games are about what inflame their passion bones.
>>48038369
Did you mean "grey matter"?
>>48038555
>Sure, but what do YOU want to run?
I don't care, which I already stated. It makes no difference for me at all. What "inflames my bones" is an option from time to time to be a player and not host games for 17 years straight
>>48038549
I am reading the first book because... it is the first book. I want to do this in the right order, as I did LoTR, as I did Cybermancer, as I am doing with a SoIaF.
Unknot your breeches and unsully your pants, dear chap, and explain to me how are dwarves and elves not shoehorned generic fantasy archetypes in the Witcher instead of calling foul and running for the hills.
>>48038407
(Here's another)
So in response, a couple of forums sprang up where people tricked these scammers into doing really hilarious shit while pretending to be totally unsuspecting of the scammer's nature. There are some really outrageous stories, most of them usually result in harmless pranking for the would-be thief but others are... much MUCH more darker. One story in fact resulted (possibly) in the death of a man's nephew and son after a baiter tricked them into going to Darfur (was where the north Arab Sudanese were genociding the black Sudanese in the south, very dangerous place)
Here's the story for that if you're interested in that: http://www.419eater.com/html/RoadToChadDarfur/
In my game, the races are the French, Sheep-people from space who came here on their asteroid ships, mutated spawn of the late Tarasque known as Tarrors, and the ghosts of roman soldiers who rose up to show the French how an empire SHOULD be done.
pic related is probably a Tarror
>>48038611
Then you are reading in a wrong order, you dolt. The short stories come first and they are extremely important to even grasp what the hell is going on and who is who in first two books. I mean you literally skipped 1/4 of the story by jumping to the first book directly.
>>48038611
>explain to me how are dwarves and elves not shoehorned generic fantasy archetypes
>Please spoon-feed me
Read all the books. Well, not all - you can completely skip Season of Storms. Because there is too much of it to cram it within 2000 sign limit
>>48038578
Then you don't want to run games, mate, simple as that. When you got a passion for running games you will forsake playing. It is a damned funny thing, being forced to run games because you are the only one that cares to do so and one day you find out you don't even want to play with someone else running anymore.
It is a bitch, but now I love GMing and your apathy sounds more like a teenager's hussy fit.
>>48036896
What's wrong with mutants?
>>48038611
First of all, in what language you are reading it? Yes, that's extremely important.
Second, the only race that runs on archetypes are gnomes and nobody really understands why they even exist within the verse.
Third, read the books, starting with short stories, especially those from Sword of Destiny - they exist pretty much to play with the setting, thus explain a lot of background details. And most definitely read The Edge of the World from Last Wish
>>48038669
The amount of things you take from your ass and try to put into my mouth is just fucking amazing.
How about you stop?
>>48038639
>I mean you literally skipped 1/4 of the story by jumping to the first book directly.
Explain to me what is wrong with what you just said.
To be honest, brother, you sound kinda whinny. The first book is slow, but not nearly as much of a crawl as the Fellowship of the Ring and god knows it is infinitely better less cryptic than the Silmarillion. I will deal, mate.
Again, cool off. No need to offensive language.
>>48038656
Right in the process of doing so, but anon there is insisting I am doing it wrong by starting with the first book.
>>48038611
>I want to do this in the right order
>He skipped short stories
>>48038715
Because you are doing it wrong.
The "first book", Blood of Elves, picks up where the last two stories from Sword of Destiny left. And those stories pick in turn from two other stories from Last Wish.
So you basically skipped entire introduction to the saga and don't even know what's going on. No wonder it's slow read for you, since you simply can't understand what the hell is going on.
Plus reading the rest of short stories also help, because elements mentioned in them became pivotal and important later on too.
In short - drop Blood of Elves and read AT LEAST The Sword of Destiny and Something More, the two final stories from Sword of Destiny.
Not to mention Sword of Destiny (the entire collection) is the best thing in entire witcher series
>>48038686
Mutants are okay. Let the "funny humans" be off-shoots of humans. I want other species to be a bit more alien.
>>48038695
1 Reading in english. They had it in spanish but eeeeh. Nah. And I don't speak anything else worth of note.
2 That is what I am trying to find out.
3 I am reading chronological order as I will do every single time for every single setting.
Enjoying it so far, too.
>>48038761
Chronological order, mate. I will read them as they come out in my goddamn backwaters country. Besides downloading illegally I have no other way of acquiring them.
