>setting has orcs, trolls, goblins, hobgoblins, half-orcs, ogres, imps, gargoyles, bogeymen, demons, ghouls, urgals, goblinoids, demihumans, gremlins, bugbears, and monstermen
Why is this allowed?
>>44231406
Because people like to have fun. Sorry to break the news to you like this
Idk, the more the merrier I guess? Why not just throw everything in bc whythefucknot
biodiversity
>>44231486
>>44231467
Except they're all basically the same thing
>>44231508
>Orcs and hobgoblins are the same thing
Fair enough.
>Demons and trolls are the same
What.
>Ghouls and imps are the same
WHAT.
>>44231508
But that's wrong, you troglodyte
>goblins
>goblinoids
Oh, -that- must be what OP meant.
>>44231508
There are over 12,000 separate species of ant that exist.
>>44231406
>>44231579
[citation needed]
Not OP but I love how /tg/ gets so bent out of shape whenever someone critices kitchen sink settings.
>>44231565
They all serve the same purpose
>>44231406
because they refer to mythical creatures and classical tropes that are both commonly familiar and alien enough to make a fantasy setting look instantly fantasical without going into the unconceivable
and because if you let people create new things nowadays you get chakats and sergals
rare are the indivuals who would introduce goblin shark jews and drugged up genetists controlling hordes of zombies with dubstep instead
>>44231406
Hobgoblins are a vital building block of a viable setting, and you can't exactly have hobgoblins without goblins, can you? Of course, where there are goblins, there have to be orcs, that's basic evolutionary theory. No orcs worth their salt aren't making half-orcs wherever possible, and do you seriously expect them to limit that to just half-orc half-human? Get serious, friend, nobody likes a clown. So you've got ogres, imps, trolls and gremlins coming in from all sides, just because orcs are prolific and mutable. Of course, none of this is possible without the influence of demons, and demons mean corruption, and corruption equals ghouls and urgals. Demons of course include bogeymen, which are really just another kind of demon as you well know. Demihumans are just what naturally happens when them demon folk get around the women and bugbears are what happens when demon folk get around the livestock. Monstermen are just there to keep things grounded, because they exist and they're you're friends and family and don't ever let them know that you know that.
So I guess gargoyles are non-essential, but why wouldn't you want gargoyles in your setting?
>>44231406
>Why is this allowed?
Freedom of expression, the hallmark of a civilized nation. Who exactly do you think it would be disallowed by? What regulatory agency would care?
Do you want content-creators to be sent to the gulag for including something you don't like, you crybaby?
The question is why someone would think of that in the first place, not why it's allowed.
>it's a world with furry races all named [blank]-folk
>>44231406
>Op has autism
>posts on /tg/
Why is this allowed?
>>44231828
If they go the "just slam some random syllables together" route instead people'll just forget it and call them catgirls anyway, I bet.
>>44231905
Then put in the effort to give them a good, memorable, non-generic name
>it's a cookie-cutter setting with just humans, elves, dwarves, and orcs
>>44231981
>orruks
>aelfs
>duardin
>ogors
>[furry forced tickle porn artist]
>>44231905
I assume you're referring to mithra and miqo'te.
And you would be correct.
But yeah- at what point did a ratfolk bard look at himself and think "I am a ratfolk. We look like rats, and we are proud of this. We are ratfolk". Do humans call themselves hairless apefolk? Are dwarves also known as beardfolk? It's lazy as shit, to get readers to immediately go "Oh, [blank]-folk. That's an animal man." As if just making an anthropomorphic animal race wasn't lazy enough already.
>>44232002
You forgot hobbits.
>>44231754
>controlling hordes of zombies with dubstep instead
Erfworld was okay at best.
>>44232081
>that pic
It's like Wayne Reynolds started visiting tumblr.
>>44231710
That's like saying a tiger and a wolf serve the same purpose because they're both predators
>literally no lore is fleshed out or made unique
>"dude it's just a game who cares about backstory?"
>>44232153
>Wayne Reynolds
I don't see it.
Also, what the fuck is up with halflings and bare feet? I don't get why that's a thing other than because of hobbits.
>>44232264
You answered your own question
>>44232264
"Because of hobbits" is kind of enough when we're talking about a race that is literally hobbits.
>>44231905
>i do an effort to name my beastmen races
>I studied the etymology of the name of different species
>get some simple and easy to remember names
>they still call them by their animal
>>44232317
I prefer my short-arses with shoes.Pants optional.
>>44232594
I know this feel.
>"oh, a cute ratling."
>"those lizardfolk are pissed"
Fuck's sake, they're murani and hessar. Is that so hard to remember?
>>44231406
Why wouldn't it be allowed? Is there something wrong with it?
>>44232264
Do you have hairy feet? Because that shit sucks, socks can pull and tug at the hairs irritating the skin and causing sharp pains, if you wear shoes without socks it rubs raw. So with that much fuzz? They'd either wear sandals or nothing.
>>44231686
I'm not familiar with this term. I'm guessing it means there's no worldbuilding or the DM just threw every fantasy trope they could into their setting? Am I dumb for not knowing this?
>>44231780
Kek
>>44231710
What shitty DM are you that you have demons fulfilling the same dramatic role as goblins as orcs as bogeymen as imps?
>>44232772
I feel you, man. I used to wear really tall socks to keep my legs warm but then I hit puberty and they hurt my leg hair.
