Races Should make a Difference
Written by Johnn
How does each race in your game make a difference? Put another way, if any of race disappeared, how would the setting be different? How would gameplay be different?
- Remaining races might venture into unexpected niches, creating interesting twists. Elven smiths, orcish druids, gnomish sailors.
- The world might be poorer because no race or culture has filled the void left by the missing race. Perhaps metal is scarce, so armour and weapons remain primitve. Maybe medicine has not advanced, and the Heal skill is unavailable or the DCs are increased.
- Wars might be fought for reasons different than the norm, such as over unusual scarcities or rivalries.
Even though your game rules or settings supply races, give their descriptions a read over, and make tweaks so each race has a noticeable footprint in the world.
Look for ways to make the precence of each race felt during game sessions, such as roleplaying, architecture, mannerisms, fashion, conflict types and sources, art, and community quirks.
January 6th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Great question, “If any of races disappeared, how would the setting be different?” That’s probably a litmus test on what the race actually brings to the game. Never really thought about this until I read this article.
Samuel Van Der Wall’s last blog post..How 4th Edition Has Made Me a Better DM
January 19th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
I’ve been kicking around an idea for a campaign that, aside from humans, would feature an assortment of non-standard races: Hobgoblins, goblins, several races from some non-standard books I have, etc. I’d start off with humans only, and then as the PCs met the other races and interacted with them, they would “unlock” additional PC races that they could start to use.
I don’t know whether it’ll ever get off the ground, but it’s been fun to play with.
January 20th, 2009 at 3:16 am
Interesting idea! What would the PCs need to do to unlock more races? And, what would be the benefit of unlocking more?
January 20th, 2009 at 4:29 am
I’ve done something similar in the Fumanor campaigns, Michael, and it has worked out very well. Johnn, for me the key requirements to ‘unlocking’ a race’s availability are (1) having suitable Game Mechanics such as level adjustments to ensure game balance; (2) ensuring that a new race is sufficiently distinct from those already available that a PC from that race will have something unique to bring to the table; (3) ensuring that the concepts around which each new race are built are internally consistant, so that a good player can reason out other changes and effects based on racial histories and precedents and analogies; and (4) that the camapign status of the new race permits some level of social interaction with the established character races. The benefit of unlocking more is a plurality of perspectives, a diversity of choices, and the opportunity for the DM to explore aspects of the game in general, and his campaign in particular, in an interactive way that would otherwise be nothing more than exposition and narrative and plot trains. Each new race enlarges the scope of the DMs world, and the game play opportunities that it contains, to the benefit of all.
January 20th, 2009 at 5:33 am
Hey Mike, would love to compare notes with you on #2. Maybe we do a blog post each on that in the future?
I’d be all ears on reading a post by you on #3.
A plurality of perspectives? Say that 10 times fast!
August 31st, 2009 at 11:15 am
(Pardon the laundry list of authors and series here, I’m widely read and am taking examples from different authors)
Another thing to consider is the origin(s) of the races. Believe it or not, in Tolkien mythology, Orcs actually are twisted elves.
In the world of Raymond E. Fiest moredhel (his version of ‘dark; elves) and the eledhel (‘light’ elves in his world) are actually the same race, only with different lifestyles.
Or the races in Kate Elliott’s books — the “Cursed ones,” Eika and the Qumann.
Kenders are changed gnomes in Dragonlance.
What about worlds that don’t have “typical” races, but violent, twisted counterparts (the “Bloody Caps” of R.A. Salvitore DemonWars Saga. Or ones vastly different rhyming Ogers in Piers Anthony’s Xanth series or the singing Ogiers of Robert Jordan’s Dragon Reborn Series.
Some authors even take “established” races of Bugbears and presents them in a totally different light as in Elisabeth Haydon’s Rhapsody, Prophecy, Destiny series.
By taking an established race and giving it new culture, abilities, or history is a way of spicing things up for your players
September 2nd, 2009 at 2:56 am
I agree completely, James, and it was that very thought that inspired my later article series on Distilled Cultural Essences.
August 31st, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Thanks for the tip James.
August 3rd, 2011 at 2:11 am
Great post! When I start out PCs, in addition to basic skills they get as they choose their professions (I DM 3.5), I give them a few freebies because of their race. For instance, Halflings are called Jinki in my world and they all start with profession: cook/3 and the feat Weapon Focus: short sword. I don’t give them a LOT of points, just a couple of levels in 1 or 2 skills that helps define the race. Each race also generally has a cultural slant to it as well. I like what I have read here because there are some great ideas!
August 3rd, 2011 at 5:48 am
Thanks Krys!
December 5th, 2011 at 1:21 pm
For my game world, I had the task of creating two sets of ‘races’ because of the nature of the game. My game is an exploration/frontier game, where the PCs travel from their continent to a newly discovered one as a peace venture; the new continent is an anime-inspired fantasy world, while the continent they came from is split into two factions that have been involved i a magic-versus-technology war for the past couple thousand years.
In order to create my races, and make them different, I focused on history and culture to give each race a different role and a different feel.
On the continent of Hespera, where the PCs come from, there’s only one “race” – humans – but characters from different countries had different skills and professions open to them; characters from a country allied with Nyres, the magical superpower, would be able to learn powerful magic spells, but had limited technology available to them. Characters from the technological superpower, Candisk, had access to near-futuristic technology, but weren’t allowed to learn magic at all.
The races of Kastra are much closer to what you’d expet from that world – non-human races, each with their own abilities and attributes. I really like the idea of unlocking races when you meet them, I’ll have to think about that. Anyway, to make each race unique, as well as to give them all purpose in the world, I went for four things:
*Appearance – This is superficial, but it’s important. All of my races have distinct looks wih varying amounts of ‘humanity’ involved.
*Role – This is the role they play in global (or continental, really) society, as well as what roles in a party they’re inherently more suited to.
*Geography – This is where the race lives, which affects their culture, adaptations, etc. It’s important to know where a race evolved and prefers to make their home because it affects so many things.
Culture/History – This is, well, just what it sounds like – the race’s history and their customs. For a starting point, I took one or two civilizations from ancient history on Earth that lived in similar conditions and I melded, changed, and altered them to fit the conditions I wanted in my world.
I hope this makes sense and helps you all!