>>48038703
There goes again, the sound of adolescence boiling with repressed angst.
>>48038781
Well, yeah, but then they aren't D&D style races because they'd be inappropriate for players to use. If it's playable, it's either human or has a human mind as far as I'm concerned, but it's perfectly fine for there to be elves dancing in the fields who enchant you with strange magic and invite you to a night of partying and when the night is over 100 years have passed in the world of men because elves are fucking weird.
>>48038715
Anon, the entire Witcher series runs on power of destiny. And to fully grasp all the connections between characters and thus the story from the saga, you pretty much must know how Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri are connected. Which is fully covered over A Matter of Price, The Last Wish, The Voice of Reason (important framing device), A Shard of Ice, The Sword of Destiny and Something More stories. Which means half of the short stories already, but adding to those The Lesser Evil, The Bounds of Reason and Eternal Flame helps to understand things that show up around 3rd book of the saga, Baptism of Fire. So that just leaves four short stories that aren't crucial or important to the plot of the saga.
Skipping short stories is just stupid move
>>48038786
Chronological order means you start with short stories, too.
>>48036892
You're speaking truth, brother.
Never change, you're doing the gods work.
>>48038786
If you can read it in Spanish, stick with it. I mean it.
English translation is so fucking wooden it robs the whole series from it's main selling point in Poland - witty style and shitload of minor wordplays. In English - and only in it - the book are just generic dark fantasy, deadly serious and ruining a LOT of dialogues by turning them into pretentious crap.
Hell, same applies to games, where Geralt has pretty normal voice in every language, but in English he speaks with Generic Badass Growler #25
>>48037181
I'd play a game with you bro.
>>48038815
Perhaps so, but nothing I can do about it because I don't PHYSICALLY have means to acquire short stories. Do you understand that?
I can only buy blood of elves. Thus I bought blood of elves. Thus I am reading blood of elves.
But I will be honest you are making me doubt it. It hasn't been that hard to understand it, since I have a lot of spoilers from the games, but sure. I can wait a year or two until they launch Short Stories. In which order was it?
>>48038830
Chronological in order of LAUNCH, brother, not in setting.
>>48037096
>No procreation with Humans possible
the fact that this is rule 1 tells me all i need to know about you and your table, anon
>>48038875
>Chronological in order of LAUNCH
>The Last Wish (1993, English edition: 2007)
>Blood of Elves (1994, English edition: 2008)
Why are you even still trying? You fucked up. Cool. You keep denying that like a 5 year old. Not cool.
>>48038861
Shit. You made me reconsider my life choices now.
Maybe I need to play the games again too.
>>48038875
Last Wish first, then Sword of Destiny. Then you can read the saga. Avoid Season of Storms, it's a fast cash grab done due to the hype of vidya and it's pretty much a 15-pages long story stretched into an excruciating 400 pages book that goes from nowhere to nowhere
>>48038888
What makes you think I am an americunt, anon? Or live in Poland for that matter.
>>48038918
Don't have either of those available, but I will check with the store when they should arrive. Hold off on blood of elves until then. If it starts bugging me I will grab an online pdf of fuckit.
>>48038981
Because you are complaining about lacking English translation and you confess of not speaking any other language than English? So either you are American or British, as the books weren't publish at all in Canada, Australia and NZ.
Given the hour, you are a British cunt
I like having Mushroom folk in my games as stand ins for Hobbits. Geographically it doesn't always make the most sense, but no one's complained yet. I call 'em "Mushmin" because I'm lazy.
Mushmin are slow walkers and runners, but have nimble fingers. They're great at making and (and for a few, extorting) friends and though they're not book smart, they tend to be fairly wise through all their adages and sayings. Also, they can take hits like the best of them, but aren't nearly as great at dishing it out.
They enjoy the little things, value family, hard work, and organization highly, and though they like to meet and trade with new people for a short while, they really prefer to live among themselves. They tend to be more peaceful, and the few Mushmin who do decide to adventure tend to work as bards, lock pickers, and meat(?)shields.
half elves and half orcs creep me out.
something about it... idk... is just weird. not any implied rape shit either just the idea of like two different species, which i prefer to think of as pretty alien with each other, having kids together... is just odd to me.
idk if anyone else feels that way. never liked the idea. i don't think i've ever played a half elf, maybe one half orc.
