Showing all 113 replies.
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>>98093025
The only ancient race of people/ Herodotian race (cool term) that can work are the Arimaspoi imo. A race of normal people but are all cyclops that war with griffins/dragons for gold. Being foreign/barbarians gives them that unknown element of being friends or enemies. So they're trapped in being an evil race like tolkien orcs/trolls/goblins.
Arimaspoi also gives you an excuse to have bronze age level drip in your setting
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I wonder how modern /tg/ would look like if the resident retards would just make what they want, instead of making threads wondering why nobody makes the things they want for them or wondering why this or that thing isn't popular.
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>>98093630
>Why do people discuss things on a forum to discuss things
first and last reply your dumb post will get.
>>98093025
Blemmyaes are cool, the elden ring take on them I think was inpsired. Giant/cyclopes and Blemmy all in one.
I also want to add wodewoses/woses, hairy forest men who have turned their back on civilisation even at the stone age level
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>>98093025
They are pretty interesting and somewhat cool, although looking at them, they are pretty silly and come off as mutations or circus freaks, and I don't know what sort of themes or archetypes they could fulfil other than wild feral monster folk that live on the edges of human civilisation
I do like the Cynocephali, mainly because they are people with dog heads who live like regular humans in medieval times, or they are saints, or savage man-eaters
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>>98093025
It wouldn't.
Elves and dwarves and hobbits are a thing because people used them as a) collection of powers (more or less related to Tolkien) and b) a walking archetype/stereotype ready to use for their roleplaying.
Cynokephaloi and the like have neither. Hell, they probably wouldn't work as monsters that easily because they are more vague than a gryphon.
Not that this should stop you from using them, mind you. But they're not equivalent to actual dnd races.
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>>98095568
that is only the case because tolkien was popular, leading his chosen races to be used for the first fantasy RPGs and a ton of copycat books where they were further iterated
If other set of races was chosen those would be the ones seen as collection of power or walking archetypes
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Fantasy is a collection thousands of years of folklore and literature from culture.
But then you're confused about how you rarely see stuff like this or common Greco-Roman creatures despite being extremely common and recognizable to this day, and realize modern western fantasy just comes from creators reading the same few books
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>>98093434
>These races are too deformed to be playable races, they are basically monsters.
You could probably make a whole Runequest party with those guys since day one
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>>98093025
I have some of those in my setting, or, to be more precise, they are subspecies of a highly mutant race. They are aligned with water, have high CON/STR and can mutate as they level up, into blemmyes, ettin, cyclops, trolls, sasquatches, beastmen, giants.
They are usually found wandering and have no consciousness, acting like monsters, though some may spark a mind of their own and become adventurers. The ones that do usually go through great lengths to wear clothes that imediately stand out, as savage ones don't wear anything, and spotting a savage is a "shoot first, ask later" type of situation.
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>>98093025
Depends on the system.
>>98093630
Based.
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>>98093025
>Cynocephali
So one of the mainline races would be a race of humanoids with dog-like features on their heads only about whom discussions raged in regards to whether or not they are within God's grace and therefore wife material. Did I miss anything?
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>>98093025
I don't think I've heard of Arimaspoi before, thanks >>98093607! What are some other potential fantasy races outside of the ones that we're more familiar with? For example, there's the Panotioi with their giant earlobes, but what else? Especially outside of Greek-based regions.
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>>98097163
There are others in here
https://www.theoi.com/greek-mythology/fabulous-tribes.html
People with horse feet, hermaphrodites(literally half male half female) hairy women etc.
I remember a work by Pliny that mentioned people that could walk on water because their feet were made of cork.
For other creatures outside of Greece there are these demon creatures from Siyah Qalam(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siyah_Qalam). One TRPG I know calls them Yek.
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>>98093025
The dog headed ones were the funniest because it was based on people copying each others notes when making fake travel logs. One guy who had never seen or heard of a monkey before saw some baboons when traveling in north africa and a couple centuries later others copied his work when embellishing their fake travel stories.
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>>98093025
>>98095891
Tolkien's races went beyond him because he gave the elves more than "pointy ears, live in a forest, vegetarian." That's the level of detail the Plinian races have. Sometimes less, like the Panotii, who just have "big ears, they use them as blankets and clothes."
