fantasy races

[Johnny Angel]

Land, thanks for reminding me of goatfolk! I had forgotten about that idea. One of my favorite monstrous races from D&D's 3rd Edition were the Ibixian. I really thought a lot more could have been done with them.

[nanoboy]

Some random animals that one could make interesting fantasy races out of:

Armadillo: You want someone capable of taking some damage but don't want Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Well, here you go.

Amphibians: Being land-and-water capable is always nice.

Crows/Ravens: These guys are smart and wily. They could make an interesting race.

Parrots: Think of the possibilities with the colored feathers.

Elephants: They make a good big race that's not dumb.

Kangaroos: I'm seeing a racial skill bonus for boxing. And think of the payload.

Raccoons: Another smart race, probably. And with a bonus to getting into places...

Spiders: Sure, they're creepy, but having the pouncing ability of a wolf spider would be intense.

Lemurs: They're cute as hell, and no telling what one could do with its tail, given some sentience.

[Landwalker]

Oooh, raccoons would be a great base for an anthropomorphic race.

I've never been keen on using bugs (insects, arachnids, etc.) as anthropomorphic bases, just because having all those arms sticking out everywhere is just a little too creepy for me, not to mention the eyes, the exoskeletons, etc. Ick.

Cheers.

[Refplace]

Ferrets are crafty too.
And I used weasels for vampires in one campaign.

[Gedrin]

IMC we have xenophobic subterranian insects. Mostly drones, which are individuals, but still hiveminded. "Princes", firtile males which lack the racial xenophbia, and tend to be the only ones who are found outside a city. And "queens", which are unaging beings that wind up with vast knowledge over time.

We also have a sentient frog species with dexterous manipulators. Their relative isolation and dislike of constant exposure to things that are hot and dry one out (like fire) have repressed their technology severly.


As a side note, keep the number of sentients (and their distinct offshoots) to a fixed number. Pick out a good enough variety to support a world of wonderous fantasy, and then don't add more.

[tantric]

I've never been keen on using bugs (insects, arachnids, etc.) as anthropomorphic bases, just because having all those arms sticking out everywhere is just a little too creepy for me, not to mention the eyes, the exoskeletons, etc. Ick.

Little People

[Johnny Angel]

Originally Posted by Landwalker

Obviously some racial decisions will impact the mood of a setting, though -- a race of sentient potato-men or anthropomorphic butterflies will probably not give the player the suspicion that the setting is a world filled with conspiracies and shadowy evil...

I think that's what I was trying to get at. I don't think certain races are needed to set a mood, but I do think that certain races fit into certain moods than they fit into others.

There are some exceptions to this though. The talking animals of The Chronicles of Narnia tend to have a slightly Light Fantasy/fairie tale feel to them if you just look at the surface, but (in my opinion) the books all tend to have a lot of Dark Fantasy undertones. The chronicles end in a fairly horrid tragedy...even though the tragedy is given a somewhat positive twist...

Still, I do think certain races carry a certain feel with them. That's not to say you can't write against it, you can, but I think certain things do have a default feel which they invoke. A serpent race such as the Yuan-ti embodies what I mean. I'm not sure if others feel the same way about the issue or not.

[Johnny Angel]

I mentioned the Ibixian. This link goes to the artwork for them which was in D&D 3e's Monster Manual 3: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/mm...lery/83011.jpg

I may try to convert the idea to GURPS. I'm not familiar enough with the rules yet to figure out how some of their racial traits would translate. In particular, they have an ability called Pack Fervor which gives them bonuses during combat when they are within a certain distance of others of their race.

[nanoboy]

Originally Posted by Johnny Angel

I mentioned the Ibixian. This link goes to the artwork for them which was in D&D 3e's Monster Manual 3: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/mm...lery/83011.jpg

I may try to convert the idea to GURPS. I'm not familiar enough with the rules yet to figure out how some of their racial traits would translate. In particular, they have an ability called Pack Fervor which gives them bonuses during combat when they are within a certain distance of others of their race.

Probably just DX+1 or something with the Accessibility (Only When Near Own Race, -30%.) You can use whatever stats are best for representing their bonus.

When converting races from other systems, be very careful not to over-do the stats. For instance, if a race is really intelligent, giving it IQ+5 is probably not appropriate. A bonus of +1 to +3 is probably the best. Be especially careful with the HT stat. Penalties to HT can be debilitating, but having them really high is hard to justify.

[Vaevictis Asmadi]

Other than anthropomorphic elephants... what about just plain elephants? They already have a hand, which could be more useful if you invent a sentient elephant that has, say, four fingers on the end of its trunk, instead of two. And real elephants are probably pre-sapient already, with an interesting and non-human social structure. Their view of the world is in smell and sound, rather than vision. Overall, they could be used as a relatively "alien" race without being actually alien.

I wrote up stats for sentient elephants, actually.