A Cry for Help (TableTop RPG Race Ideas)

[Sentay]

Okay so I'm most of the way through my passion project's development (tabletop RPG), and your input was very helpful last time (should every race be able to be any class) so I'm asking you people of the escapist do you have any neat ideas for strange or unusual rpg races that you'd be willing to share.

Stuff / tropes I already have covered
======================================
elves
high elves
big beefy bruisers
shadow people
cat people
golems
fish people
angels
multi-limbed race
ghost like race / wraith
======================================

Ideas I'm currently playing with
======================================
underground race

Lizardmen Race

robots race

Psychic race
======================================

***Disclaimer: I'm making this game because I want to play this kind of game, and I want to get my name out there so to speak. This might at some point be sold (the game as a packaged version / edition) if I can find a publisher somewhere down the line. I'm not about to steal ideas from other people, so if you post something really cool I will contact you (via PM) to work something out. If this violates the rules of this forum in any way just let me know, mods.

 

[sanquin]

I don't see something similar to dwarves, which would fit for underground people. You can also go with elemental-based people. For instance a race with fire properties, which makes them slightly resistant to heat and maybe allows them to do a fire spell every now and then.

 

[Knight Captain Kerr]

Shapeshifter race. Well humanoid shifter, like Dopplegangers from D&D. I think you could do interesting things with such a race, what their culture is like, how their society is different from that of other races. For example, they'd certainly have interesting views on gender, I imagine a non-binary gender identity would be the norm. Or instead you could have a parasitic race that possesses the bodies of others.

If you want stranger races you can take inspiration from aliens in science fiction. They're often strange and different from the usual, human, elf, dwarf. As an example I'll use one of my favourite Sci-Fi aliens, what would Elcor from Mass Effect be like in a fantasy setting? An intelligent race that isn't humanoid, that walks on all fours and the way they communicate is very different from other races. Seeing as it's fantasy you might have them be powerful Psionics.

 

[Shymer]

Plant or Mushroom people? Body-swapping spirits? Uplifted animals? Giants?

The problem for me is not ideas - I opened up my copy of my old AD&D Monster Manual and there are loads of stereotypical (and atypical) fantasy races in there. Listing them here seems pointless - Wikipedia has a list. The problem is, in my mind, how their societies work and how they relate to each other and the world(s) in which they live.

I have a bit of a problem with using 'tropes' to guide the development of a unique world to you.

However I would compel you to include goblins. Every world needs goblins. And boggarts.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

As anyone who played Runequest/Glorantha will tell you, Ducks.

 

[FakDendor]

A symbiote race. It could be fungal, animal, or even magic-based. Simply put, the symbiote bonds to any creature (for balance, it might have to have intelligence between 4 and 8, or whatever mechanics you choose to use), and uses it for mobility, communication, etc. There are interesting mechanics to be had on the type of animals (or even people!) that could be controlled, and for how long. Additionally, there are individual ethics/global politics to be explored if the symbioses are aggressive and "body snatch" living people, or if they confine themselves to low animals, etc.

For another interesting idea, consider a race that is far smaller than standard characters, with all the benefits and penalties that brings. If you wanted to combine that with a psychic race, you could get an idea like:

A race of small telepathic avians/insects that are not useful on their own, but group together into tight clusters and share intelligence psychically in order to form an "individual" and interact with "standard" races. This allows them to become progressively more psychically powerful and intelligent as they form bigger groups, but are vulnerable to those groups being broken up when under pressure.

For an underground race, a fun idea is for them to behave like Cicadas. There may be a few cicadas around at any given time, but the truly massive swarms emerge every 11/13/17 etc. years. This lets interesting lore be created about their "cycles," maybe as conquerers who need lots of resources to drive their reproduction, or maybe because the more evil races desire massive numbers of expendable slaves. The cycles don't mean the race has to be insects, either. They could be simply hibernating mammal-types, or are even active continuously, but can only reproduce when they emerge in their swarms.

A consideration on classic Lizardmen. Very rarely do I see actual "reptilian" mechanics be implemented for a race that is, by name, lizard-like. It might be fun to follow the trope closely in most things, but also add a lot of considerations on, say, heat and activity. After all, you aren't going to see many lizard man active at night, or in the winter. This means that they can only fight at certain times. Has this affected their culture? Are their massive internal wars for a literal place in the sun?