>>98097854
Pygmies are much shorter.
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>>98097854
Well, halflings are small, stocky, fat, greedy folk with big, hairy feet who do nothing all day but eat food, don't even help in times of need, they slouch around unless magic rings are involved, and a wizard comes along and gives them a boot up the arse
While pygmies are smaller and seem to be constantly at war with giant cranes, so far, it is easy to say that pygmies do more than those lazy hairy fucks, as at least pygmies are doing something than doing nothing
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>>98098249
"Regular sized cranes? You take me for an idiot? No, these are giant cranes, foul beasts of terror, that'll peck your eyes with their beaks before eating you! Saw them with me own two eyes I did"
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>>98097991
>he gave the elves more than "pointy ears, live in a forest, vegetarian."
1.Elves were not associated with vegetarianism before D&D
2.That is the level of detail those races had before tolkien, the point is that if the Plinian races had been used in a LotR equivalent instead of germanic folklore races they would be seem as the default and had a ton of variations and "depth" and likely other stereotypes would have been derived for them
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>>98098497
>2.That is the level of detail those races had before tolkien, the point is that if the Plinian races had been used in a LotR
Well, that's because Tolkien didn't use them; they didn't have interesting lore, just bizarre designs.
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>>98098534
they have the same amount of lore that elves and dwarfs have in germanic folklore/mythology
Tolkien just used as a starting point to make his own thing and he only used those because he wanted to make a germanic saxon myth
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>>98093025
Years back there was a project working on a ttrpg based on a similar question called Nos Moderni: Chorea Macchabaeorum. The threads were:
>86412450
>86530112
>86603836
>86760004
Sadly, the project never got off the ground. The wikia was taken down, but the discord server still exists if essentially dead.
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>>98095891
No other races would have been chosen, because no other races (before post-dnd literature, at least) covered the same niche. Hell, I'd be hard pressed to find fantasy novels using "races" (not as wondrous "monsters", but as defined "humans" with physicial differences) before Tolkien.
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>>98098721
>they have the same amount of lore that elves and dwarfs have in germanic folklore/mythology
They just actually don't. There are dwarf and elf characters in folklore/mythology, there is like one Cynocephal and he's just a random Saint who everybody decided to draw with a dog head.
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>>98099644
>covered the same niche
no race coverage those niches because those niches are based on tolkiens and D&D
>>98099695
>There are dwarf and elf characters in folklore/mythology
that extremely vague with no with no consistency between tale to tale and with no resemblance to how they were written in tolkien or in D&D
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>>98093709
>Why do people discuss things on a forum to discuss things
If this is a valid argument, why does every attempt to discuss constructive flaws with TTRPGs get deflected with responses as dismissive as the one you replied to?
Oh wait, but you said you wouldn't answer, so I accept your pre-emptive concession.
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I mean a lot of these don't really work as full blown races, since they're mostly just weird hearsay, folk tales and old morality tales that don't make sense anymore. The reason elfs and dwarfs and orcs all work is because we all know what to expect when you see one and how to interact with it. What the hell are you supposed to do with a sciapods as a player or gm beyond saying "wow that's weird." Sure you can write your own OC lore about them, but that defeats the point of a universally recognisable fantasy race. If I had to use them I would just keep the ones that have some built-in character.
>Cynocephali
Originally created as a monster race by a long forgotten evil wizard, they broke free of their curse under the leadership of a pious saint. Now live peacefully on some rocky islands herding sheep. Cleric and Ranger race. Also have them with human bodies but the heads of shepherd breed mutts to distinguish them from standard furry races.
>Blemmyes
Created by some evil god in a parody of humanity, they live in bands at the edge of civilisation, hunting humans with clubs and eating them, for they value the savour of human flesh above all. NPC race.
>Cyclopses
Ogre sized humanoids, bastardly progeny of the sea gods. Because of this their souls are fashioned differently, and they feel no need to worship the gods, or have much use for reason or inquiry. They live simple lives as hermits, only rarely meeting with others of their kind. Ogre style race with high STR and CON but low INT and WIS. Barbarian and ranger focused.
