Today, I have to make a few
decisions regarding race. First, I will start with the PC-playable races,
because, meh, that’s the first thing I’ll have to deal with in game. Then, I’ll
go to NPC races, and go through basically anything that is somehow civilized.
First, let’s go see the
different decisions I’ve already made with regards to race. One of the defining
aspects of this world was that it is not human-centric. It is actually not any
race-centric. In here, most factions prefer having people from many different
races to ensure the versatility of their community.
I’ve also talked about having
Mutants and Traders. Mutants will be members of any race, so need not be
defined now. Traders, however, will be an NPC race (so they remain mysterious),
and I’m not sure whether they’ll be an existing race or not.
The PHB proposes 7 races: Human,
Half-Elf, Elf, Dwarf, Gnomes, Halfling and Half-Orc. For a society, Elves are
specialized in magic, Dwarves in mining/blacksmithing, Gnomes in alchemy, Halflings
in stealth, and Half-Orcs in combat. Half-Elves and Humans are more polyvalent.
There is another race I really like as a PC race, but never used, and that is
the Shifter (from Eberron). In this setting, Shifters make sense, as they are
natural hunters, and so can bring in the food the community will need. I never
included them because of fantasy racism, but this time, there is no such thing!
I really like the Warforged
also in this setting, but not as PC. Too different. You have too much to take
into account when DMing a party with a Warforged, plus they resist regular
healing, they switch up the whole thing. There will be Warforged NPCs, but none
of the players will be one.
8 PC races is pretty varied, it’s enough.
Off to NPC races, where we have 2 major things to define: the Greenskins, and
the Traders.
Why the Greenskins? Well, I
have a problem with the fact that there are just soooo many interchangeable bad
guy races without much difference: hobgoblin, goblin, orc, half- orc, ogre, half-ogre,
orok, bugbear, kobold, they’re all the same thing with a different CR. I want
them to be made different. And yes, I know, not all of them have green skin. I
still put them all under the same name.
So what do I do with them?
Well, to me, we can settle with 3 of these: one small, one medium, one large.
That way, they come up as different. When you describe them, they come across as
different, just through size. They’re all redundant anyways, and because of the
non-racial thing, I won’t make them separate just to make different factions.
For small, I have to choose
between goblin and kobold. Kobolds are pathetic dragonlings, and I can’t allow
that in this world. Everything somehow related to a dragon must be superior.
Goblin it will be. For large, it’s bugbear or ogres. I personally prefer Ogres
for absolutely no reason. Bugbears and kobolds, both out.
For medium, it’s either Hobgoblin
or Orc. Well.. you know, Orc and Hobgoblins are opposite: one of them is this
barbarian, savage creature, while the other one is this much more strategic
one. Hobgoblins are to a certain extent useful to a community. Orcs aren’t.
Orcs will be the savage creatures, hobgoblins could be part of “civilized”
community. But I don’t want them to be. I have to figure out why they’re not.
So Orcs and Hobgoblins stay. However,
with Orcs so much out of society, I don’t know why Half-Orcs would be in.
Half-Orcs are out as PC race.
I said there wouldn’t be
racial differences in a faction. But I still don’t want Greenskins in there. Sure,
it’s easy to explain why a baron wouldn’t want a mind flayer around, but an Orc
is not more powerful than an elf or a dwarf. They’d have to stay out because
they don’t want to be part of it. That will be defined through factions.
It’s the trader race’s turn
now. I was struggling with whether or not I was to create a new race for them,
and I found the perfect idea: Yuan-Tis. Yes, they’re absolutely evil, but in a
setting without alignment, it’s not as clear cut. There would be two types of
Yuan-Tis: the Traders, and the regular evil monsters. In reality, they
cooperate. I also like the idea of a Yuan-Ti ship coming in town, with 6-8
Pureblood Merchants, and one Halfblood “bouncer” who actually is the head of
the group. He seems to be the muscle,
and he is, but he’s also much more than that.
Often, I’d use this step to
define culture, but here, as culture is not racial but geographical, it will have to wait until after I define the
factions of the setting, which will be the subject of my next post.
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