Setting: The Monsters You Actually Want to Play

spongeknight · Post by **spongeknight** » Thu Mar 17, 2016 10:57 pm

So I'm just writing up a fantasy setting, like you do, and I was wondering if my spread of fantasy species was inclusive and diverse enough for player tastes while maintaining some good setting consistency. These will be the entirety of the cognizant species in the world, so barring planar travel or whatever all other intelligent things will be unique or rare magically created monsters.

Humans- bog standard.

Angels
Angels typically disdain violence or conflict in favor of spreading joy. Most angels take up a form of artistic expression in order to convey their feelings since they generally find that easier than discussion. In fact, angels are created from music and revelry- any sufficiently joyful music that is produced has a tiny chance to create a new angel that is filled with the feelings of those who created it. Angels may have a gender or may be genderless, depending on the individual, but they cannot reproduce physically in any case. Of course, angels can produce more angels by producing joyful music themselves, and most do so. Angels greatly resemble humans with large, feathery wings and actually create a soft light from their bodies naturally.

Vampires
Vampires are humans who were “cursed” long ago with immortality and sweet thematic powers. Vampires do not actually reproduce by biting humans- if they did, humans would be lining up around the block for the privilege. Instead, vampires breed true with themselves to produce little undead vampires that grow up fairly normally but just stop aging physically at some point. Vampires have a natural affinity with nighttime and find daylight uncomfortable but entirely bearable. A wooden stake to the heart kills them... just like it kills everything else.

Snakemen
Mostly solitary and territorial, snakemen only form groups when necessary- like adventuring. However, travelers who bring appropriate gifts will find themselves warmly welcome in a snakeman's territory provided they are only passing through. Snakemen always strive to be the strongest and best, and are generally quick to challenge any perceived threat or insult. As cold blooded people, they love warmth and are lethargic in cold weather. Snakemen have vaguely humanoid torsos, but with a snake head and a long serpent tail. They have various coloration and markings depending on their region and clan.

Homunculis
Artificial humans created for war, homunculi are often given only the bare minimum of intelligence and taught only to kill. However, they can obtain a soul over time due to being technically sapient. These homunculi gain a sense of self and morality, with some choosing to rebel against their assigned role of murder machine while others embrace their origins and become terrifying monsters, reveling in the slaughter they were created to perform. Homunculi appear human on the surface, but stripping away the skin will reveal that they are steel and wire.

Demons
Born from the negative emotions of others- including anger, sadness, envy, and more- demons strongly resemble the feelings they were created from. Many demons learn to function as individuals and in society, but many others are feral monsters that are ruled by their powerful emotions, lashing out at anyone they come across. The form of a demon is dependent on quite a few factors. Some look mostly human while others are ten feet tall with horns and cloven hooves.

Beastmen
No one quite knows why a species like the beastmen exhibit such a startling array of different features, which seem to have no coherent biological progression. Beastment typically resemble humans that have various animal themes, including cat ears and tails, sharp spines growing from their forearms, eyes that look cool, or other non-creepy things. Their societies function largely like human society, with more emphasis on cooperation instead of competition. They also love hunting, and prefer it to farming whenever possible.

Giants
Big humanoids that enjoy life to the fullest, they party, fight, and laugh with great enthusiasm. They are nomadic, since they consume a lot of resources quite quickly, and they live in small tribes or large families. Giants respect all traditions and love learning the values of others- a necessary trait for nomads who may find themselves in contact with wildly different cultures.

Dragons
Dragons are ancient beings who value knowledge, intellectual pursuits, riddles and games of skill. Very solitary beings, dragons can live happily for centuries with no company aside from books and their own minds. Dragons who seek out companionship or adventure are typically looking for people or places to challenge their intellect. They are also giant fire-breathing winged lizards.

Fairy
Fairies are tiny, cheerful people with wings who like to talk a lot. Some are mischievous, some are merely curious and playful, but all of them love to laugh. Wordplay and jokes are basic parts of any conversation they take part in.

Wraith
Souls of other races that refused to stay dead, they are driven by revenge or some other equally obsessive task. They tend to identify with whatever species they were before their untimely first death, though some embrace their new life completely. Wraiths do not have their own society, but there is nothing stopping them from joining the societies of other species.

Elemental
Beings born from the primal forces of nature- fire, water, earth, or air given shape and will by magic. Elementals are created to serve powerful magicians, so even after gaining sapience, a sense of self and freedom, most elementals feel more comfortable when serving others instead of pursuing their own goals. With no need for food, water, shelter or sleep, elementals have little need for goods or payment, and will generally share those resources with whoever needs it rather than keeping them for itself. Elementals don't have forms in the strictest sense- they are made out of their element and can move their body freely in any way.

Madrake
Mandrakes are deep, ponderous thinkers who move and act slowly. Mandrakes have very little sense of emergency, since even if they are chopped up and mostly eaten they will still be fine in a “little while,” according to them. However, they recognize the relative fragility of other species and will move to protect the ones they happen to like. Mandrakes rarely leave their homes, since they have pretty much everything they need, but they often trade with travelers and merchants and love company when they can get it. Mandrakes are plants that start out at the size of a flower and eventually grow to the size of a massive tree. However, they are most mobile and active when around the size of a giant- they have the strength to move around and the desire to do so at that age.