>Pithecai
A race of exceptionally musically talented monkeys an eastern god sent from his heavenly garden to the early human tribes so they would learn about music. As intelligent as a six year old human child and about twice as mischievous. A common fixture in the court of any self respecting noble. Familiar for a Bard PC or a Bard/rogue PC itself for a more light hearted/one-shot campaign.
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we are in anglo-saxon society, so our psycho-mythical heritage is germanic. tolkein/modern fantasy is primarily a vulgar, atheistic derivative of germanic/anglo-saxon myth.
the greco-roman psyche was far less tribal, but more deranged by "luxury more savage than arms". the underlying wisdom of greco-roman myth is higher, but also more curdled... for the purposes of this conversation, less vulgar. as such, it will not be commercialized in 21st century society, which continues to pursue inversion and decline.
as a franco-scottish creature, i am doomed to stradle the chasm, seeing the filth that has doomed both sides and which accumulates unceasingly in our fallen culture today. of course, in the material sense i am germanic, but my mind hounds me with doubt -- is this the way.. and yet, when i am honest with myself, my spirit yearns for ragnorak -- how else will this all be made clean?
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>>98096785
Samefag
>>98101076
>why does every attempt to discuss constructive flaws with TTRPGs get deflected with responses as dismissive as the one you replied
None of that happened in this thread, dude.
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>>98101734
Nope
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>>98101420
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>>98102035
Well it's a blank 5e fantasy setting, what else am I to do?
>>98102583
How else would you do it?
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>>98103007
You don't need any meaningful explanation of their origins, and they're wasted word count unless they specifically mean something (e.g. Cynocephali can ask for God's healing and they get human heads).
Readers of the Plinian races just saw them as weird people because the line between "black people," "red-haired and freckled people with green eyes," "people whose men are on average <150cm," "people who have only two large toes," "people with ridiculously huge ears that reach past their waist," and "people who are only about as tall as your knee" are drawn by experience/knowledge, not some a priori understanding of reality (the vaDoma are a real ethnic group with high rates of ectrodactyly). They explained them the standard ways: geographic determinism, God loving variety, and the curse of Cain/Ham.
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>>98093025
Well, what about regions like Asia or the Americas, what races work for those? For example, everyone thinks of Oni and Kitsune when thinking of Yokai in fantasy Japan regions that could work as races and not monsters, but Tengu and Kappa are less common, just to name a few off the top of my head, what would you do?
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>>98104463
-> >>98093709
>Why do people discuss things on a forum to discuss things
Illiterate trash fagbait.
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>>98099785
"Smoking" guy has a tiny mouth and can only eat via a straw. It is an interpretation of the Astomoi though typically in myth Astomoi are completely mouthless and can only get sustenance via smelling items.
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>>98107586
On the wiki, they barely have anything, but I find it amusing that it is said they would spray perfume onto their victims to sniff as foul smells like sweat would kill them
>SNIFF SNIFFFFFFFFFFFF- ACK!
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>>98093434
Sounds like a headman cope. Bet you don't even blemm.
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>>98111592
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>>98097429
One of the appeals of Runequest way early on was how you can play almost every race, thanks to how enemies and NPC's stats are presented. Perrin has claimed at least one person played as a dragonsnail but he never saw proof of it
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>>98093025
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>>98093630
I'm not a moron and can do this, be back with a race splat for D20. It's gonna have no pictures.
Also look at Dominions 5 and 6. Most of those races are either modded in or exist base game. Obviously they function quite well in the setting. I love the mod U belly of the world, but it's not up to date for 6. The dogheads exist in Dom 6 as an LA faction and subfaction of MA Ind.
Anywho, brb.
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Dogheads are done. I was fast with it and didn't format it to standard. TL;DR, most of the mentions of the Cynophali are in religion or as barbarians, so I made them primitive monument builders cause I have no imagination. They have +Wis -Int, and like the cleric class. They can run faster because they are taller and have a natural attack as their gimmick. They are good with reach weapons. I might flesh it out more later with height and appearance characteristics, probably not.
https://blank-14-973ad5.tiiny.site/
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>>98120734
I considered making common a bonus language because of relative isolation, but that's not great, I think. Should probably have NPCs that don't speak common though of course. If you use this, tell me how it goes. Should be interesting having a cleric with a halberd that is able to do a second attack. IDK how balanced that is, but not my problem.