What's a creative name for a race of crab people
>hurr durr nice South Park reference
>>44232904
Crusty Shawns.
>>44231406
It's all metaphor.
>>44232904
Brachythurans?
Brachyura being the infraorder crabs belong to.
>>44231406
I pick half-halfling.
>>44232736
In my setting "spider people" is considered a slut by the Arachin
>>44233006
Did someone say spider people sluts?
>>44231406
Why not?
>>44231710
Goblins are cannon fodder.
Demons are scary high level monstrosities or at least solid mid grade sluggers.
Ghouls are mid tier creatures that can be powerful if your party is low level or could just as easily be minions if you are up against a very powerful enemy.
Imps are annoyances which should probably just be used out of combat for giggles.
>>44231828
Unless they are lizerdmen I tend to just use the original animal name. It is fun to describe the things the first time a player sees one without saying what it is until they get it. It's really funny if the animal is something that isn't as common like a penguin or a skunk.
>>44231406
take your /v/ tier thread back to the shithole from where you crawled out.
>>44232736
yes, if they aren't among the three most dominant races I'll refer to them as they deserve, the beasts they resemble.
Also this is DMing 101
the person who likes the world you built, exactly as you wanted it, best is you
If the players aren't going elbow deep into your world's lore, then forcing them in isn't going to make the campaign any more fun.
Even though D&D 3.x/3.pf isn't balanced or well designed, sometimes your players just a want a noble bright adventures as heroes
pic related of the shitty ass setting my friends and I go to to have fun
>>44233163
I'm not a pedant about it. After all, even the people in the setting call them rats. Or rat-bastards, or ratfinks, etc.
But when they literally can't even remember it when one of the players is a fucking rat-person, it grates on me a bit. It shows that their biggest investment in the game is "how big can I make my dice rolls".
>>44231710
You need to leave.
>>44232904
Snibbity Snabs :DDD
>>44233057
The t is next to the r pls no bully
>>44231406
Because sometimes people want to play something else other than generic human/elf/dwarf fighter/ranger/mage #1032
>>44231406
>Setting has a setting
>Why is this allowed?
>>44231406
I'm guessing what OP really means is that these names all derive from essentially the same folklore/legendary monster motif. Ugly, outcast, savage, sub-human, right? Grendel. So they seem redundant. Fair point.
But, when you look closer there's no one consistent depiction in the original stories, they are all individual creatures really. So a laundry list of races is a lazy compromise between simplistic human/other and the effort involved in convincingly portraying dozens of unique others in a RPG.
>>44231406
>>44231805
I laughed out loud.
>>44231661
>[citation needed]
Gargoyle:
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/gargoyle.htm
Hobgoblin:
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/hobgoblin.htm
Not the same things.
>>44231406
because having a well developed bestiary is fucking entertaining, you non-human scum.
Fucking reploids coming onto our korean picture forums and not understanding emotions or entertainment.
>>44232056
I hate how modern day shits have declared an ancient literary and cultural tradition "lazy" because people have done it before.
>>44232789
No, you're not dumb.
Yes, a kitchen sink setting is one into which the DM threw "everything and the kitchen sink," combining fantastic elements of vastly divergent mythological or cultural backgrounds, often in ways that do not cleanly synthesize. This results in the setting lacking a concrete tone or direction due to having elements that come from completely different storytelling genres placed right next to each other (e.g. angels from religious fantasy existing alongside werewolves from horror fantasy).
While a skilled DM can do this intentionally and make it work, the kitchen sink DM throws the disparate elements together thoughtlessly, such that it is obvious that his setting is a patchwork quilt of previous works with only a pretense of unification.
>>44231406
Because it's not your game.
>>44233163
better generic map
>>44231619
And they are all basically the same thing
>>44236557
Nah, reploids work way better than this, to judge by the quest about them.
>>44239137
I think that was the point.
>>44232736
>Is that so hard to remember?
It's not because the names are hard to remember, but because they're unnecessary. The things you describe already have names that work and convey the idea quite well. The ones you're pasting over them are adding obscurity without communicative benefits.
You could just make it so the funny names are in their native tongue, but outsiders call them shit that's convenient, like lizardfolk and ratmen. Or make the funny names an identity based on the regions they came from. So you'd have the Murani Ratlings and the Hessar Lizardfolk.
>>44231406
These "why is this allowed?" posts really piss my off. It's the audacity of their implication, I think.
I curse you, Anon. With the curse of Gobbi Noknees! May you never find another gaming group, so long as you haunt this earth!
>>44232056
As a former FFXI player, I have to say, I've never seen someone "forget" that they're called Mithras.
>>44238973
Kek
>>44239137
hey senpai i was gonna give you this honey ant to eat but have this bullet ant instead
>>44232789
>I'm guessing it means there's no worldbuilding or the DM just threw every fantasy trope they could into their setting?
Yes.
If you have a game set in not-egypt, full of mythological egyptian monsters, that's not a kitchen sink. Hell you may even have a random "the fuck is that?!" thing wandering from a nearby myth.
But if you have egyptian, indian, chinese, japanese, indian, nordic, germanic, hispanic, slavic and mesoamerican mythologies all in one place - that's a kitchen sink.
>>44231406
How many of those is a good number of monstrous humanoids to include in a setting?
>>44232118
Thriller zombies were unquestionably awesome.
>>44231780
I LAUGH AT YOUR ANTICS.