 

[Jmp_man]

Insect like Race
Tree like race
Or as a side a race of people that come from plants?
-cat people?
-fish people?
Booorrriingg where's the Tanuki?
Water Spirits
No flying race? Wait you don't even have humans here.
IDK a race of people DISGUISED as humans?
Bipedal is boring go quad or gtfo.
Spaaaaccceee (race) (A race in space?)
Dude, do you even small races?
(Better, invert basic beliefs. Make a "Small" race that has high strength.)

By the way... how are you going to individualize each race. I mean if the only difference is one is strong and one is not that is kind of boring. Make someone sleep more, or sleep less. Why do they have low CHA? Verbal ticks that's why. Tears smell like onions. An unnatural habit of trying to stand above someone else when talking to them. Make them eat something weird (Tree bark I hear is quite tasty). Pilgrimage! Radically varying lifespans! Can't Smell! Slippery! Hates Water! Short memory spans!

Worried about culture? When in doubt put them on different planets. Besides, you want races not an 3 page post on culture, you can figure it out.

That wasn't quite the style I'm used to writing in but whatever, no use beating around the bush. Hopefully I can dig up some creatures from my Mythology folder in my bookmarks.

Here's another good list for inspiration:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_legendary_creatures

Another:
http://www.mythicalcreatureslist.com/mythical-creatures-a-z/14

Scroll Down -> Features -> Extended Race Selection
http://www.mudconnect.com/cgi-bin/adv_search.cgi

 

[ajit256]

Please allow me to propose something:

1) A race of Dragons: The base melee units of this race will consist of Human dragon worshipers and mages, who utilize dragon magic through their devotion to their draconian masters. (pun intended)
The intermediate units will consist of actual dragons, who are free to fly and wreck havoc on the enemies. They will be more expensive than your average troops but they will utilize spells and skills not available to any other race or unit. There will be different types of these units. (Think 'how to train your dragon')
The final tier units will consist of ancients. These are dragons who have spent millennia in slumber. They will be gargantuan in size and obliterate armies in an instant.
*Then you have your specific hero units.

2) Ma'gh Doom: Wild priests and shamans. Can imbue their followers with wild frenzy. Can command and even transform into bears. They will use frenzied animals in combat. (Bears, Boars, Rhinos, Elephants)
**Important to remember that Ma'gh Doom will use animal magic, not nature magic, which can be reserved for a different race.

3) Demons: I notice that you have a race of Angels but not one specifically made up of Demons. This race is different from Demons worshipers in the fact that they will not include any human or humanoid beings. They can act as the anti-thesis to the Angel race.

4) Goblins: This is your underground race. They are similar to dwarves but rely more on foul inventions than honor. In addition, you can have a separate dwarf race that is diametrically opposed to the Goblins. A key gameplay mechanic could be that they could construct temporary armor on the battlefield.

5) The Estrati: Egyptian empire, includes mummies, Anubis warriors, etc. Powerful psychic powers.

These are all I could think off the top of my head. Msg me if you need more races or fine tune existing ones. Cheers!

 

[Saetha]

Try picking a theme, anything at all really, even something mundane like a color or concept. Now try to conceptualize that theme as a person, a group, a society. Bam, new race.

Let's say "decay." There's a theme. What would a person who embodies "decay" look like? Would they be a rotting corpse? A humanoid made of rusted metal and debris? A poisonous miasma? Depends on what you think embodies decay best. What would their powers be? Well, obviously it'd be accelerating the decaying process of things. Rusting metal, killing plants, rotting flesh. Depending on how you answered the first question, you could come up with other ideas. Now what would their society be like? They're probably outcasts from other sentient beings. Maybe they congregate around battlefields or hospitals, and have some semblance of societal structure there, but are otherwise rather solitary. Would they even need things like food? If yes, would they be scavengers, or would they actively pursue a meal? What would they be drawn to? Decay is accelerated in warm, moist environments, so they're likely to seek out places that match that definition. Maybe they're susceptible to frost because of that.

That's how I generally go about these things, anyway.