>>48039034
How about this:
Half-breeds are mules.
It saved half-elves for me and made them interesting.
>>48039000
I did no such thing, mate. I speak english and spanish and no other language worth of note, aka, portuguese. From PORTUGAL.
Falas português por acaso? Não? Então cala te, filisteu.
I also did not complain about a lack of translated version. I am informing you about my inability to find one at my locality, legally. Does that not give you rest?
>>48039022
That sounds golden. Mind if I borrow it for a setting?
>>48039074
>Seriously bothering about legality of reading fan-translations, aka the only complete translation
Anon...
Plus, given the series was never translated into Portugese not counting the first part of the saga, why even bothering with starting up?
>>48039114
>the series was never translated into Portugese
It did.
>why even bothering with starting up?
I wasn't.
The bookstore had blood of elves in english and spanish and it said 'first book' so I decided to buy and read it. Why? Because I want to support the people that do this shit.
Does that bother you?
>>48039087
No problem! Glad to see they might be used!
Remember that they're not too different from Hobbits, except They're size and shape tends to vary. Also, at least one Fungi/Fun Guy pun is required by law.
>>48039157
Don't worry, I always had a special place for Miconids in my heart. They are in good hands.
>>48039154
You mean support your local publisher? Because the author sold the rights for fixed amount of money for each translation other than Czech, knowing those books will be butchered in translation and won't sell well. So Sapkowski already got all the money he could from the deal looooong time ago.
>>48039173
And my local bookstore, yes. Things are harsh enough without us fucking the only place in 20 mile radius that sells books.
>>48039194
Oh, right, I forgot that Portugal is being bought up by Angolians and Brazilians and the main export is fado and fortified wine
>>48036892
Those are exactly the races i don't allow in my games. Because The eternal war between the civilized ThriKreen empire and the slavering hordes of the Catfolk Supremacy is boss.
>>48039224
And now you assume I live in portugal.
Keep trying, I will check tomorrow to see if you figured it out since it is pretty late *hint* *hint*
>>48038141
So, you're saying that if human technological development had proceeded at a slower pace, all women would have dem hips?
Damn it, why did we have to rush it? Not like it did much good since we still ended up fucking around in pre industrial stage for thousands of years until somebody finally figured out the stuff we needed to kickstart the industrial revolution.
>>48039247
How about this - I don't give a fuck.
But I do give a fuck how fucking stupid you are and your childish "b-but I read it in the right order".
Been wanting to make a setting with demons as a playable race or races. Basically Hell is a big place with various nation or tribe like factions, much like the mortal plane, and every now and then, somebody crosses over to conquer land, or raid, or settle, either to gain influence back home, expand territory, steal resources or get away out of there because Hell is quite literally a hellhole, where it sucks being the little guy. So you end up with actual demon settlements and even cross plane traders. Granted, demons are justifiably generalized and bad news and shifty types, but peaceful relations do happen.
Figure Heaven goes the same way, except they rarely raid or settle, seeing as Heaven is the shit to live in, and ventures to the mortal realm generally has to do with expanding political influence and possibly resources that aren't as common in Heaven.
Ventures to hell from the mortal plane and heaven are rarely about settlements, but mostly military campaigns, establishments of heavily fortified crusader states, trade missions and resource grabs.
Thought about prolonged stays in foreign planes affecting people. Demons in the mortal plane turning more grey and less ferocious as they adapt to a less fiery home. Fires to ash and smoke. Angels also turn less bright and lose some splendour when they stick around in mortal land for long periods. Still not sure going to the opposite affects either.
>>48039264
Not read, reading.
And since you do give a fuck, however petulant you sound, don't let me keep you and go fuck right off with your whining.
>>48039282
Sounds good
>>48039325
>Still posting
Miguel, what are you doing?
>>48037271
I had one like this: humans migrated from their original continent in prehistory and bred with other sapient hominids in other continents. A couple milions years after the two main races were half "elves", half "orcs" and "haflings" with various other inferior hominid races that the original humans didn't breed with as slaves, livestock and "mysterious wild men" (basically as if bigfoot was your goblin equivalent, giants were gigantopitecus blackii etc).
The "magic system" was lifted wholesale from Zootheology and Drakengaard: you had a "God" that gave you "powers" if you sacrificed something to it (your voice, your sight etc).
