Post by robosnake on Aug 16, 2015 16:50:37 GMT
So, to put together this homebrew setting I am currently using for a campaign, I knew that a key component would be the playable races. Obviously, race and class are the two ways that players first enter into a setting, creating their characters, and you can get a lot of flavor and worldbuilding in place right off. If, at character creation, you say "Oh, there are no elves, ever since the Star Plague wiped them out" or "There are two distinct lines of dwarves, one that lives underground and another that has taken to living in nomadic airships", you've already said big things about the setting just in explaining which races a player can choose.
Obviously, since I am going for a Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon/Last Airbender kind of feel for this campaign, especially at first, I had to basically toss out the PHB races with the exception of humans (which I renamed "ren" for flavor purposes, since that is the Chinese word for "people"). Starting from that point, I chose races I thought would be playable, that a player could understand with a brief description, but which were flavorful and maintained the "feel" I was going for. Some, like kappa, were out because they would be hard t play, and others were out because they would take a lot of explaining. I also thought about the archetypes that are covered by the PHB races, and tried to cover each of them in my own way. I came up with the following:
Garuda, tall, beautiful bird-like humanoids, warlike and stern. A bit like high elves perhaps.
Half-Oni, who take the place of half-orcs in some ways; strong, frightening, a bit creepy, somewhat like tieflings. Clearly supernatural when seen up close, with elemental affinities.
Koropokuru, small humanoids who are adept at camouflage and alchemy. Somewhat like halflings or gnomes, but not really part of the larger society.
Kumiho, or kitsune - I used the Korean word because kitsune is familiar to people who are into anime and that kind of thing. Tricksters who shape-change into foxes.
Naga, ancient, powerful, and widely distrusted. Somewhat like drow, or tieflings again, able to change into a hybrid form with a serpentine lower half of the body, or into large sea-snakes. Poisonous literally and figuratively.
Nezumi, small rat-like humanoids who live in the shadow of every settlement, town and city. They do the dirty work, and can live pretty happily off the scraps if they have to.
Ren, who are just humans.
Tengu, distant kin of the garuda, more playful but deadly serious in battle, masters of the sword.
Vanara, short but strong monkey-people, physically taking the place of dwarves, in many ways, but more lighthearted and far more comfortable up in trees than underground.
Yaksha, tough, brash and ugly, who range in size from small to medium, and take the place of goblinoids, and yashini, the females of the species, who are widely viewed as beautiful and have some innate magical ability. Partly because I liked the idea of beautiful, mysterious yashini who only have eyes for brutish, ugly yaksha.
All of these have one foot firmly planted in real-world religion and mythology, and I just adapted each of them so that they made sense together (garuda, from Hinduism, and tengu, from Shinto, are not normally seen as kin). And just as 'traditional' fantasy settings combine Norse religion and myth with Anglo-Saxon and Greco-Roman and so on, this fantasy setting combines Chinese, Korean, Japanese (and Ainu), Indian and southeast Asian religion and myth.
If this is of interest, or if you're curious about something, just ask. I wrote more here: doughagler.wordpress.com/2015/07/06/5th-edition-dd-dragonblade-classes-and-races/
And here is an Obsidian Portal wiki page, where I give rules specifics for those who might want them: dragonblade.obsidianportal.com/wikis/game-rules-for-each-race
Obviously, since I am going for a Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon/Last Airbender kind of feel for this campaign, especially at first, I had to basically toss out the PHB races with the exception of humans (which I renamed "ren" for flavor purposes, since that is the Chinese word for "people"). Starting from that point, I chose races I thought would be playable, that a player could understand with a brief description, but which were flavorful and maintained the "feel" I was going for. Some, like kappa, were out because they would be hard t play, and others were out because they would take a lot of explaining. I also thought about the archetypes that are covered by the PHB races, and tried to cover each of them in my own way. I came up with the following:
Garuda, tall, beautiful bird-like humanoids, warlike and stern. A bit like high elves perhaps.
Half-Oni, who take the place of half-orcs in some ways; strong, frightening, a bit creepy, somewhat like tieflings. Clearly supernatural when seen up close, with elemental affinities.
Koropokuru, small humanoids who are adept at camouflage and alchemy. Somewhat like halflings or gnomes, but not really part of the larger society.
Kumiho, or kitsune - I used the Korean word because kitsune is familiar to people who are into anime and that kind of thing. Tricksters who shape-change into foxes.
Naga, ancient, powerful, and widely distrusted. Somewhat like drow, or tieflings again, able to change into a hybrid form with a serpentine lower half of the body, or into large sea-snakes. Poisonous literally and figuratively.
Nezumi, small rat-like humanoids who live in the shadow of every settlement, town and city. They do the dirty work, and can live pretty happily off the scraps if they have to.
Ren, who are just humans.
Tengu, distant kin of the garuda, more playful but deadly serious in battle, masters of the sword.
Vanara, short but strong monkey-people, physically taking the place of dwarves, in many ways, but more lighthearted and far more comfortable up in trees than underground.
Yaksha, tough, brash and ugly, who range in size from small to medium, and take the place of goblinoids, and yashini, the females of the species, who are widely viewed as beautiful and have some innate magical ability. Partly because I liked the idea of beautiful, mysterious yashini who only have eyes for brutish, ugly yaksha.
All of these have one foot firmly planted in real-world religion and mythology, and I just adapted each of them so that they made sense together (garuda, from Hinduism, and tengu, from Shinto, are not normally seen as kin). And just as 'traditional' fantasy settings combine Norse religion and myth with Anglo-Saxon and Greco-Roman and so on, this fantasy setting combines Chinese, Korean, Japanese (and Ainu), Indian and southeast Asian religion and myth.
If this is of interest, or if you're curious about something, just ask. I wrote more here: doughagler.wordpress.com/2015/07/06/5th-edition-dd-dragonblade-classes-and-races/
And here is an Obsidian Portal wiki page, where I give rules specifics for those who might want them: dragonblade.obsidianportal.com/wikis/game-rules-for-each-race
I can say more, but if you're interested, here is a link to my Obsidian Portal page and also to my blog where I've been talking about the game a bit: 
