How do you decide not only what race to include or not in your setting but how common each race is in a given region ?
How do you decide not only what race to include or not in your setting but how common each race is in a given region ?
How do you decide not only what race to include or not in your setting but how common each race is in a given region ?
Humans & Demihumans only. Everything else is a Monster.
Based and mainstream pilled.
You're not interesting.
Neither are you, gaygit.
freakshit isn't interesting, it's superficial dressing
Different from you and your crowd, weird and 'exotic' races are interesting
they are not any of that. Freakshit is common as dirt in DnDogshit, there's nothing interesting, exotic, or unique about them.
>they are not any of that
yes they are
>Freakshit is common as dirt in DnDogshit
and ?
>there's nothing interesting
they designs, lore, build options...
> exotic, or unique
that's why I use "", and above all being le unique or le exotic doesn't really matter
If it’s superficial why do you care if it’s there or not? Surely if a well written character is placed effectively into the narrative it doesn’t matter whether they’re a human or a bird or a frog
You don't need an excuse to have humans, its everything else that needs justification. What's even the point of therm being animals? It's because you want to frick/are attracted to something that looks like that animal.
>its everything else that needs justification
No, other races don't need any more explanação than humans
>What's even the point of therm being animals?
Looks cool + fun
>What's the point
Every mythology on earth features talking animals.
Animals have extremely intuitive physical archetypes (rabbits or foxes having high DEX is a lot more intuitive than fricking elves).
They lend themselves to a lighthearted fairy-tale tone that humans have a harder time setting.
Animals make it easy to imagine a setting with no humans, which can be interesting to see the parallels between the animals societies and ours.
Alternatively, they can let you explore humanity from an outsider's perspective, portraying them as alien and strange, savage and brutal, or benevolent protectors.
>You just want to frick them
Understandable since furries have poisoned that well pretty badly, but you either lack imagination or just really want to win this argument if you jumped straight to this.
Reminds me of how they shit the bed with Marvel vs Capcom, going on about how the characters don't matter they're just functions.
Okay, cool character matchups are at least half the reason anyone plays those games. It’s the same reasoning for races.
>Characters don't matter
>In Marvel vs. Capcom
What idiot said this?
Its honestly impressive how badly they dropped the ball on this game
Holy shit, what level of Marxist autism do these homosexuals operate on?
combofiend is, as the name implies, operating on combo autism. he put a character with a flight move in the game to facilitate gay flight cancel combos
he also put his favourite character in the game, bionic commando with dreadlocks, because he likes the super that is just a big punch
lmao, its literally the same as the "just use humans argument".
No wonder people still play 3 instead.
Monsters only. Anything else is Background Color.
> Humans & Demihumans only.
What the frick are demihumans? Half-elves, half-orcs and tieflings?
Basically. Its another way of saying non-humans that still look strongly human. Catgirls that are just tails + ears count as that too.
Elves, half elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes, are demi humans as per 1e with orca and the like being considered humanoid. Japanese isekai still use this distinction for some reason to do with how they were exposed only to early DND before going their own way
Wow what an absolutely nuclear take not like we already have an entire subgenre for your idea. How abiut you frick off and try giving a real answer next time human homosexual
You should consider eating a bowl of frick. Humans should make up the majority with a small sprinkling of demi-humans.
Best answer.
Plebeian take, expected from a fat /tg/ autist
I like the races of El Resurgir del Dragon pic related. In my setting I didnt decide what, just included what my players wanted to play. In one session they were in the underdark and an elf asked how was the surface this century and we were 3 hours talking about the world and drawing a map, deciding what race was in each place.
One of my players is an hipotid, good race
Where is that art from? It's uncommon to see art that looks modern but not shit.
>How do you decide
Completely arbitrarily based on where I want them and feel is appropriate for each race, and of course what races I like or have fun ideas for on the spot. I also have a lot of free space to work with if I ever want to include more, in the form of distant continents and plot devices.
I too am interested in the source for the art
>Where is that art from?
I took from here charro.artstation.com/projects/R09gE
Thansk anon.