BAHAHAHAHA.
>>44232056
>But yeah- at what point did a ratfolk bard look at himself and think "I am a ratfolk. We look like rats, and we are proud of this. We are ratfolk". Do humans call themselves hairless apefolk?
You aren't speaking the ratfolk native language.
You are speaking some Common which basically the Human language.
And humans got no respect for other races unless the other races force it.
So, elves get to be called elves instead of earfolk, dwarves earn the name over beardfolk and etc
Animal races are a bunch of disparate minor tribes, they can't get this influence done. Well, most of the time, khajit managed.
Since we're on the subject of "properly" named beastfolk, here's a list of the ones I use in my homebrew. Invisible internet points to whoever can tell which is attributed to what animals. My hope is that it's relatively easy to make the connections so my players can do the same while still using these names.
Warg
Furbolg
Kobold
Wendigo
Attercop
Selkie
Minotaur
Centaur
Satyr
Harpy
Goblin
Naga
Gnoll
Sphynx
Rakshasa
Merrow
Troglodyte
Selkie
Ogre
Kraken
Kappa
Not in my house, it doesn't. It knows better.
>>44240689
All of them and more
>>44240755
Dwarf just means shortguy.
That's not respect.
>>44240789
>Kappa
Redditfolk?
>>44240847
I...don't get that reference.
>>44240835
People started calling shortfolk dwarves because they're short like dwarves, but dwarves were a thing before short humans were called dwarves...right?
>>44240789
Most of these are the standard classic beastfolk kinds, completely obvious unless you pull WHATATWEEEEEST.
Do yo got lizardbolds or dogbolds?
Troglodytes are molefolk I figure.
Kraken a humanoid race? That's new.
What'd you do with goblins and ogres?
>>44240877
Short people are usually thinner than dwarves though. They could be derived from hobbit name maybe. Unless you call hobbits 'halflings', that's totally a dissing name.
>>44240886
Ratbolds.
Kraken aren't humanoids. Some of them are really just whatever animal with human faces. A kraken is a giant octopus with a human face instead of a beak.
Goblins are humanoid flightless bats.
Ogres are humanoid flightless pigs.
>>44240939
>Some of them are really just whatever animal with human faces.
Ah right, sphinx model.
Also bloody terrifying for krakens here. Do they still have eyes where the squid usually have them?
>Goblins are humanoid flightless bats.
Noice.
Oh, p'orcs. Shouldve guessed.
>flightless pigs.
Kek.
>>44240789
Firbolg is spelled with an i not a u
>>44231710
I found your problem OP,
it's you.
>>44240789
Warg: Wolffolk.
Furbolg: ...Fire giants?
Wendigo: Ape men.
Attercop: Spiderlings.
Selkie: THE MYSTERIOUS DOUBLED RACE! Probably sealfolk.
Minotaur: Bullkin.
Centaur: Horsepeople.
Harpy: Birdfolk.
Goblin: Uhhh. Pigfolk? Goblins are kinda their own humanoid thing usually, so unless we're going with like, 2e's pig-nosed goblinoids, which even then was just orcs, I have no idea.
Naga: Sneks, of course.
Gnoll: Hyenapeople, or maybe just a more general canid race.
Sphynx: Either general catgirls or specifically lions.
Rakshasa: As above, but replace 'lions' with 'tigers'.
Merrow: Mermaids or fishfolk.
Troglodyte: Probably moles or mole rats. May, however, be burrowing insects! Or even earthwormpeople.
Selkie: THE MYSTERIOUS DOUBLED RACE. Maybe this version are otters?
Ogre: Again, I have no idea what you'd do with these.
Kraken: Tentaclegirls.
Kappa: Frogpeople, though I prefer the alchemists with a pool of water for brains.
>>44240955
>Also bloody terrifying for krakens here. Do they still have eyes where the squid usually have them?
Yep, double set.
I was using orcs for something not beastfolk related in setting, but I wanted to include p'orcs in some way, so ogres got it.
>>44240999
Crazy how spellings change as words and language evolve. I've seen it both ways. I chose the one that I liked the most. Get over it.
>>44241073
Kappa are teenage mutant ninja turtles, wendigo are deer, furbolgs are bears, and trogs are actually subterranean lizards.
Everything else you got or was mentioned in an earlier post.
Guhd Jab everyone.
>>44241234
Neat. Kinda funny that the things named for cannibal horrorshows are herbivores, but I imagine that's played up properly.
>>44233163
>Arabian nights on crack
I chuckled I will admit.
>>44231406
Come on, it's 2015. Diversity is a strength.
>>44241268
They're still very much cannibal horror shows. They just happen to have antlers and hooves in addition to teeth too large for their mouths.
All my beastfolk are violent murderbeasts. Only a few have the mental capacity to even pick up a weapon. None of them are suitable as PCs in a regular campaign. I like my monsters to be monsters, not furbait.
>>44240789
>>44241073
Warg = wolves
Furbolg = I dunno, the only setting I know in which this name is associated with animals is Warcraft (with bears), but if you mean the actual Irish Fir Bolg, I have no idea.
Kobold = These shouldn't be beastfolk, but I assume you're going for something like moles, right?
Wendigo = Elk or moose
Attercop = Spider, duh
Selkie = Seal
Minotaur = Do I really have to answer this too? Fucking bull.
Centaur = Fucking horse.