 

[lordmardok]

Tauroid races are always fun, see the Dracotaur from D&D. I think making something like that and having their species be something like a martial society, with orders of knights and warrior lodges being prevalent would be cool.

Also I see you've got lizardmen races but nothing in the serpentine category, like Naga. I like the idea of making a race of desert-dwelling ophidians, maybe making them nomadic or having them dwell in underground cavern arcologies.

 

[stormeris]

One word: Crab people
Spoiler alert: Those are two words.

 

[Torque2100]

Honestly, Sentay, too many Tabletop RPGs today are populated with a strange and illogical collection of meta-human races. A common assumption is that you need to cover all your bases with different nerd obsessions and have Elves and Cat People and Dragon People and Dwarves ETC. To me this is harmful to the lore of the world after a while. Especially in game settings like Pathfinders Golarion or Faerun the world gets so incredibly crowded and over-run with different races that it becomes silly. How many intelligent species are there on this one planet?

My advice, make Humans the only playable race in your campaign setting. Honestly, look at the world around us are Humans not varied enough? There are so many campaign settings out there that are over-run with meta-humans that Humans Only is really one of the only ways to make your game setting feel unique. Instead focus on creating lots of different ethnicities and varieties of human and make them all unique and interesting.

 

[Sean Steele]

Okay so I'm most of the way through my passion project's development (tabletop RPG), and your input was very helpful last time (should every race be able to be any class) so I'm asking you people of the escapist do you have any neat ideas for strange or unusual rpg races that you'd be willing to share.

Stuff / tropes I already have covered
======================================
elves
high elves
big beefy bruisers
shadow people
cat people
golems
fish people
angels
multi-limbed race
ghost like race / wraith
======================================

Ideas I'm currently playing with
======================================
underground race

Lizardmen Race

robots race

Psychic race
======================================

***Disclaimer: I'm making this game because I want to play this kind of game, and I want to get my name out there so to speak. This might at some point be sold (the game as a packaged version / edition) if I can find a publisher somewhere down the line. I'm not about to steal ideas from other people, so if you post something really cool I will contact you (via PM) to work something out. If this violates the rules of this forum in any way just let me know, mods.

You should really have your mythology and history for the setting down before you start throwing races in willy nilly, you should know what the "Big Beefy Bruisers" Interact with the "Cat People" Like and how their relations go, you should know that for all the races, sometimes less is more.

 

[Muspelheim]

Cupboard people! No one have done those, surely? Original!

That is my best tip. Don't struggle too much towards being one hundred percent original. What really matters is that the races you have are well developed. What are they like? What are their main cultural taboos? What different cultures do they have? How do they interact with other races? What are their history? Do they know it? Who do they worship?

Build on their culture and history, and make them feel like a real entity in the world you've made. A few well developed races are usually a better plan than a jamboree with loads of underdeveloped ones.

Last but not least; Well done beats novel any time.

May I suggest horse people? :3

 

[Sentay]

One word: Crab people
Spoiler alert: Those are two words.

You win.

 

[Kerric]

How about a race of small furry critters (guinea pigs, say) who view us the same way we view dragons? Basically, we're a calamity to be fought or worshipped or fled from. The adventurers may inadvertently wreck a village just setting up their campsite.

Of course, when the misunderstandings are straightened out, the little guys will ask for help in handling their local "Smaug"...

Or how about a race that no one understands, but is not clearly hostile. You could go for starfish aliens, but I prefer something like giant ground sloths who say things like "Oh yes! The dragon slaughtering our village! That was a good joke. But not as funny as cats!" They are not insane, but clearly have some very odd set of values.

 

[Asita]

Seconding Saetha in that you should probably find themes and work outwards from there. It doesn't even have to be a solid physical theme, but more of a concept they strive towards. A concept of 'wisdom', for instance, might end up creating something like the Chozo of Metroid fame[footnote]a very old and dying race who desperately wanted to guide the rest of the galaxy into an age of enlightenment. Though extinct (or very, very close to it), the remnants of their civilization and technology can be found scattered across many worlds[/footnote]. "Adrenaline Junkie" by contrast might create a more wildcard race that cares more about the thrill of a challenge than its ideological implications or whatever results from issuing that challenge. And so on and so forth.