>Where is that art from?
Spanish brand of dnd5, the original title is El Resurgir del Dragon (the return/rise of the dragon). im not familiar with the lore, but what i heard is basically 15 yo fan fic with some interesting bits in it
Okay, this sounds pretty cool. What are the cool bits of lore?
- current world power are the monkey people and their not China empire
- 90% of human cultures are semi-nomadic barbarians, like celts and so on
- crusader hippos bent on setting all slaves free and making the world into a peaceable and just place
- precursor race known as The Pilgrims; left a lot of magic stuff around, including inmense ruins suspected to be mana-powered facilities. They left the world millenia ago and so far nobody has managed to crack their secrets, but Pilgrim made artifacts are highly valuable, and most races of beastmen present are suspected to be their creation
the pilgrims are the two guys in black space suits from the art
>most races of beastmen present
Just MOST of them? What about the rest?
And what about the nailmen?
>What about the rest?
dunno, not familiar enough with the setting.
i think they're neat
>crusader hippos bent on setting all slaves free and making the world into a peaceable and just place
Lost me at moral hippos, those c**ts are evil
They need to fit thematically and in terms of power scaling. if there's a nation of gigachads next to a nation of normal people, the question is why the normals even exist. Make the gigachads rarer. if the gigachads are ripped 10 foot tall frog men, then they have to be in the swamps. What's the biggest swamp in my setting? Extrapolate population from there.
That is an entirely unnecessary amount of freakshit in one picture.
Who cares. You’re not doing anything with your setting.
You know damn well what works for one person or setting won't work for another and that you don't actually care.
The purpose of this thread is to create a thread. This and nothing more.
Wrong. Everything is objective and there is a single correct answer to every question of taste.
The only thing you should need or want are humans. All other races are just cheap knockoffs based on exaggerated human traits and ideas with a different coat of paint. You can have a world with just varieties of human that's just as interesting as any bullshit fantasy race.
Sounds borring as frick and very uniterresting
What are some fantasy settings that do that well then, do you know of any?
>Oh, you want an 9 foot tall troll species with skin hard as rock?
>Nah, human will do
>What, a collective hive mind of blind, subterranean insect people with 4 arms
>I reckon a human will fit there handsomely
>You want an entirely aquatic merpeople race that cannot live above water?
>Yeah, I'm thinking humans
>What, tiny, ankle-high gnome people who creep into houses at night to cause mischief?
>Hm, regular humans should do the job
We're talking about race not as an ethnic distinguisher, but in the biological sense.
To make humans fit the aforementioned roles, you would have to change them in such a way that they would no longer be considered a human.
NTA but an interesting creature does not necessarily make for a good player character. Physical traits like extreme size differences, breathing different atmospheres, or different arrangements of limbs potentially put massive restrictions on the GM because they can trivialize some challenges or make others impossible. When a human sits down to design an imaginary dungeon or space ship layout, he'll naturally think in terms of humans and it's easy to forget that the world is populated by 2 inch tall flying fairies or beings of pure elemental fire. A perfect example: the extremely common occurrence of near-universal dark vision ruining many D&D DM's first dungeons. It is of course possible to design around what your party contains, but that can still risk breaking world building (sure is convenient how the duke installed those 10 foot tall doors around the same time the 9 foot tall troll joined the party) and rules (hey DM, can my 8 armed bug man carry 4 greatswords?)
To specifically pick on one of your examples:
>an entirely aquatic merpeople race that cannot live above water
There's zero chance this won't cause a situation where the merfolk player twiddles his thumbs while the rest of the party does something on land for a session.
I try to at least restrict my players to non-flying bipeds when I run games like these, that way the focus is more on their culture than their physiology.
>When a human sits down to design an imaginary dungeon or space ship layout,
Who said those are designed by humans or with human in mind?
I mean you, the GM, are human. You are a human and carry human biases, and it's exhausting to have to come up with little justifications for everything just because one guy saw the 30 foot tall flying blue man in the monster manual and just HAD to play it.
It's not exhausting at all. Something wrong with your brain?