>>48036889
My Ethiopian comrade. I don't like obsession with weird and inhuman races, it feels immature. They belong in books as a device to help explore paradoxes of our life and future. In roleplaying games, especially fantasy games, they make me cringe.
>>48036892
>>48037181
>>48037310
This is the funniest shit I've read in ages.
Mate, not every fantasy setting is standard medieval England high fantasy. This is why D&D has so many races and templates, so that if a DM wants, they can make a world with a totally different ecosystem from the standard western high fantasy setting.
If your setting is bog standard medieval fantasy, then just tell your players that.
Also, nobody on /tg/ likes kender. Nobody IRL likes kender.
Because I'm a massive fedora lord, I don't like using typical (dwarf, elf, hobbit) races and I usually want races to be seriously different from each other, in size and environment as well.
NOW RATE MY FUCKING RACES
>Humans
The 'many faced' people. Humans are closest to the Gods because the Gods are who created humans; each human nation and people is aligned to its pantheon. Some humans were made of mud, some fired in an oven, some woven from the god's hair, etc. Additionally the 'human' label also applies to beings like Tieflings, Satyrs, and the super secret Innsmouth-but-with-sheep people I'm adding in there somewhere too. They are close enough in size and ability to be human.
>Barrow Folk
Tiny woodland critter people. They can be any kind of critter- raccoon, squirrel, fox, rabbits, weasels, skunk, rat, beaver, otter, badger and so on. Small and pretty shit in combat, but good at hiding and sneaking around.
>Vanara
Monkey men, a bit smaller then humans, but more agile and wise. They like to meditate, and actually age based on their wisdom and experience, so some of them are 'immortal idiots' who just travel the world being young punks forever. They can speak to any near human sapient like Dolphins, wild monkies, a few really smart dogs and pigs and parrots, etc.
>Herpeton
The Lizard men; the biggest among these races. They have a poisonous bite and are cold blooded. Their culture worships dragons, as they are the bastard children and spawn of dragons. (Dragons are angels in this setting, but many of them went rogues and found these lizard primitives to 'uplift' and enslave under religious pretenses'.
How good are these?
>>48040004
>Human
>Tiny humans
>Humans with fur
>Humans with scales
Literally 1/4 races
>>48040183
So if it acts in any way like what language using highly social tool creating sapient, it's automatically "human" and thus shit. So what you want out of other races is literal monsters that you can't relate to in any way at all, that about right?
>>48040212
You don't get it, don't you?
There is nothing interesting or special in those races. That's why they are human with some insignificant feature
>>48040004
>Look at my furry setting and despair!
>>48040240
The amount of differences in those races is the same as the difference between any number of species on earth. One is literally fucking lizards. One is a fey like race of small animal people. One is the perennial favorite of nerd culture, literal monkey people. The other is humans since it's usually appropriate to include a facsimile of our species, even if their are fantastic elements attached to them sometimes.
So really, describe how they are all humans with all those differences I pointed out.
>>48040272
Anon, look
Nobody gives a fuck how diverse it appears to you.
Nobody.
It's just different species that plays the same role. Have you ever heard about Alpha Centauri? You've got an all-human setting, with 12 different factions that are distinctively different without even trying or making any effort about it to the point you can consider them separate races.
You propose a setting where the main difference boils down to what type of animal was used as a base. You know what that sounds like? Like a furfag being salty people don't like him
>>48040272
>Humans
Duh
>Tiny humans
If the main element of any given race is the creature or animal it's based on, it's just bland shit - so human
>Humans with fur
A hippie-anarcho bullshit about wise sages. Literally nothing else - humans then.
>Humans with scales
Bitch, please, that's the bog standard lizardfolk, so literally humans with scales
>>48040272
If any given element of any given non-human species can be applied by humans, it means that race is just pandering with physiology to be different, while it could be easily sub-group within human race and/or culture of it. Which they usually are, but packed in exotic wrapping paper.
>>48040272
Here is a clue - elves are nothing more than long lived humans with pointy ears. Remove that and what you've got?
Humans.
So when you have this brillian and original race can be summed up in "monkeys that do yoga", I see someone who doesn't understant he just made a race of yogi, basically turning an "occupation" into different species to claim some imaginary invention points.
It doesn't work that way.
Maybe it's just the way you described them and maybe the full description of the race makes it better, but as it's posted in this very thread - it's just bad idea that reeks with unfortinate implications.
>>48036837
Cute Denizens of Leng in OP picture.
