Have you ever played or designed a setting that didn't have any humans in it? What playable entities did you have in it instead? How did it go?
>>43773175
Right now I'm working on a world where the three major races come down to dragon-like desert people, bipedal beetles, and essentially really slim yeti's.
The dragon people are held up in large cities across the northern desert and can rapidly cool themselves down by breathing fire. They also have some pretty neat steam tech that abuses how fucking hot it is where they live.
The beetles are mostly barbarian tribes with a few major cities across the central expanse of the world. They can't fly, but can use their wings to quickly dash from place to place. They have the lowest tech level and are more akin to the common notion of how Mongolian tribes worked.
The tundra to the south west doesn't allow much for the way of the yeti-like people to do much tech wise, but they are able to use some magic to turn the ice and snow into their little villages and way-points across the snowfields. They enjoy their isolation as it gives them a chance to focus on their own Buddhist-like culture.
There's also a great jungle expanse to the east, but I have yet to fully do up the sentient creatures there. Same with a vampire-like species to the western islands.
>>43773175
Yep. In my world there are only giants and elves left after the goddess killed herself to save her world from the beings between the stars.
Today the corrupted giants, ancestors of the titans that ate the bbts, try to release them from their prisons that are guarded by the elves.
>>43773175
Yeah it had_______ponies_______
Not no humans, but humans functionally extinct. Maybe less than a couple thousand of them in the whole world and very few actually clustered together, most just spread out. Actually seeing one could be a once in a lifetime thing, and most were uncomfortable around them.
>>43774589
Are dragon people winged, or more salamander people?
If you wanted you could do Romans in the rainforest, see if you have any Elder Scrolls lorefags in your group.
I should make a setting some time. Got a couple full races in mind and maybe terrain. Never wrote it down though.
>>43775198
They're more like salamanders, but the actual Dragons of the setting acknowledge that they are very close relatives to the desert people genetically. Granted they don't like the sand people, but the two happily keep to their own corners.
Out of the three major races only the Beetle people have wings, and the main thing keeping them from flying is their obsession with giant weapons and heavy as fuck armor. Woops.
I actually am the Elder Scrolls lorefag in my groups, but I know one guy that might be able to help. I'll look into it.
World building's fun, yo. A brief chance to play god and make something that other people can (hopefully) appreciate. Go ahead and give it a go.
>>43773175
Had one where dwarves sort of replaced humans as the main exploring and widespread races basically being humanoid water elementals, centaurs, orcs, and native american minotaurs.
It went fairly well for a few sessions, but real-life factors led to it falling apart.
>>43773175
Goddamn it, why are you people always reminding me of things I need to play like Mouseguard?
Currently running a savage worlds game in a homebrew setting without humans in it.
The world is still in "the age of myths and legends" or whatever you would like to call it. The humans, if they will ever find their way to this world. are thousands of years away. The gods are still shaping the world.
Genocide, war and imperalism has driven most of the races extinct. One race coming came out on top. and using the scarce population that is left for slave labour and servants.
I let my players make their own races, using the Savage Worlds rules for doing so, and treated it as a part of character generation. The characters had all been born and raised as slaves, and never seen another of their own race.
>>43775115
why are you real
>>43780800
There's more of us than you think. There are several Pony RPGs, a Pathfinder splat with a few supplements, two horror games with one based off of Don't rest your head, and about 3 Fallout Equestria systems.
>>43781347
sounds great you should go do all that i mean why even come here
![k5UKys6[1].png](https://i.imgur.com/aHNVlX3.png "k5UKys6[1].png")
>>43773175
>Have you ever played or designed a setting that didn't have any humans in it?
Yes.
The current homebrew I've been working on, on and off and using for my various fantasy setting needs does not explicitly have Humans as the dominant or most populated race.
It still has Humans, but they're quite uncommon.
>What playable entities did you have in it instead?
Changelings.
>How did it go?
Pretty good.
A lot of the Human racials I think are more appropriate for changelings anyway.
This is about as close to a human as you get in Low Life.
I played Ironclaw.
>>43782789
>Boduls may take as many Background Edges as they like
>>as many edges as they like
>>>many edges
>>43773175
I once did a Fantasy Transhumanist setting.
Basically a group of wizards found out that reincarnation was totally real and managed to create a super ritual that made every human's soul able to maintain its memories when removed and placed into a new host. What this meant was that after some cataclysmic events every single human on earth either became:
A ghost possessing an object
or a "living" construct of sorts.
Essentially a setting compromising entirely of Warforged.
Designed a setting with 5 playable races, none human, for pathfinder once.
The five races were:
Strix
A heavily modified gnoll race to bring it up in power level
Merfolk
Powered down driders
and a homebrew race of Cecaelia because there isn't one in pathfinder
Yes, but it was an accident.
>>43782614
>don't discuss what i don't like on the board that suits it
/tg/s are /tg/s, even pony ones
Mechanical Dream -- https://mega.nz/#F!m9YVgZSL!NMDukG7uLRpZjceL2NbYfQ
>Characters reside in the world of the dual world of Kaïnas and Naakinis, a 30,000 mile disk lit by a sun-like orb called the Pendulum. This disk is surrounded by the Sofe, a 40-mile-tall wall of black ether that kills that few, if any, have ever returned from. Kaïnas (the rational world) and Naakinis (the mythic world) exist with overlapping topography and ecosystems. Flora and fauna of Kainas are scaled normally by real-world standards, while Naakinis exists on a much larger scale (such as the "Kioux" trees that reach many miles in height).