I mean if I were allowing drastically divergent races (which is how I prefer them other than human offshoots) in a game not about exploring a world entirely composed of them (like Mouseguard) then the compromises and necessity of working with each other would be baked into the campaign concept from the start. Exhausting for a GM certainly but doable with meticulous prep and clear description of strange capabilities.
imaginationlet
And where's your imagination? Let me guess, you came up with a hilarious verbal tic or character bit that definitely won't get old 30 minutes into session 1?
You saw a picture of an animal in a picture book and pointed at it and said "that one". Your GM is the one applying all the imagination (work) on your behalf, accommodating for your decision that you made on a whim.
>Just take a bunch of options to let your merfolk effectively be a human
What's the point? This is like that combat wheelchair bullshit where you make a handicapped character yet conveniently can do everything a non-handicapped character can do so it never matters. Does looking different matter that much to you?
Sure, of course you can wield 4 swords. If you want a mechanical benefit for it, you can buy the Two-Fisted Power.
The merfolk character can just take a rebreather at character creation, or the Adaptation power, or Shapeshifting, or Immunity : Life Support, or any of a dozen other options. Are you new to this or something?
Dice roll and dice roll
I think about how their abilities separate them from the other races, first and foremost. Sure, two of my races have claws, but one of them is more suited to dealing damage, while the other is better suited to grappling. The former is quick, and has a number of skills that may be used as follow-ups and reactions, while the latter has skills that can devote an entire turn to deliver one devastating attack.
I'll give races unique weapons or magic. I'll give them different resistances to different types of damage, with a weakness or two as a tradeoff.
In my GAMES, I think about each possible choice and variety of enemy's impact on GAMEPLAY.
And what about the player options ?
Mostly what my players want to play and areas I want to make inhabited by certain races.
If I think it's cool it's in.
If I think it's lame, it's out
If a player thinks it's cool I add it
If I think what the player likes is lame I only add a little bit to make him happy
If a player thinks it's lame but I think it's cool I only add a little bit to keep me happy.
That's the general procedure. I'm sure you can imagine case law examples of where youd want to deviate but the above is a good rule of thumb.
climate and cultural/historical reasons
I like making collaborative settings with my players. It increases their investment in the world massively and is more fun for me personally since I find creating things under constraints to be more satisfying. Typically for different races I let each person choose one that will become the big movers and shakers, and then others might get added if they make sense thematically or if there's a niche that needs to be filled.
By not being autistic
I was enlightened by my own intellect and culture the moment I realize Humans were all I need, the only that everyone really needs
Agreed.
These are all humans? Even the cat dude and the skeleton?
They get affected by their god.
I actually really like Wakfu's take on "races". It explains having a freakshit world without having to wonder where the fricking hippo people live. Every city is a cosmopolitan nightmare of random races because if you happen to adhere to one of the dozens of different gods you just slowly become like them. You don't even have to be really faithful, just do stuff they like.
And then I don't have to complain that the hippo people act like humans. Because they are. The "human but gimmick" assumption is built into the setting.
>It explains having a freakshit world without having to wonder where the fricking hippo people live
Never looked into Wakfu but that's a neat idea. Are there tons of gods that all look like weird animals and stuff, or just a handful? And are they all animal-like or are there humanoid ones too?
Most are actually more humanoid.
Its been a long time since I watched the show, but from what I remember there was a handful of gods:
Xelor: God of time, he's the mummy looking guy
Enutrof: God of money and greed. He actually just makes you look old.
There's the plant people god, who doesn't change appearance much besides green hair and a few plant powers.
Panda god who is about healing and brewing I think
There's like a weird berserker god who's followers all try and hold cursed items to keep them safe but most are dumb as doornails
Literal elf god who's just an elf
There's at least a few more. I know /tg/ generally likes Wakfu and Dofus so there's probably someone who knows more than me. Keep in mind the setting is from an mmo so the gods basically just represent different classes in the game. Plus you can just be a plain old human too if you don't adhere too closely to any one.
