A GURPS Fantasy setting

[Kalzazz]

Elves, dwarves, dragons and the like are all things I enjoy and want to see, just like swords and spells and so forth

I read a book not super long ago, where one of the key premises was that noone had swords, everyone had axes, not a sword to be seen . . . . that was just weird, it was never explained, but, somehow, all axes, no swords. Definitely did not help my enjoyment of the book or cause me to seek out other books by the same person

Ill admit that I got like partway through the Malazan Book of the Fallen #1 and got distracted and lost interest, the other book I haven't encountered

Elves and Dwarves show up in several Non DnD RPG rulebooks and such, so, I think probably a lot of people do like them and want to see them represented

And please for the passionate love of all good deities, do not rename them all or give me a list of a slew of races with names like Strumbleyofers . . . . nothing causes me uncontrollable twitching as being barraged with lots and lots of incomprehensible fantasy names for things. That for instance to me is one of the major knocks against say the Azamar game/setting from Wicked North Games (which is actually a fun thing, but the names/races cause the pain)

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

Elves, dwarves, dragons and the like are all things I enjoy and want to see, just like swords and spells and so forth

Swords are generally a logical consequence of knives, always having exactly the same elves, dwarves, halflings and gnomes, with all the same tropes and baggage as Gygax and Arneson gave them in the late 70s isn't a logical consequence of anything.

Ill admit that I got like partway through the Malazan Book of the Fallen #1 and got distracted and lost interest, the other book I haven't encountered

Gardens of The Moon is probably the weakest book in the series, IMO.

[(E)]

I fully understand the points brought up by earlier posters with regard to having standard fantasy races, distancing the races from their dnd incarnations and having a meaningful name. I ended up rewriting the races from their various sources so in place of elves (+1dx -1st) I have Noldor etc with a lot more in depth racial package.

[Kalzazz]

What I have done specifically is thought about races I was 'sure that exist', and made sure to periodically when DMing have them exist, and even more so races I am 'sure are popular'

So for instance, if the party goes to a town, or a inn, or a shop etc, if there is no specific reason for any particular race then the clerk/townsfolk or whatever will usually be drawn from 'sure are popular' list

If I think 'dwarves, elves, humans, halflings, gnomes, centaurs, catfolk, and dragonids' are in the 'sure are popular' list for my setting, and dhamphirs and werewolves and treants are 'sure that exist' and psychic blueberry muffins are 'haven't given to much thought' then chances are that the clerk at the local 'Weapons 'R Us' is much more likely to be a halfling than a treant, and much more likely to be a treant than a psychic blueberry muffin

I don't have racial templates though, I may have thoughts about 'often members of this race are', but I'm not going to produce any actual templates

I don't really like using game mechanics to handle races, I am perfectly happy with greedy dwarves and dragons, but if somewhere there wanted to be a dwarf or dragon that forsook gold? All good and groovy. Want to be a greedy elf? Groovy. So I might say 'often dwarves and dragons like moneys', but I'm not going to write out some template to that effect

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

I don't really like using game mechanics to handle races, I am perfectly happy with greedy dwarves and dragons, but if somewhere there wanted to be a dwarf or dragon that forsook gold? All good and groovy. Want to be a greedy elf? Groovy. So I might say 'often dwarves and dragons like moneys', but I'm not going to write out some template to that effect

I have to say I really don't like that approach. If you don't have any behavioral, emotional, or cognitive modifiers for your races, then basically they're humans in makeup. Conversely, if you have the modifiers, you can perfectly well buy them off for an individual member of the race.