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>>98120734
I had cynocephaly in one of my settings once, had them confined into a corner within a single primitive city with a few hamlets as some background lore
They were going through a cultural shift from barbarian savages to pretty much ancient Greeks in terms of culture and style after encountering humans and their leader being fascinated human society and it many advances and wishes that his people to stop being savage cannibals and become something more worthy and to be proud about
Although they were struggling with their animal beastly nature constantly holding them back but they were slowly getting there
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>>98127034
Had a few, humans being the most dominant and common as the typical trope in any fantasy setting with a typical fantasy nation, although the main nation was a mixed bag of Germanic with a bit of Eastern Europe, Balkans, and some Steppe culture thrown into the mix for the outskirts
Elves were an odd one; they were the second-most common race, a nomadic people with no history of where they came from, and I decided to make them hyper-adaptive. An example being if a group of elves decided to go far into the woods, their next of kin would be instantly adapted to the forest, bark-like skin, hair the colour of leaves and sometimes able to eat deadly mushrooms or if a group of elves went to live up in some frozen shit hole, their children would have dense like fur or very hairy, bit more chubby as they had layers of blubber and so on. Also, if elves lived among humans like a city, for example, they would look more human-like, with rounder ears, human facial features and have more human-like personalities, yet most humans weren't fond of them as there was a sense of creepiness from an elf who was trying too hard to be a human, but some accepted them as they worked hard and guilds need workers
The Cynocephaly, or the Dogfolk of the East, most of whom were barbarians who clashed among themselves and with human tribes, didn't change their culture and lifestyle into something more civilised until human traders and missionaries from the main human nation arrived; yet most are still violent and cannibalistic. Some have migrated to the human nations and tend to be found in the militaries and religious organisations such as the Church of the Merciful Rose (which is pretty much Christianity without all the typical 'god is bad' tropes), as they seem to do well in those sorts of groups
And there were also bugbears, orcs and dwarves, and along with a few other monster-like races, I might see if I still have the old notes somewhere and continue this world one day
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>>98093025
>I wonder how modern fantasy would look like if the default races were the Plinian/Herodotian races like the Blemmyae, Sciapods or the Cynocephali instead of the Tolkienesque elves, dwarves and orcs.
There would be no modern fantasy if the fucking default race was a fucking Sciapod. I'm honestly so fucking mad that I bothered to look up the Sciapod. Before this thread I had never heard of it before, and I want to go back to not knowing of it because it fucking pisses me off. Who the fuck would ever give a shit about them? "Oh, when it gets hot I lay down and put my big foot in the air for shade" Fucking what? Hey asshole, just get under some shade. There is a Japanese yokai called an Akaname whose sole purpose is the lick up the filth and grime from tubs and I'd argue that it is better creature concept than a fucking one legged bit footed dumbass that lays on its back to shade itself with it's big stupid fucking foot. Fuck you. I hate you.
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>>98093025
Ars Magica has rules for all these races. They are mostly obscure tribes hiding in Mythic Africa. They are Magical Kin whose rules are a little awkward, but good fodder for stories. Especially if you want to empathize how exotic Africa is compared to Mythic Europe.
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>>98128848
Nobody's mentioned yet that monopods appeared in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader? They're like even dumber versions of hobbits.
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>>98147267
Yes, they were.
>>98147512
I wouldn't mind seeing a fantasy setting where orcs and goblins were replaced by centaurs and satyrs. C.S. Lewis sanitized them too much. Come to think of it, Tolkien criticized Lewis for mixing Greco-Roman and Norse-Germanic mythology together, but Lewis seemed more likely to make Norse-Germanic creatures into villains.
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>>98124948
>>98127547
cool stuff, anon. Sounds like some sort of Silk Road themed fantasy setting
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>>98134342
The current edition is the best. If you want to run an African adventure you would need the Corebook, Realms Of Power - Magic, and Between Sand And Sea - Mythic Africa. Maybe one of the House books for the magi, or Hedge Magic book. Depends on the saga!
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>>98111592
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>>98117367
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nargun
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinie_Ger
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yara-ma-yha-who
Here's some ideas.
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