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Old 10-20-2014, 05:54 AM   #1
Anders
 
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Default [Sword&Sorcery] Racial Selection

I may not be temperamentally suited to S&S, as I love world-building - but I suspect that a detailed world is more a matter of misdirected energy and less an actual hindrance. Anyway, I'm sitting here with GURPS Fantasy Folk 2nd ed. - which if I'm not mistaken was the first book edited by The Dear Line Editor - and picking and choosing.

A race gets pluses if it implies a long history, fallen civilizations and ancient magics, all of which are staples of the S&S genre. Minuses for being over-used, trite or generally boring. I am the almighty judge of this, and pluses and minuses are counted very loosely. I also don't want a cluttered world so no huge overground empires.

Fishmen - basically Deep Ones, underwater humanoids who wield powerful ancient magic
Insect Men - mysterious underground civilization; are they getting ready to swarm up and murder humanity in their beds or are their intentions neutral?
Reptile Men - ancient race living in the dessiccated remains of their cities, cities that fell millennia ago

Spoiler:  


I might consider Dark Ones from [DF], but I'm not sure. Of course, PCs must be human.

ETA: Sorry about the lack of a question. What do you think? Races you would include? Races you wouldn't?
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Last edited by Anders; 10-20-2014 at 06:15 AM.
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Old 10-20-2014, 06:10 AM   #2
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Default Re: [Sword&Sorcery] Racial Selection

Is there a question or idea here? Are you looking for feedback or new ideas?
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Old 10-20-2014, 06:12 AM   #3
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Default Re: [Sword&Sorcery] Racial Selection

By the way, both Howard and Ashton Smith liked to include once human canibal/raider tribes. You may want to rework a Fantasy Race into the mutated humans living as canibal predators.
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Old 10-20-2014, 06:15 AM   #4
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Default Re: [Sword&Sorcery] Racial Selection

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anders View Post
Fishmen - basically Deep Ones, underwater humanoids who wield powerful ancient magic
Insect Men - mysterious underground civilization; are they getting ready to swarm up and murder humanity in their beds or are their intentions neutral?
Reptile Men - ancient race living in the dessiccated remains of their cities, cities that fell millennia ago

*snip*

Of course, PCs must be human.
I've wanted to run a fantasy game with that exact set for a long time.

The problem I inevitably have with the "mostly human" fantasy races is that people just pepper them with human cultures. "Well, you see, the elves are Native American, the undead are Japanese, and the Orcs are African and the Dwarves are Russian, and the Humans are European." First, that makes certain cultures sound very alien, more alien than they really are. Second, it homogenizes humans way more than I like.

With the above set-up, because those races are alien, then you can have European, Russian, Japanese and African humans all tussling with one another when the Fishmen rise up ("The Sea People!") and start rampaging around the countryside.

Since you mentioned S&S in the beginning, I would point to the snake people (stygians?) of Conan's world. You could even borrow them from Horror or Cabal, since Hite is inordinately fond of snake-people.
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Old 10-20-2014, 06:26 AM   #5
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Default Re: [Sword&Sorcery] Racial Selection

I do like the reptile men - I've historically been prone to using an reversed version of D&D's Yuan-ti. The original version regarded their snakey-ness as a blessing and the snakier ones were proportionately more powerful ... mine had become snakey as the result of a bad deal with an unpleasant deity - snakeyness was the result of degeneration and they generally only remained vaguely human looking by outbreeding with wild type humans ... the humanoid look being jealously preserved. The most degenerate parts of their population had devolved to snakes of varying degrees of sapience. They traditionally served as a fallen empire, living in cities mostly overrun with jungle due to population die back, trying to figure out how to escape their curse and, in the meantime, to lay hands on enough humans to keep opposable thumbs and live birth in the skillset until the day comes. At one stage I even had some elite hybrid blood lines with pit viper infra-red senses, spitting venom and other fun things.

Lizardmen can be a lot more feral - again, I like the idea of low sapient, perhaps TL1 critters living in warm swamp - possibly up to and including crocodile like beasts. When the PCs are thoroughly terrified (seriously, imagine small boat work in water where the crocs are sapient and tool using ... hell, imagine taking a ship through that...) ... go for a complete change of pace and introduce the iguana men, browsing on the local shrubs and diving for kelp. Or, when they have learned to keep away from the water, bring up the varanid based ones.
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Old 10-20-2014, 06:50 AM   #6
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Default Re: [Sword&Sorcery] Racial Selection

Rat-men living in the sewers and alleys of bigger cities. They seem to be up to something beyond scavenging food and equipment.

I'd start with slapping a lens including Fur and Sharp Teeth on a halfling template.
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Old 10-20-2014, 08:34 AM   #7
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Default Re: [Sword&Sorcery] Racial Selection

That's an interesting concept, although probably too close and personal with the humans for my taste. I'd like the nonhumans to be exotic things, heard of only in legends.

I also consider making the "Fish"men modelled on Giant Isopods, because that is sheer nightmare fuel to me.
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Old 10-20-2014, 08:40 AM   #8
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Default Re: [Sword&Sorcery] Racial Selection

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anders View Post
Fishmen - basically Deep Ones, underwater humanoids who wield powerful ancient magic
Insect Men - mysterious underground civilization; are they getting ready to swarm up and murder humanity in their beds or are their intentions neutral?
Reptile Men - ancient race living in the dessiccated remains of their cities, cities that fell millennia ago
Based on what you have, the lack of Bird Men seems conspicuous. You might also consider an intelligent species of plant and/or fungus.
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Old 10-20-2014, 09:46 AM   #9
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Default Re: [Sword&Sorcery] Racial Selection

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Based on what you have, the lack of Bird Men seems conspicuous. You might also consider an intelligent species of plant and/or fungus.
Interesting. Bird People would live far away in the high mountains. Fungus... I'll have to think about that. I don't want to fall into the "one race per biome" trap either. Hmm...
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Old 10-20-2014, 10:01 AM   #10
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Default Re: [Sword&Sorcery] Racial Selection

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anders View Post
That's an interesting concept, although probably too close and personal with the humans for my taste. I'd like the nonhumans to be exotic things, heard of only in legends.

I also consider making the "Fish"men modelled on Giant Isopods, because that is sheer nightmare fuel to me.
You could also do the serpent people as the fallen empire - they appear in the Cthulu mythos but I think they're from someone other than Lovecraft ... having the serpent taint in human blood is also very Lovecraft (either Innsmouth or Arthur Jermyn style) ... and was it Machen who populated the British Isles with degenerate serpent people living in tunnels?

Can't say I'm particularly scared by woodlice of any size, but China Miellville's Grindylows (as per the Scar) are scary fish-people.

As for bird men, they tend to be troubled by the image of Brian Blessed in a leather harness...
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