For example, in my current multiracial fantasy campaign, tapestry, the template for ghoul men is

Attribute Modifiers: ST -3 [-30]; IQ -1 [-20]
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Per +1 [5]; Basic Move -1 [-5]
Advantages: Combat Reflexes [15], Fearlessness 1 [2], Nictitating Membrane 1 [1], Night Vision 3 [3], Parabolic Hearing 1 [4], Reduced Consumption 2 (Cast-Iron Stomach, -50%) [2], Sharp Teeth [1], Silence 2 [10], Temperature Tolerance 1 (Hotter) [1]
Disadvantages: Social Stigma (Minority Group) [-10], Unattractive [-4]
Quirks: Alcohol Intolerance [-1], Distractible [-1], Nosy [-1], Playful [-1], Proud [-1]

but Gansukh, one of the two ghoul PCs, has

Not Alcohol Intolerant [1]

I put that package together to reflect partly the archetype I wanted ghouls to fit, and partly the ecological niche I had worked out for them as originally desert-dwelling scavengers behaviorally similar to coyotes and to hyenas.

And the other six peoples all have templates as well. Even men have Animal Empathy (because they're "man the mortal, master of horses") and Proud. (The actual "men" race in the setting is more nixies, a riverine mercantile race, than men; but they have behavioral traits too.)

I'm not saying you shouldn't do things the way you choose. But I like exploring the way different racial behavioral patterns fit together; and if the races don't have behavioral patterns I don't get that, or not so much.

[Kalzazz]

I consider one of the big and liberating things about GURPS is not being forced to have hard racial packages and classes

I find saying 'X often are Y' to be good enough

For instance, if I was going to

'Dragons often tend toward SM+4 and ST 50 or so and usually have wings and a breath weapon, usually ST based (see Natural Weapons in Pyramid 65 for example), many have No Fine Manipulators. It is not uncommon for dragons to be greedy, lazy, or sleep alot, often are great fans of 'base impulses' such as Sloth, Greed, Lechery and Gluttony, and some of them are pretty irritable. Dragon organization usually is pretty lose as dragons tend not to be very organized, and many dragons are found in other Namegiver organizations as the dragons wind up going with the flow. Usually the strongest dragon in an area is referred to as a King or Queen, and lesser (but still cool dragons) may be referred to as Prince or Princess or other titles of respect. The most powerful dragons are often referred to as Kaiser Dragons as a term of respect, while particularly large ones (SM 8+ or so) are often called Kaiju Dragons or Colossus Dragons. Dragons often are magical critters that learn magic, and dependency mana is quite common. Almost all dragons love cave crab, and the cave crab has thus evolved to be a tough fight even for a dragon. Dragons usually consider themselves to be Masters of their own specific martial art - Dragon Style Kung Fu. Many people consider this a joke style as most times it involves dragons flailing around with raw DX or a modest level of Brawling relying on their raw ST and natural weapons to carry the day, but a dragon who actually studies fighting can be a decided threat. Dragons are not known to be terribly religious most of the time, the Dragon Father, God of Dragons, actually is primarily worshiped by other races and attempts to encourage his children to fit more into society as opposed to being hunted by society as monsters'

That gives plenty of potential ideas someone might take to make their dragon character, without forcing a one true way template

[Kalzazz]

Oh, I would also add

'Many dragons, especially those who like interacting with other races, like to learn Alternate Form (one of other races) and/or Alternate Form (fun sized dragon), so that they can actually fit inside buildings and dungeons. (DM Note - this is a good idea)'

[hal]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

Oh, I would also add

'Many dragons, especially those who like interacting with other races, like to learn Alternate Form (one of other races) and/or Alternate Form (fun sized dragon), so that they can actually fit inside buildings and dungeons. (DM Note - this is a good idea)'

Many were the times I'd think "those templates should break things down as:

Physical/racial templates

and

Cultural templates

then, when someone doesn't take everything on the cultural template, the GM can say "that's fine. Your character has a new disadvantage of reputation: eccentric, or maybe a new cultural disadvantage due to not adhering to the cultural norm.

For me, the saddest thing about the 4e rules for attributes and the like, is that it made specifying attribute bonuses seem like a waste of time. There is no functional difference between having a +1 ST bonus due to Racial templates and taking a -1 ST from the racial norm, and simply not bothering to include a +1 attribute in the first place (other than the disadvantage limit that is).

