[DF] PC Races Preferred Habitat

[Greg 1]

Of the PC races in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy, what sort of habitat do you think they would prefer to setting in?

So, for instance, Dwarves tend to prefer mountains, while reptiles likely prefer hot environments and dislike cold ones.

As a follow up question, what places on Earth do you think would best suit the various races? Don't worry about the effect of real historical civilizations - just consider the Earth as an empty map to populate.

[Phantasm]

Elves: British Isles, Low Countries, northern France, Germany's Black Forest. Places with heavy forest and some mystique behind it.

Dwarves: southern Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Scotland, Bohemia, the Balkans. Tall hills to mountains with rich mineral veins, though I don't think they'd live *in* the mines. Grimm gave them cottages long before Tolkien gave them Moria and the Lonely Mountain.

Orcs: Someplace harsh and unforgiving. I'd think Norway and Iceland.

Halflings: Greece, Italy, French Riviera, ... the Mediterranean coast, basically, maybe up into the Black Sea coast.

Can't think of others.

[Black Leviathan]

Halflings prefer swamps where the alligator hunting is easy and tallies don't stick their noses into First-People's business because they don't want to be fed to swamp creatures.

[rkbrown419]

Given the variety of elves presented in DF I suspect they'd be as distributed through different environments as humans are. However they tend to adapt themselves to the environment leaving nature as untouched as possible.

[tbone]

Coleopterans, Corpse-eaters, Dark ones, Gargoyles, Half-spirits: I don't envision any particular environment (other than "underground" as a preferred spot for the first two, and appropriate spots for Infused, i.e., deserts aren't great for Water-infused).

Cat-folk: I like the idea of subtypes modeled after the great cats and suited to the appropriate environments (like this lion-folk guy). I need to work out some big, water-loving tiger-folk; smaller, plains-dwelling cheetah-folk; etc.

Dwarves: Phantasm makes a good point. Dwarves might enjoy long stays underground more than most people would, but dwarves who live and farm above ground, who chop wood and hunt deer and go fishing, sound perfectly right to me. I wouldn't hesitate to place settlements just about anywhere.

Elves: Subtypes pretty much have environments defined for them.

Faerie folk: Forests and glens and all that, of course. But exceptions would be fun. ("Mountain goat" faun on high peaks, desert-dwelling leprechauns?)

Gnomes: Pretty much as written: hills and underground. But anywhere would be fine.

Goblin-kin: Anywhere, I guess, though I always picture drier, warmer places. (But per Phantasm: Orcs in the snow? That sounds good, too.)

Minotaurs: Plains, where the grazing is good. (Or do they only eat meat?) Anywhere, really, including cold places for shaggy yak minotaur. But I picture only small, isolated groups.

Ogres: Like Minotaurs: Anywhere works, but "monster status" means small, rare groups. not too close to mainstream races (unless there are good hiding places, like rocky hills).

Reptilians: Gotta be hot! Beyond that, either dry or wet is fine.

Trolls: I picture them in swamps, probably battling it out with swamp lizard-men and swamp ogres. But individuals or small groups could wander off anywhere.

Wildmen: Any wild areas.

==

All pretty orthodox and in line with expectations. I think a GM could have fun by injecting more surprises into who lives where. (The only real restrictions come from the templates and descriptions: a race that can't produce heavy clothing shouldn't live in a freezing place without Temperature Tolerance, a race that needs lots of food isn't suited to deserts, and other obvious considerations like that.)

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by Phantasm

Elves: British Isles, Low Countries, northern France, Germany's Black Forest. Places with heavy forest and some mystique behind it.

Dwarves: southern Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Scotland, Bohemia, the Balkans. Tall hills to mountains with rich mineral veins, though I don't think they'd live *in* the mines. Grimm gave them cottages long before Tolkien gave them Moria and the Lonely Mountain.

And from what we know of the Nordic mythology (most of our data come through a handful of sources), the Norse Dwarves lived underground. But I have no doubt some Dwarves would prefer upper-world life.

Orcs: Someplace harsh and unforgiving. I'd think Norway and Iceland.

If they are more or less like JRRT's orcs, they'll live where the other races can't expel them. The Orcs didn't live in the Misty Mountains because they loved it there, they lived there because the civilized races would drive them out of better lands. If they could have overrun, looted, and settled the Shire and Dale and Gondor, they would have.

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[Bruno]

As they're all intelligent tool users, they're all going to be able to live in almost any environment. Moreover, sample any random population and they'll tell you they're quite happy where they are thank-you-very-much. Once you live in a place for a few generations, you start thinking of it as "normal".

Elves might be the biggest exception.

Elves have an advantage of producing subtypes that can settle even more extreme regions - Snow Elves might hang out in Antarctica happily, Sea Elves can literally live underwater and there are probably Lake Elves to match them, Winged Elves' requirement for living space doesn't even include "accessible by foot" - just "doesn't obstruct wingspan". If they can build a platform on it or hang a platform off it and it's not too overgrown, they can live there.

On the other tentacle, elves are more specialized to their environment, and combined with their Sense Of Duty: Nature, out-of-environment elf subtypes might be painfully aware they're an invasive species.


FYI: I can totally see fauns in rocky hills (take a close look at Greece some day - goats have done a number on the vegetation in most places). Coleopterans have so many arms that seeing them in tree-fort villages or cliff climbing seems natural as well.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Phantasm

Elves: British Isles, Low Countries, northern France, Germany's Black Forest. Places with heavy forest and some mystique behind it.

Dwarves: southern Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Scotland, Bohemia, the Balkans. Tall hills to mountains with rich mineral veins, though I don't think they'd live *in* the mines. Grimm gave them cottages long before Tolkien gave them Moria and the Lonely Mountain.

Orcs: Someplace harsh and unforgiving. I'd think Norway and Iceland.

Halflings: Greece, Italy, French Riviera, ... the Mediterranean coast, basically, maybe up into the Black Sea coast.

Can't think of others.

Halflings like cozy places. Oregon, Washington, some parts of California. Vermont, parts of Britain. Definitely Oregon: they would love apple farming.

[Flyndaran]

Eastern Oregon is a desert with some relatively extreme seasonal temperatures and oh so many rattlesnakes.
The middle Willamette valley is very wet and pleasant.
Of course, the western coastal zone is classic coastal but a bit chilly.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Elves might be the biggest exception.

That depends on whether elvish subtypes are actually distinct races, or just some form of weird non-genetic adaptive behavior (if you kidnap some desert elves and ship them to the arctic, will their children be ice elves?)