Satyr = Fucking goat.
Harpy = Fucking crappy bird
Goblin = What kind of an animal could a 'goblin' possibly be related to? A pig? A rat?
Naga = Snake
Gnoll = Hyena
Sphynx = Hairless cat. Unless you mean sphinx, so lion basically.
Rakshasa = Literally anything in Hindu mythology, but if you're going for D&D stuff (and you are), I suppose tiger.
Merrow = some fish?
Troglodyte = What the fuck. D&D has them lizards, but do you realize the term literally means "Primitive humanoid that lives in caves"?
Selkie = Still a seal
Ogre = ...again, beastfolk? An ogre?
Kraken = How can a kraken be a beastfolk, too? It's not folk, it's a giant fucking cuttlefish! Ahh, nevermind, go for squid.
Kappa = Tortoise
If you really want to know, this nomenclature is pretty crappy. Why the same culture would use names that come from Japanese, Hindu, Greek, Scandinavian, Irish, Native american and Egyptian mythologies? It's disgustingly common in crappy mishmash fantasy.
Also, some of these things are supposed to be demons, monsters or evil spirits, not beastfolk. Others don't fit for the lowliest sake of fuck with the beastfolk category, like goblins and ogres. And others have very peculiar physical structures to be called just 'beastfolk', unless your centaurs are bipeds with horse heads of course, not to mention sphinxes and motherfucking krakens.
2/10, cheap poutpourri, would not play
>>44232043
I understand that reference.
>>44241398
>crappy mishmash fantasy
So the average modern mainstream fantasy fiction?
>>44241313
Fair, I suppose. Dunno if it's how I'd do it (I have a lot of variance in races in my setting), but it's certainly viable.
>>44241496
>Implying average modern mainstream fantasy fiction is anything but a crappy mishmash and also garbage
Precisely
Currently what I am working with:
>Elvenoids
(Elves, Orcs, Humans, & Halflings)
>Goblinoids
(Goblin, Hobgoblin, & Bugbear)
>Dracanoids
(Kobolds, Troglodytes & Dragons)
>Giantoids (technically elvenoids offshoot)
(Trolls & True Giants)
>Gnomoids
(Gnomes & Dwarves)
These are all that exist, rate my choices.
>>44232056
>As if just making an anthropomorphic animal race wasn't lazy enough already.
Get off your high horse.
People are familiar with animals, so mashing them up into a humanoid race gives them something fantastical with at least some familiarity to start working from.
>>44241611
What's the separation principle between elvenoids and gnomoids?
How do orcs fit with elfs?
>>44232772
Whenever I used to take my socks off in the locker room, the other kids would start singing 'they're taking the hobbits to Isengard'.
Anything beyond just humans is trash.
>>44233006
>hurr durr they don't just call themselves spider people so original do not steal
>Actual name is a play on arachnid
Currently in my setting...
>Human Root
Humans, Dragonborn, Suli, Therianthropes
>Giant Root
Giants, Dwarves, Ogres
>Fey Root
Elves, Orcs, Goblins
In folklore yes most of these are just different words for the same generic concept of a supernatural critter.
But D&D and other fantasy genres have memetically transformed most of them into specific creature types.
Goblins, for example, are now small, frail, with pointed ears, and are either ugly, green, or both. They fulfill the role of small trash mob monster and are occasionally a playable race, in which case they are just misunderstood savages or comically evil tinkers or tricksters.
Orcs are standard proud warrior race, and their males literally always have tusks, and they must necessarily be at least slightly ugly, unlike goblins who can sometimes be portrayed as just green shortstacks who are actually not ugly at all just green. This is because orcs have to be stereotyped as viking mongol tough guys, who are necessarily ugly to some degree, and can't be babyfaced or androgynous at all.
Trolls no longer resemble what they once were even slightly: they are now dumb large ugly ogre sized giants that take on physical aspect of the terrain they inhabit and regenerate wounds.
etc. etc. etc.
Each of these is made completely distinct by cultural adaptation, mostly through vidya and D&D taking place in pseudo medieval europe land.
>>44241863
>Each of these is made completely distinct by cultural adaptation, mostly through vidya and D&D taking place in pseudo medieval europe land.
And that means its all overused glib.
>>44241863
>and they must necessarily be at least slightly ugly
Not necessarily, sometimes they're just manly as fuck. Gobbos are ugly much more often. Percentage of sexy amazon orcess is higher than sexy shortstack goblins.
>>44231565
>Demons and trolls are the same
This is actually true, trolls are god-like nature spirits that were always untrustworthy, deamons are god-like nature spirits that sort of god demonized by abrahamistic religion. Both are just yokai.
>>44241752
This
>>44231406
well hobgoblins and bugbears traditionally accompany goblins for one
>>44231406
The setting I'm working on has-
>Demi-Goblins, traditional goblin critters that split from a greater prehistoric goblin species at the dawn of creation, they're tiny guys barely over four feet tall standing upright who serve as all the cheap labor and generally ensure the world keeps on ticking despite the chaos and suffering of the Age of Night. Nobody thanks them, but they do it anyway.
>Hob-Goblins, giant noble goblins that by eugenics slowly evolved into a species of seven and a half foot tall monsters with the strength to beat a bear to death that rule a distant kingdom built upon the tops of mountains. Generally keep to themselves and often fight casual wars amongst themselves out of boredom but are rarely lethal due to their exceptional constitution. A very martial and honorable race.