I like to include half orcs so my players don't ask why there aren't any africans in this world that doesn't have a continent called africa.
>the only reason anyone could possibly dislike cringe furry trash is if they're being contrarian
and here i thought you were mentally ill because you jerk off to horse dicks
I don't play DnD where this is a problem
>D&D is the only game that has different races unevenly distributed across geographic areas.
You are an idiot.
It's the only game with a dicktillion races where it's a real problem of what all is included, yes. I'm sorry you have shit taste, but it is what it is.
What I want to include and maybe something that players might want. I basically just pick a small few and then add a couple based on players and then we're good. My personal picks are usually humans, dwarves, gnomes, and hobbits, because it's incredibly easy to reason that they're all just branches of the same race, which I feel helps keep things grounded while still giving some fantastical variety. They also fit niches nicely when there's fewer races (gnomes get to be THE magic and nature race, hobbits are the roguish and charismatic race, dwarves are the crafter and builder and engineer race, humans are the war-like and adventurous race), whereas when there's a lot of races the shorties actually blend together more.
If players want to play something specifically I just work with them to see how they want the race to fit in. And might adjust the race based on that. Like if they don't actually care about the demonic part of tieflings and just the rest, then here's a race of horned gypsy frickers that aren't actually demon-tainted.
> How do you decide not only what race to include or not in your setting
I ask myself “do I have actual minis of this race?” If not, then I don’t include them by virtue of having no way to represent them on a game mat. I could use proxies, sure, but that defeats the purpose of giving myself narrative limitations to spur on creativity and avoid choice paralysis.
> but how common each race is in a given region ?
If I have narrative ideas involving that race, then they’ll be more prevalent. If I have no ideas on how to use them then they’ll have only a token presence, if even that.
>How do you decide not only what race to include or not in your setting but how common each race is in a given region ?
Start with humans-only, then introduce other intelligent races and slowly open up options for players to make new PCs from said races.
Potato potato, Marxism has always eschewed the personal in favor of the purely utilitarian, treating human beings as equal and interchangeable programmable dummies, only budging in implementation when faced with factual reality - and sometimes not even then. The central bureaucracy dismissing requests for something different based on an on-paper replacement of similar function is precisely something you'd see in any Marxist state.
>Brother if a marxist heard that someone's compared him to a post-modernist, he would get very upset, maybe even pout a little
but the fact still remains that their originated from marxism and share in the core principles, style of thinking and practices
>but that's just untrue
history shows otherwise
>their originated from marxism and share in the core principles, style of thinking and practices
Haha, no
>history shows otherwise
Marxism as marx intended it was never put into practice, this isn't a "real communism has been never tried", mind you, just to specify that everything that came after was built on marxism, but wasn't marxist itself
>Haha, no
yeah, I know you are a pretentious pseudo, but yes it does no matter how much you want to dissociate from it as it fails
>Marxism as marx intended
doesn't matter what marx intended, what matter is what real history show how marxists really acted
>this isn't a "real communism has been never tried"
yes, it is
>Pseudo
Hey buddy, i think you're lost, Ganker is that way,
oh yes, you the last communist the man alone who shall rebuild communism and free the working class.
shut the frick up underage midwit.
Underaged? This is Ganker, bro. That dude is definitely in his mid-30's.
He might be in his 30s, but his brain still is under 15
Why all the aggression man? what did i say that provoked such a strong reaction in you?
and why are you putting words in my mouth that i never said?
Whatever I think is interesting
>All monster party
>All human NPCs
>Sprinkle the rest in slightly for flavor
This actually ties well into something that I'm working on. In my setting, each race is aligned with two of the six elements (Light, Shadow, Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water), maybe three. I was planning that my Fire/Water race would be one of serpent-folk like picture related, living on and around a volcanic island chain. I unfortunately am not so certain with my Wind/Water and Wind/Earth races. The best suggestion that someone's been able to give me for them is that they're nomadic due to the Wind aspect, and I was considering making the former a kind of merfolk, potentially with flying fish traits. What do you think?
here you go, anon
your welcome
Monster or not, I will frick the monkey woman
Birdfricker.