 

[silver wolf009]

Okay so I'm most of the way through my passion project's development (tabletop RPG), and your input was very helpful last time (should every race be able to be any class) so I'm asking you people of the escapist do you have any neat ideas for strange or unusual rpg races that you'd be willing to share.

Stuff / tropes I already have covered
======================================
elves
high elves
big beefy bruisers
shadow people
cat people
golems
fish people
angels
multi-limbed race
ghost like race / wraith
======================================

Ideas I'm currently playing with
======================================
underground race

Lizardmen Race

robots race

Psychic race
======================================

***Disclaimer: I'm making this game because I want to play this kind of game, and I want to get my name out there so to speak. This might at some point be sold (the game as a packaged version / edition) if I can find a publisher somewhere down the line. I'm not about to steal ideas from other people, so if you post something really cool I will contact you (via PM) to work something out. If this violates the rules of this forum in any way just let me know, mods.

I'll say this up front, I'm not really all that knowledgeable about tabletop RPG's from a rulesmaking standpoint, but I did GM a friendly game with a few of my buddies awhile back, and one of my players wanted to play as a Thin Man, so we real quick whipped up some home rules for playing as a Doppelganger.

Spoiler: Said creature in question

It was really fun watching him try to hide things from the other players, and explain how he knew the things he picked up from psionic contact with people. Once he tried to lure the party into a robbery by shapeshifting into a local noble and insulting the cleric's god so much that he ended up having to flee from the party to get out alive.

The point I'm trying to get to is sometimes it's cool to play as a race that has to hide stuff from the NPC's or other players. Kind of like an evil aligned character blending into a good aligned group, but less campaign ending if the cat gets out of the bag.


Another great example of stuff like this is the Shapeshifter race from Shadowrun, who can change into different animals, but always has the aura of the tiger. So he's always got poachers coming after him when they see the Aura. It really lets you open up new role playing opportunities.

 

[Drake Barrow]

I'd recommend that you go with dinosaur people rather than lizardmen. It's not done very often, and it's very colorful. They can also have feathered representatives in addition to the scaled ones.

Your 'robots' should be life-extensions, transferred intelligences, so they could touch upon the other races in that regard.It also explains why they would be more complex in construction than the golems.

There have been a couple good suggestions in prior comments for the underground race, so I've got nothing further to add there.

As far as psychic races go, my first recommendation would be something similar to the Unbodied from D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder's psionics sections. Living wellsprings of pure psychic power that may not have a material form.

 

[spartandude]

As some one said earlier dont make too many and over saturate your game. I would really advise you start out with the basics (Humans, Dwarves, Elves etc) and then add only 2-4 on. Maybe something that plays a little bit differently, although its difficult to give advice there as i dont know much about what your doing and this one plays.
I would say imagine a setting for your game, even if its dsigned to be played in different seetings, and imagine what would work in that setting, if you think its still a bit light, add a couple more. The reasons for this are twofold:

1. If you do get someone to publish your game they may want to have something to expand to, so having everything in one go wont work, also it allows you to better develope some rather than splurging everything out. Quality over quantity, and if it proves successful (hopin' it is buddy) you have time to dedicate to new races later in expansions.

2. Over saturating too quickly can make it a head ache in creating worlds and prove detrimental to building a community. Ok let me explain, lets say you have a bunch of really wacky races in there, kudos for being creative but when it comes to creating a world its difficult for some GMs to include everything and as such they cut out races. (some) players are going to want to be these new wacky far out races but the GM doesnt know how to make them work so an argument erupts.
Ok so usually these arguments are tame in reality but these little headaches can be off putting, and coupled with some people feeling they must be there due to rules including them etc it can get annoying. We occasionally see this when a new PHB or expansion for a game is released and people argue about expansions. When they are expansions its easier to deal with as the world has been built and its easier to justify inclusion/exclusion, but from the get go it can cause issues. They seem like minor issues but you may get people hearing about this and then thinking they will just go to a different system instead.


I'm really sorry if i came off as super negative, I do hope your project bears fruit and you have a good time with it, but just be aware of some potential problems with too many ideas.
But as you wanted advice on some race ideas, you could expand the Golems to create different types; Steel, Wood, Stone or maybe even Clock Work. With different strengths and weaknesses and maybe even different personality traits.