>Hoomans. Everyday humans spread across the world, although the only ones known of are the Midlanders and the Issmen, those who occupy the sunny grasslands of the central continent and the fishermen who live in the north.
>Fey, horrifying wood spirits hellbent on returning the world to the primordial chaos from which it spawned, servants of the god of life (who is actually evil), they wish to enslave, pervert, and warp mankind into a servitor race of bestial monsters similar to Wendigos.
>The wild monsters. Perverted creatures made in multiple ways, from one of them raping human women and seeding their womb with a litter of abominations, breeding amonst themselves, or a human being physically turned into one by Fey magic. Mindless terrors, they are little more than wolves, only omnicidal.
>Wurms. Lizardmen like creatures that come later in the setting when the Age of Night ends, the ice age ends, the glaciers melt and the Fey are repulsed and sent back to their trees for eternal slumber. Not similar to simply anthro lizardmen, they're born a six-armed lindworm like creature that grows throughout its life, adding new pairs of limbs and vertebrae endlessly.
>>44241774
Mine:
>Wild Magic Origin
Corpse Worms (Hivemind worms that inhabit skins and reproduce like a plague because they're smart enough to get jobs as mortuary assistants if the host body was a normal humanoid)
Daelings (An ooze version of dopplegangers that eat people to get their memories.)
Carcass Fiddlers (An offshoot of orcs. They're unnaturally gifted at making traps and have this thing about using mummified corpses as instruments. Despite this, they are common entertainment in the taverns.)
>Fae Origin
Elves (Fae are fucking weird. These are the offspring of ones that were tainted by mortality, after several hundred generations of normalizing. They're still strange in comparison.)
>Natural (for what it's worth) Origin
Humans (Special mention goes to the tribes outside the city who may literally have a 100% rate of being psions.)
Dwarves (Very technologically inclined. Also pretty practical. Spells like 'Clean Armor' are probably Dwarven. Also 'Lubricate Machinery' and 'Remove Sand'. They're also very, very good with fire magic because of all the gas hazards in mining, which has allowed them to get better gas power than most races. The same cultural tendency towards practicality and scientific research stands them in good stead as alchemists and research magicians, though they can be too prone to taking a long view.)
Giants (Though these are rare enough that they've never appeared on-screen, at least in the region around the city.)
Orcs and other goblinoids (They can be a threat or they can be mostly harmless. They're not as technologically advanced due to not having access to materials, but they breed REALLY fast, and their shamans can be surprisingly devastating. Especially with the focus on necromancy to further supplement their already large forces.)
cont.
>>44241968
Where I'm from, trolls have been big since long before DnD.
>>44242003
>Hob-Goblins, giant noble goblins that by eugenics slowly evolved into a species of seven and a half foot tall monsters with the strength to beat a bear to death that rule a distant kingdom built upon the tops of mountains. Generally keep to themselves and often fight casual wars amongst themselves out of boredom but are rarely lethal due to their exceptional constitution. A very martial and honorable race.
So what you're saying is one of the most powerful sapient races in your setting voluntarily sticks to one of the most inhospitable biomes imaginable and limits the growth of its own population?
Do you have a sensible reason for this, or are you hoping no one will question your desire to have a race of powerful non-human noble savages in a game where humans are still going to need to have the limelight?
>>44242043
Dammit, forgot the picture.
>>44242043
They didn't come in countless of different sizes? From dwarf to mountain?
> why is this allowed
We have a website for people who angrily complain about things that don't fit their world view and expect people to rally with them to force that view unwillingly onto others.
>>44242094
Yes, but the big ones were there.
>>44242094
Or in countless forms from monstrous to seductive?
They're demons man. They're to scandinavia what demons were to the latin world, what the fey were to the british isles and yokai to the japanese.
When there was made no distinction between monster and demon as one being fantastical but still material and the other being spiritual, everything was spiritual back then.
>>44242130
>>44242130
Never heard of any seductive Scandinavian trolls. We had elves and a million other things for that.
>>44242156
Those things with hollow backs?
Are they a kind of troll or a kind of elf?
>>44241715
Each are made by separate pantheons. It's decided by where you came from.
On the continent the campaign takes place on hundreds of thousands of spirits created elvenoids on the same basic concept. Disposable mortal soldiers to settle arguments by having them kill each other endlessly. This began roughly 170k years ago, and the spirits keep collapsing their own civilizations to ensure the mortals don't rise up.
Giantkind are made by a sect of spirits who live off the continent on an archipelago, having lost the dawn war so badly they were kicked off the continent.
Goblinoids were created on an entirely separate continent, but they recently had an exodus due to something happening to their homeland and landed on the elvenoid continent.
Gnomoids were created on a smaller island chain to the south by a single deity who cared for them deeply, you only ever really see them as merchants.
Dracanoids are the only ones to merely begin, dragons having been around since dieties began as well, congealing out of the aether.
>>44242034
Wargs (Think wolves, but little ones are up to people's shoulders. Big ones are just fucking massive. They are the other side of the 'maybe' on the humans outside the city, since it could be that they're the psionic ones. Either way, most of them form a telepathic bond to one of the tribe's young adults. Unsurprisingly, given that they're sapient and run in big packs even before you get into the symbiotic relationship with the tribe that runs outside the city, people tend to not screw around with them.)