Whatever players pick are the common races at their region, every new place it's up to the random generator or whatever make sense at the time
True, but the two are so closely married together (in the west) and have been since the 60’s that you’re being pretty pedantic by even pointing this out
Do you ever mix things up, like having dwarves in forests and elves underground, just to name a couple examples off the top of my head?
>elves underground
Why yes I do have Rockseer Elves.
Easy I play a published setting with loads of lore already there for me to use.
By not caring: it's max freakshit cosmopolitanism until it's cooler another way.
What if your players care? What then?
>Playpiggy thinks he gets a say
I stick to humans, orcs, dwarfs, elves, dragonkin (with a touch of satyrs, cyclopes and minotaurs because I grew up playing Age of Mythology)
There is enough concepts/conflicts between the generic human/orc/dwarf/elf setting as well as possibility for sub-cultures/races. I would rather they are deep and meaningful complex society/civilization relationships rather than a thousand sentient races which gets reduced to
>this is a frog race
>they came from a swap
>they are not very bright, but can jump far and do well in water
Unlike the unimaginative HFYgays, I choose what I like from what seems interesting for the region, what theme or cultural aesthetic I'm pulling from, and just a general rule of cool. Also what the game system has already released or what's coming out.
Like the ancient Sumerian-psuedoislamic dragon empire where dragons, dragonborn, and kobolds live.
Or the southern notAfrica region where dinosaur riding lizardfolk feud with their civilized catfolk neighbors, who are in turn allies with the celestial and chaos planetouched heavy human matriarchy nearby.
Or a bunch of other strange people and their cultures.
Basically, listen to your gut and make something that pleases you without regard to the naysayers and frickwits here. The sooner you learn to ignore the ways this place tries to make you conform to its shitty ideas about how to do things the better off you will be. Do not seek the approval of Ganker posters.
I just put whatever makes my wiener hard in and distribute them randomly because no one but autistic nogames on Ganker actually cares
Put in what you like, determine how common they should be in an area based on their traits, suitability for the land and background information. Pretty simple. If you really want a particular race in an area, and it wouldn't make sense, make an exceptional reason for them to be there. Just don't do it too often.
whatever would create the most seething
If I think it's cool and something that would be fun to play I put it in, If I think it'd make sense to include certain races that aren't anywhere in the books like a race of Wyvern people similar to Dragonborns I will put them in
Races that have since long been forgotten or hypothetical races that I'd think be interesting
Everyone knows people who insist on Only-Humans are no-gamers anyhow
you weren't authorized to use that pepe, this is the one you were issued
I am my own pepe
>racial religion
ridiculous, frick off
kys bumpgay, why do you even have so many dogshit worthless pictures saved?
>worthless pictures saved?
bots can scrap the internet for pictures to post.
I ask my players what races they want in the game.
Yeah, humans only. How did I decide that? I read any piece of the endless amounts of actual good, enduring fantasy IE mythology.
Why would I want to engage in your shitty unimaginative knock off when I could read the real thing that's already way better?
Most mythology includes non-human characters nice try tho
As background players that support humanity, or as enemies that confront them and are there to be overcome.
Check.
Your next move?
Not as the main character.
Whatever races are in the system we're playing, and whatever is convenient for me based on the story I'm telling. My players more or less never ask me to describe racial distribution where they goand I rarely mention it except when it's important to note that a city is a dwarf settlement and it's mostly them, or they're at a restaurant in halfling country and the owner is seating them outside since he doesn't have furniture sized for them in his dining room
Pretty sure those are enemies you fight in XCOM Apocalypse.
Nope. Enemies in Phoenix Point.
In my setting everyone is either a Human or Demihuman (Elves, Dwarf, Halfing, Beastfolk, Minotaur, dog kobold, half giants)
Its because the area that they are in is a Preserve for various alien life and the section they are in is the Human preserve and so the aliens that watch over humanity created the different demi humans to see in what environments humanity or if offshoots could survive in.
Though the Beastfolk/Minotaur/kobolds were created after for another reason.