>The Pendulum spends roughly ten of each day's thirty hours beyond the Sofe, creating night-like darkness. During this time, a phenomenon called "The Dream" manifests, becoming stronger as less and less light permeates Kaïnas. The Dream is a fabulous and dangerous world that overlaps with reality. It is initially hazy and hallucinatory, becoming as solid as reality during the darkest parts of the night. Areas where the Pendulum does not shine are affected by permanent manifestations of the Dream.
>The Aran world is a separate existence, accessible only in places the Pendulums' light cannot reach (underground or deep underwater). It is fiercely primordial, rejecting inorganic matter and operating by rules entirely different from reality. The creatures inhabiting Aran are unpredictable and poorly understood.
>The vast majority of the setting's population depends on the weekly consumption of the orpee fruit to survive. Without orpee, a rapid and excruciating death is guaranteed. Orpee naturally concentrates a life-force called "eflow" that fuels life. The politics and economics of Kaïnas are primarily driven by the collection and distribution of orpee, as it is an absolute requirement for life.
>>43784055
>Ten races can be found in Kaïnas, none of them human.
>--Emovan: Aquatic craftsmen with a strongly collectivist society.
>--Frilin: An intellectual plant-based race who do not require orpee to survive.
>--Gnath: A highly rational people who are the driving force behind modernization.
>--Inaïs: The only race able to harvest orpee, who live as passionate ascetics.
>--Nayan: A deeply passionate and charismatic race driven by a powerful martyrdom complex.
>--Odwoane: A diminutive race of mimicking laborers who instinctively gather and act in groups.
>--Solek: A race that emerged from the Sofe, characterized by their silence and efficiency
>--Volkoï: A race bred for war and physically dependent on a constant flow of adrenaline.
>--Yaki: A collection of tightly-knit nomadic tribes with a strong understanding of the Dream.
>--Zïn: Extremely rare, solitary beings who carry within them a volatile Aran entity.
>>43774589
Why are the yetis slender? Cold environments favour organisms with thicker bodies since they tend to have smaller surface areas relative to their body mass, and therefore tend to lose heat at a reduced rate.
>>43784934
Half of it is admittedly aesthetic because the other two species are very bulky, in one way or another, while the other half has to do with how their magic works. Essentially they have to keep their magic actively cycling through their entire body for it to work correctly, so the larger they are the harder it is for them to use magic. Upside to that being between their magic and fur they don't need to be thicker physically to keep in ideal temperatures.
Though I should probably make a few tribes of them that are thicker and either don't have magic or their magic is much weaker.
>>43785011
Sounds good.
>>43784019
Wether or not a pony game could be considered 'Traditional' is a good question though. Personally I'm siding with the pony guys since we are already allowing the furry games.
>>43773175
I've done two both based on real world ancient civilizations.
First one was based on the prehispanic Americas. The Aztec were feathered Nagas who ruled a vast empire between a central desert, the main central rainforest and the tropical islands surrounding it. The native Americans were centaurs, bearfolk, aquatic elves, and Lizardfolk. The Mayans were mostly werewolves and elves, the inca empire in the mountains separating the main rainforest and the secret forbidden rainforest to the far south were oread, and Amazon was full of catfolk, vanara, and bullywugs.
The other game was based on Ancient Greece. Centaurs were a conquering slaving city-state. Satyrs lived in the forests in nomadic merchant maenads. Minotaurs lived on a large secluded island that lured in merchants and ate them. Gorgons lived in a desert land south and east of the Aegean. The elves naval based city-state ruled the aegean, which was full of islands inhabited by birdfolk, driders, merfolk, undine, and mushroom people. And to the north there were denser forests with cyclops, werewolves, vampires and Giants, as well as a secluded satyr capital, in which they trap and keep travelers who stumble upon it as sex slaves
>>43773175
My primary homebrew setting is this. The basic rundown is that magic happens when electricity happens, and a sufficiently complex brain can make magic happen at will through a specific discipline of meditation. The humans had some awesome prehistoric societies because of this, but over only a few generations mutated the fuck out of themselves, turning into the various fantasy races. Merpeople happened on the coast, Dwarves the mountains, Centaurs the steppes etc.
Elves are sort of like demigods, being immune to aging and hilariously overpowered - treat them the way you treat dragons in Shadowrun, because there aren't very many but the ones that are will fuck your day up if they want to. Dragons are around too, come to think of it - but as the lords of the skies they don't care much for what the groundlings do, so long as they stay on the ground. Sorcerers who learn how to fly or teleport quickly get on the local Dragons' shit list, and die horrible deaths along with everyone inside a ten mile radius.
Playable races are basically every intelligent race in the D&D Monster Manual, and depending on the game system I'll come up with an appropriate way to balance the higher-tier races (so race-as-class-levels in class-based systems, point-buy-your-racial-abilities in others).
As for how it went, I'd say it went okay. I haven't GMed in a long time, and back when I did my gaming group had notoriously a notoriously short attention span. The good news is we tried a lot of cool systems, the bad news is it seemed like we were trying a new system every damn week. The few times I got something going for a month or more were all standout campaigns, with my players gravitating towards Orcs and Halflings for the most part.
>>43775115
I have done this is the Savage Worlds system using a certain fanmade module. It went awesome, until my desire for a more serious campaign diverged from the players' interest in a more silly one. Then we went our separate ways.
>>43775456
I KEEP TRYING TO GET PEOPLE TO PLAY MOUSEGUARD AND PEOPLE KEEP FLAKING ON ME!
Seriously, that game looks so rad. But every time we come together everyone wants to play something different and we wind up compromising on Pathfinder.