Keepers/Mourners (Humanoids with mirrored skin and faceted eyes, they're called this because they're the last remnants of their race and almost exclusively tend a garden that also serves as a funeral home for brave adventurers and the like. Technically, they are not in fact the last remnants, and that's just a holy order that survived the catastrophe that led to a HUGE wave of refugees, but the rest of it mostly either ended up succumbing to the desert they lived in, the initial catastrophe, or got trapped in a nightmare demiplane run by an absurdly powerful entity who nobody is quite sure of the origins of; said demiplane is called the Abyss of Calaris, and they're slaves/servants of her tending to her guests.)
>Artificial Origin
Ghosts in the Machine (Very prosaically named. They're ghosts who have ended up bonded to a cloud of steam as their body. They use this to inhabit various steampunk robot bodies. They are, unsurprisingly, a bitch and a half to handle if you end up fighting one.)
Cont.
>>44242050
There's several reasons.
Firstly Hobgoblins are simply too damn big to field any effective cavalry of their own due to their immense weight and stature, they would crush the horses bred by the Midland humans and thus they are completely dedicated to infantry. The demigoblins they keep as protected peasants are also too small to make effective cavalrymen, so their only option are a handful of human mercs. They don't do well in war off the mountain slopes and prefer to fight where cavalry cannot be fielded at all.
Secondly the mountains are simply safe. Originally the goblins in early history (when they were starting to split) covered the entire Midland continent, but then the humans invaded and sacked the flat plains and forests silly thanks to the horses they brought with them. Thus what would soon become the modern Hobgoblins fled to the mountains, where they hid and built up away from the First Empire. The Empire was never able to conquer them do the terrain, and eventually over the course of several wars, imploded from over-extension in their failed invasions. The mountains are simply a strategic defense, impossible to overcome as the Second Empire rose and fell without ever being able to take control of the region, having instead to ally with the Hobgoblin states. Even the Fey, with all their monsters, would have to throw it all in the meatgrinder that is Hobgoblin castles and lose most of it. Imagine Byzantium, only it's built on the alps, been reinforced for the past two thousand years, has hundreds of passage ways to sneak resources in, and there's fucking five of them.
Thirdly, their population is already small due to slow maturation thanks to their immense size and bulk, along with requiring a shitload of food. They rely on demigoblin servants who farm cow-sized cockroaches in fungal farms underground and manage most of the day-to-day business, with the Hobgoblins primarily managing the politicking and warring as the primary noble class.
>>44242169
Definitely troll.
Elves are another kind of people, they live in a different plane. They're mystical and otherworldly but not wily nature spirits.
>>44242156
Seductive trolls are very prominent, the huldra is one of the most well known monster creatures.
Didn't Peer Gynt almost marry the troll king's beautiful daughter?
>>44242280
>>44242318
Huldras are not trolls, any more than Näcken is. I have no idea why you'd think they are.
>>44242215
Trolls (Dumbass mage ripped out the souls and life of a hunting party as a desperation measure for power to control a summoned creature. He got a blank slate THING infused with its essence and horribly physically mutated instead. They are, essentially, immortal, regenerating, and capable of devouring life and memories. The first Troll has, mercifully, been locked away for thousands of years, in the dark, under hundreds of feet of rock, with sigils specifically designed to be magically lobotomizing it /all the time/ in addition to the normal ones to keep it from ever moving physically to so much as fucking blink.)
Ravien (Oft-enslaved birdfolk that were originally created as servitors by something akin to a fallen angel/risen demon, albeit a more primordial form. Nothing too special, beyond some flight characteristics.)
>Unknown Origin
Dryads (Nobody is quite sure if they're more Fae related things, natural, the creations of a druid, or what. They're exceedingly rare, and sometimes seen as divine messengers akin to angels. They are, however, usually not powerful enough for most of the mages who make a serious study of such to believe that. The ones who ARE tend to be the really ancient ones whose 'trees' are entire forests and who are as good at magic as an immortal being with a lot of time on its hands can be expected to be.)
Were-kin (It's known that they're shapeshifters cursed by the goddess of the moon for kinslaying. Whether she made them or not is unclear. Again, could be Fae - the relation of their changes to some arbitrary symbolic thing fits -, natural, or magically spawned. There are a bunch of different kinds, and it's hereditary but also transmissible. Which phase of the moon they transform in varies.)
Cont.
>>44242341
>Divine Origin
Angels (Divine messengers. They can end up breeding with humans, but it's really, really, rare and usually the result of some mage or cleric with more power than sense coercing it with magic in some fashion. Angels of each deity have their own characteristics - those most defined are for the goddess of death and beauty, whose angels are both pretty personalized and tend to look more like demons. The one who's been shown on-screen has horns, black blood, claws, and bat wings.)
Dragons (None have showed up on-screen, but they trace their origin back to the birth of the world - and the most powerful ones /remember/ it. Fortunately the really ancient ones tend to be the servants of deities and operate on less physical forms of sustenance, lest cities be light snacks, buildings and all.)
Aaaand I think that's a wrap, barring the Fae themselves, who are extradimensional clusters of WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS; their magic is responsible for such shit as a tree the mass of which (measured separately for every instant of time, and thus, as time can be infinitely subdivided, infinite) is reflected in the gravity of areas in its shadow, and only those areas, thus causing time dilation for anything fully inside it.)