>>48040298
>>48040348
>>48040390
I'm not him, I'm just trying to figure out how you spergs think. So what I've gleaned from this is that based on animal = furry = bad. So even if they have a neat culture, just because they aren't human they are bad.
So how do you do a nonhuman race right? Please enlighten me.
>>48036956
>the Banner Saga
>>48040493
But anon, they don't have neat culture, that's the whole fucking point. If they had, they would be interesting and because of that culture, not physiology. Since they lack anything interesting or original, the only thing that stands out is how they are basically animal-based. It's not even about furries. It's about being pathetic attempt to make race original by not making it look like a human, but still act like one.
>>48040493
The people you're trying to understand are the worst sort of autistic idiots that can't actually use any imagination or conceive of any reason humans aren't the only race ever. They also believe magic is a scientific endeavor and /pol/ threads are okay in /tg/ because they're about statistics and realism.
>>48040514
What does "acting human" mean in this case?
>>48040004
Humies are alright. Dunno what I feel about Tieflings and Satyrs being counted as them, though.
Barrow Folk are mediocre.
Vanara seem interesting, but I'm getting a weird Kender vibe thing going on from them.
Herpeton are actually good, I think. Name change might be nice, though.
>>48038853
It's pasta, you fucking ree-ree.
>>48040522
As a believer in scientific magic, I'm also the dude questioning these autists.
>>48040538
Then enjoy your new exercise in futility.
>>48037244
Jesus anon, before this moment I never truely grasped what being a sperg meant. But you showed me. Live free and sperg out, you beautiful crayon eating bastard, Live free
>>48040525
Let's focus on the most "shining" example of the three.
There is an entire race (!) of yogi. That's the main and definitive trait of the race culturaly. So not only we have the classic bullshit of 'race of hats", but also given hat is extremely specific and basically boiling down to single task. Then the other trait of the race is how they are monkeys.
So we have a race that is bland both culturaly and biologicaly. There is nothing special about them, they are also extremely similar to humans in their physiology. So why they even exist in the first place as separate race in a game?
Here, if it was a material for a book, the race would be simply a plot device. But when it's supposed to be a playable race, what exactly makes it different from humans in a real, decisive sense?
>>48037415
Okay anon, you had us going, but just by saying you don't know who Virt is just narrowed down who you are to two possibilities. You're either
>Virt
Or
>A newfag
Only two options, and judging by how much detail you went into about your "in-depth and engaging campaigns" and how you spent "12 years honing my craft" like some autistic weeaboo who studied "The Blade", your campaigns are probably low quality, generic pieces of shit, and you hadn't actually had a player in 11 years. Basically, you're a spurdo.
I'm right on the nose with my little analysis, aren't I?
Different races probably not needed. Substituting actual characterization with racial profiling is lazy and often produces unconvincing results.
You should use non-humans in fantasy only if they are truly different from humans in some way, be it alien mindset or special powers and (if we are talking about games) mechanics.
>>48040649
And yet, you've dismissed the actual implications of culture that arise from the actual description. An entire race of monkey yogis who can be immortal young punks if they lack the ability for introspection and growth. This doesn't limit their species but provides the base to build from for all of its characters. Wiser on average doesn't mean always wiser. Something you spergs seem to forget. In addition, the ability to talk to any near human sapient opens up quite a few interesting implications for their culture.
Essentially, what he created is lesser versions of Sun Wukong. Which is a perfectly fine thing to do for a race.
>But when it's supposed to be a playable race, what exactly makes it different from humans in a real, decisive sense?
They are monkeys, they can talk to near sapients, and they are possibly immortal. Those are some fairly decisive differences.
>>48040649
This
Vanara could be literally replaced with meditating Hindu and nothing would change. Nothing.
>>48040722
>An entire race of monkey yogis who can be immortal young punks if they lack the ability for introspection and growth
>They are monkeys, they can talk to near sapients, and they are possibly immortal.
Great, so we have a race of special snowflakes that breaks the limit of special snowflakeness. Cogratu-fucking-lations, I wish you being happy with them.
>>48037415
Go away Virt.
>>48040751
And here is the other type of shitty autist, the one who calls anything even vaguely fantastic "special snowflake".
>>48040734
Except for the very real differences being an immortal monkey provides. Seriously, you autists really do ignore the facts of their physiology and how it would affect their culture and character don't you?