Ah well, that is my 2 cents on it. That and about $4 might get you a good cup of coffee somewhere ;)

[Kalzazz]

Looking at three different dragon characters

All three are SM +4 and have NFM
One has ST 35, one ST 70, and one ST 65 (so none of them have the trend toward ST 50, but that makes sense as ST 50 for a more base dragon, one is a squishy dragon mage, other two are fighters)

The first dragon has Greed, Laziness, Gluttony which are definitely off the 'things dragons often have' list, the other two seem not to. Two have Overconfidence, two have Xenophilia, and two have Vulnerability Cold/Ice, and all three took Dependency (Mana)

One has winged flight (being a more Western dragon), other two have Flight (being more Eastern).

All three have breath weapons from Natural Weapons, one has Ultra Sharp Claws (from Natural Weapons), one has basic set claws, and one has basic set claws and Unarmed Master.

All three have Style Familiarity Dragon Style Kung Fu and the Karate skill, however, the one has TBaM also, and a lot more of said Karate skill than the others (being an actual monk)

The race fields on the character sheets are filled in 'Dragon' 'Pink Dragon' and 'Sun Dragon'

Two of them have human alternate forms, one has a SM-6 mini dragon alternate form

Interestingly enough . . . the one who took the most 'dragon suggested disads' is a spellcaster who in play mostly uses spells. The two of them who are focused on 'charge into melee as a high ST high damage wrecking ball' one of them didn't take many disads at all period, and one of them focused primarily on Monk/Religious Fanatic related stuff (Intolerance Undead, Fanaticism, Vow - Destroy Evil, Rituals of Faith, Duty, Bloodlust, Callous and so forth) instead of dragon focused stuff

But anyway, can see that despite taking some of the advice on dragons (in particular the SM+4, NFM, using Natural Weapons to design a breath weapon, and having an Alternate Form), have wound up with 3 rather different dragon characters

[Phantasm]

What I did in my setting was mix some of the standard fantasy trope races (Elves, Dwarves, Halflings) with some of the standard "monster" races (Centaurs, Minotaurs, Goblins, Kobolds) and civilized the latter group, adding in a winged human variant (admittedly nabbed from GURPS Fantasy Folk) and a canine race. (Sorry, no Gnomes.)

Then I started putting minor twists on them.

Elves? Tropical and sub-tropical forests, centered on an island-continent that had been known since antiquity and still very rural in nature. Also, forget Elven eyesight; it's all about those ears. Elven ears are pointed for a reason, after all.

Dwarves? Forget the "always build down, not up" trope; my Dwarves mine and are accustomed to being underground, but their cities are built on the outsides of the mountains in a rather vertical fashion. Also, forget Scottish accents; mine have German or Austrian accents. The Dwarfinator, anyone? :)

Halflings? Okay, I'm still trying to figure out how not to have then The Shire.

Goblins? Fully integrated into human society.

Minotaurs? Gentle vegetarians with wanderlust.

Orcs? Only one word covers them: Vikings. My Orcs come from a harsh mountainous northern region, which combined with their reproductive rates gives them a reason to go out raiding and exploring. It also gives them a reputation for fierceness, which makes Orc mercenaries prized as shock troops.

Half-Elves and Half-Orcs? I decided to play with the "outcast" angle and give them a nation of their own, where being pure Human, Elf, or Orc results in discrimination. Since Humans, Elves, and Orcs can interbreed, I figured there would be a very small minority of Orc-Elf hybrids - Orfs.

I made sure my dragons weren't color-coded, which really confuses several folks whose whole take on dragons comes from Smaug and D&D.

I also made sure that when I made up names of stuff the names flowed and seemed natural: "Aeralon" for my winged humans, "Mohani" for my lizardfolk expies, "Vulptens" for my canines.