>ITT: autists copypasting their shitty homebrew text walls in order to justify their horrible preferences
>>44242230
They also aren't very noble savage, because they aren't savage. They're highly idealized and honorable, and their small numbers has prompted a warrior culture that favors the taking of prisoners and ransoming them over executions. Hobgoblings rarely die in their civil wars, and instead victory is taken when you take so many of the enemy nobility captive that you basically bankrupt them for a couple centuries in order to get their royal house and warriors back. Although, it's also hard to kill them because Hobgoblins wear a ridiculous amount of armor thanks to their strength and cold weather, so they can actually run around in shit like multiple layers of maille with crude iron plate for protection in a civilization that has only just invented the coat of plate. They're OP as fuck and are more of a "pray you never, ever meet one of these guys in battle because you're fucked if you do" for players. They're also one of the few things in the setting that can reliably solo the beasts spawned by the fey.
>>44242346
Also holy shit just the capsule summaries of the races is 6,266 characters. I was not expecting it to go that long. And that's not even getting into one-offs OR undead (aside from Corpse Worms, but they don't really count).
>>44242332
I did, like, 3 minutes of research five years ago.
http://scandinavianfestival.com/scandinavian-folklore-trolls/
That basically makes me an expert.
>>44242230
They have eugenetic'd themselves from tiny goblins to gobmarines and can't breed big damn horses to carry their ass in battle?
Also mountains can't sustain sizable, concentrated populations, and you can't build decently sized cities over there. There might be a reason no major civilization in history has ever fine 'hey, let's stay here on the mountains, sure it's crappy but at least they can't get us there with their goddamn horses... God, we hate those quadrupedal motherfuckers!"
>>44242365
More like 'people started tossing out things because the premise of the thread was shit'.
>>44242394
Real people didn't have underground caverns with mushroom and giant bug farms.
>>44242388
That's not where I got it from but that's how I remember it.
I don't know what gives the other guy such authority on the subject.
>>44242395
Shit content for a shit thread. How fitting.
>>44242394
Human civilizations also haven't spent nearly two thousand years carving massive arcologies into the mountain sides with massive underground farms.
>>44242098
I just watched this, and now I am dying.
>>44242414
I am confidant this was the easiest and most convenient solution.
Fuck horses, right?
>>44242332
Except the Nokken totally is a troll.
All magical creatures are.
Even witches, magical humans, have troll blood.
>>44242414
Nor do they have druids who can make crops sprout, goodberry spells for months of supplies for a house off of literally a single berry bush, and so on. Which I imagine gets used pretty regularly?
>>44242388
I don't know who this woman is or what gives her any authority, but from this article, it looks like she just assumed every Scandinavian mythological being is a troll.
>>44242446
It wasn't just horses. The First Human Empire genocided the fuck out of them in their war of conquest and pushed them into the mountains. They stopped because running logistic trains through them is a nightmare. It's not "oh no horses" it's "we have absolutely zero way to not get hopelessly slaughtered as we have zero cav and can only lure the enemy onto elevated ground".
Basically goblins fucked off to the mountains and most of them stayed there besides the rapidly breeding demigoblins, who poured downhill and were also accepted into the Second Human Empire, because they're extremely useful menials.
>>44242450
No. Magic is largely the domain the Fey and other god-spawn, humans possess almost nothing, and most of it is holy magic gifted by the God of Death (whose the good guy).
>>44242447
>>44242455
Only Norwegians do that.
Other scandinavians actually consider trolls a specific creature rather than a broad category.
>>44242446
Horses are large, require even more food (which prior to doing so is rough in the mountains, which is why people from other areas with shitty graze tend towards ponies at best, which do not work for seven foot tall gobmarines), and require breeding stock. Also, they have to breed horses that work for them from said ponies, which takes time.
>>44242507
Sidenote, not the guy posting about this. Just noting horses have Issues.
>>44242476
I was actually referring to the goblinoids there, but fair.
>>44242514
I haven't decided if the Goblinoids have magic yet, but it would probably be earth based.
"We spent two thousand years shaking our hands and shouting nonsense at the mountainside until something finally worked"
>>44242414
No we haven't. I guess we didn't realize what a bright idea it would have been, silly us!
Also, two thousand years? To start such a thing I guess they should habe had at least Roman Empire levels of engineering. They should be at Napoleonic technology and society levels by now at the very least. Are they, or were they too busy carving mountains?
>>44242543
Technology is not a linear path as Civilization would have you believe. And Goblinoid society has nothing to push them to advance tech-wise because no real threats are posed to them so long as they stay high in the mountains as everybody fucks right off when looking at them.
There's also no gunpowder to be used.
>>44242591
They still oughta have some advancements in regards of living there. Aqueducts and stuff ya know?
>>44242617
I'd figure they'd use natural wellsprings/aquifers instead of aqueducts. Unless they made some crazy shit like actually having a straight line from melted snow at the top of the mountain leading in an artificial stream to the city below.
>>44231710
Youre retarded, by your logic you should only have 1 enemy type
>>44242543
>having this much historicism
Gro, I feel for you.
>>44242651
Simile anon needs simile things. One race to kill, one to buy from, one to fuck with. More, and his cute little head gets all fuzzy and confused.
>>44242591
Listen, I see your point (I'm the One that's been opposing you most in this discussion), but my point is you might be liking your hobs a little too much.
>big and strong through eugenetics
>noble, proud, civilized warrior race
>persecuted by those nasty humans
>Cool with their smaller bros
>secluded, self-sufficient, unimpregnable kingdom
Agreed honestly. I prefer a maximum of 4 or so humanoid races, but each with several cultures.
>>44242719
*simple
>>44242719
Similie anon needs lots of comparisons. Orcs are strong as an elephant, bugbears are furrier than a lion...
>>44231686
Some people are entirely willing to take offense at anything because otherwise they will have literally no reason to wake up the next morning.
>>44242497
Oh. And since the rest of the world defaults to Norway for anything to do with Scandinavia, that explains just about everything.
>>44242719
Actually the Hobs are a pretty minor race. The main faction is humanity, which for the most part will focus on the Midlanders and Issmen, who are the broken remnants of the Second Empire, now fighting petty wars amongst themselves while all civilization rots, and the Fey threaten to pervert/destroy humanity and potentially the rest of the known sentients for the God of Life's cruel plots. Whenever I run an RP off the setting (probably in GURPS) in its first time period, the Night, the Hobgoblins will be more an emergency GM tool than anything.
"Well you guys fucked up and the Fey are about to win- everything's gone complete FUBAR. So now you just MADE me bring in the Hobgoblins as auxiliary to un-fuck things for you, you fucking retards."
But most work is to be done on human civs as always, because they're the player race. A combination of bickering Italian and Frankish styled city-states, each warring for the title of Emperor despite the Empire being long fucking dead and twelve foot tall monsters rampaging across the countryside destroying all communication and trade, but bad blood is bad blood, and the stubborn cities refused to abandon their grudges. Meanwhile as the Midland states war with each other, the Issmen have been split into two major factions, one under a rising warrior-king leading his people in a great emergency conquering streak as he is pushed south by the Fey horrors of the north, and the others who threw themselves before the Fey, selling their souls to the God of Life in exchange for being spared the brutality of the Fey- the result being debased lycanthropes.
>>44242937
Also, while the Hobs are nigh unassailable, this only will make them the last to fall in midland. You can hide from the Fey, but you will only be living on borrowed time. They will lose a lot burning the Hobgoblins down, but once everything else has fallen, they can solely focus on their great fortresses.
To survive, you can't forever hide in a castle. You have to step out and fight, even if it risks death and having your soul being consumed and perverted by the god of life. And it's going to be a lot harder to force the Fey back into their slumber if all of humanity has been consumed.
I don't really like having a huge bunch of redundant races in my setting. I find it hard to justify having a huge bunch of races that fulfill pretty much the same role.
For the monster races I have orcs, goblins and orges. Orcs are essentially not-Mongols; steppe-dwelling barbarian tribes that occasionally band up to raid the more "civilized" lands. Half-orcs are actually more common than full-blooded orcs, due to orcs and human barbarian tribes living in the same lands for a long time (half-orcs, unlike most hybrids, breed true, and being smarter than orcs but tougher than humans they turned out to be a very succesful race).
Ogres are related to orcs, but are bigger and typically live in the mountains.
Goblins are there mostly as low-level enemies for PCs to fight, Tbh. They're more fey-like and typically live in forests. They enjoy playing malicious and potentially lethal tricks on people and stealing peoples' property, lifestock or children.
Trolls are also a thing but they're big monsters with intelligence on par with a fairly smart animal, rather than an intelligent race.
Other continents in the world have their own races, including more exotic things like lizard- and snake-people.
>>44231406
An excuse to talk about my setting? Don't mind if I do.
>orcs
Dire humans occupy that niche
>trolls
Scandinavian-ish giant trolls that will fuck up your church
>goblins, gremlins
Minor fey creatures
>half-orcs
No crossbreeding allowed
>ogres
Blubbery, large monsters who know no fear or pain, and will eat you.
>imps, demons
Live in hell
>hobgoblins, gargoyles, ghouls, goblinoids, demihumans, bugbears
None. No undead exist.
>bogeymen
What is even a bogeyman?
>urgals, monstermen
What?
>>44242459
I'm having trouble reconciling
>"we have absolutely zero way to not get hopelessly slaughtered as we have zero cav and can only lure the enemy onto elevated ground"
and
>seven and a half foot tall monsters
>the strength to beat a bear to death
>often fight casual wars amongst themselves
>rarely lethal due to their exceptional constitution
>A very martial and honorable race
You have yet to convince me why the hobgoblins haven't driven the humans out of the more hospitable and fertile areas. Horses and humans aren't exactly bears.
They had cities and underground farms doesn't cut it. Nothing is (convincingly) keeping them in check. Unless they're insanely conscientious about the global ecosystem, it's not realistic for them to voluntarily curb their civilisation's growth out of the mountaintops and into the rest of the world.
>>44233163
>Conan vs Magic Robots from Space
I admit I want to know more
>>44242751
I like the idea of bugbears normally being terrible menaces, but also really caring about the quality of their coats
>>44231406
Because they all fit into different ecological niches and serve purposes both for ecological reasons and story reasons.
>>44239137
You failed middle school zoology, didn't you? No need to be ashamed, except for the need to be ashamed of your crippling ignorance.
>>44243864
Elven genocide programs that grant cash rewards for hobgoblin scalps?
>>44232081
Oh that looks
>feet
Oh my god eww.
>>44242379
Man, do you have a fucking copy of notes for this world? I love the troll idea, all this shit is golden. Where do you get inspiration?