Werewolves
Werewolves are man-wolf hybrids that combine the best of both worlds. They have intelligence and opposable thumbs like a human, but can also turn into a wolf or hybrid form that possesses great strength and killing power. They have a social structure that is similar to wolf packs, but none of them ever sexually molest wolves. Seriously, not one of them ever. That would be fucking creepy. They are a self-sustaining species who mate true only with other werewolves.

So, what do you guys think? Too many, not enough, not diverse enough? Is there some role or niche that you think needs to be filled, and if there is who or what would fill it?

the_taken · Post by **the_taken** » Fri Mar 18, 2016 12:24 am

You need Demon-peoples of all sorts and Robot-people. And cat-folk. And rabbit-folk, and Alien-peoples...

Know what. It's fine.

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Fri Mar 18, 2016 8:02 am

Looking through your list and comparing them to...

You've got a pretty broad assortment. Could use some bug people and robot people though.

Some of the categories feel like they could overlap or be subsumed into each other. Like beastmen and werewolves n' snake people. I think most people who play as a beastman would also want to have a 'battle form' of that animal like turning into a street shark or a werewolf.

"Giant", does that also include brutish ogres and highly magical cloud castle dwellers?

Is it possible for a 'bog standard human' to become any of the other species, are they related?

spongeknight · Post by **spongeknight** » Fri Mar 18, 2016 3:10 pm

Hm, both posters have commented that I lack robot people despite the homunculus intending to be robot people. Definitely have to make their role more explicit in the text. Also, good point about beastman/werewolf overlap. Would it be better to take out beastmen, whose point was a variety of animalistic features, and replace the werewolves with lycanthropes of every kind? I'm not sure how that would have a sustainable population, unless lycanthropy was either "random" in determining your animal form or it was a transmitable curse.

Giants will vary by culture and tradition even more than humans, since they are small nomadic groups- there's space for both a rougher caveman style giant and a civilized magical giant, yes.

Humans can become wraiths and theoretically vampires if they try really hard to get cursed. I was actually waffling back and forth over whether werewolves and vampires should be bitten humans. It could still go either way, I actually don't know what people would prefer more.

Gnorman · Post by **Gnorman** » Fri Mar 18, 2016 4:20 pm

If angels reproduce via joyful music, do demons reproduce via death metal?

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Fri Mar 18, 2016 4:52 pm

Well, artificial human is still a human. Not much robotic in there.
We are talking things like the Steamborgs from the Dragons and Mecha thing.
Golems. Things OBVIOUSLY kinda sorta mechanical.
Also, what about Dorfs? Dandelion Eaters? Tusks and Bridgedwellers?
Are they sub-categories of Humans and Giants for example?

Or do you simply not count these to the playable MONSTER Races?

sendaz · Post by **sendaz** » Fri Mar 18, 2016 5:50 pm

Need some Thri-Kreen love in there.

Count Arioch the 28th · Fri Mar 18, 2016 7:16 pm

Do the werewolves sexually molest wolves?

spongeknight · Post by **spongeknight** » Fri Mar 18, 2016 8:38 pm

Count Arioch the 28th wrote:Do the werewolves sexually molest wolves?

...I'm not sure if you're trolling, but:

spongeknight wrote:They have a social structure that is similar to wolf packs, but none of them ever sexually molest wolves. Seriously, not one of them ever. That would be fucking creepy. They are a self-sustaining species who mate true only with other werewolves.

Unless you were making a joke about how much I stressed the werewolves weren't White Wolf style dogfuckers, in which case, yeah, I only put that section in for this website because I assume all other people will assume no dogfucking by default.

PhoneLobster · Post by **PhoneLobster** » Fri Mar 18, 2016 8:55 pm

This is for just a single setting? Probably too many.

This is for a single setting for a single campaign? Almost certainly too many.

This is really a generic meta-setting for a rule set meant to cover multiple settings/campaigns? It's not a modular race builder so it can GTFO back to the 1980s.

erik · Post by **erik** » Fri Mar 18, 2016 10:33 pm

Why have humans?

hyzmarca · Post by **hyzmarca** » Fri Mar 18, 2016 10:57 pm

Needs fish people.

pragma · Post by **pragma** » Fri Mar 18, 2016 11:54 pm

Underestimating the popularity of pointy eared humans, short grumpy humans, and short annoying humans seems like a pitfall. I'm increasingly disinterested in elves, dwarves and halflings, but they are staples and people will likely ask about them.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Sat Mar 19, 2016 2:33 am

Dorfs and Giants were, i think, the very first other races of fantasy. In ther northern mythology in europe at least. The Edda etc.
It's easy after all. One is just a short angry human and the other is a big angry human. Elves and Orks i actually have no idea where they are supposed to come from.

And of course, in other places the mythology differs heavily.
The americas have in the north the native american spirits, the totems, the trickster and the skinwalker and wendigo.
The southern america has the aztec gods and dragons.
Africa has Anansi and the lot.
Asia of course the whole dragons and spirits of things. Ogres for some reason. Kappas in the land of the thousand buddhas . .

Long story short: most "modern" fantasy came after dorfs and giants.
So people expecting to see them is kinda a given.

Of course you will get bored of the stereotypical things like the gruff dorfs drinking singing about gold and elves not pooping and being vegan level 10 and such nonsense. Which is why the shadowrun meta races works so well, seeing how that nonsense has basically no room in the modern world and so you will see elven street junk for example.

maglag · Post by **maglag** » Sat Mar 19, 2016 4:29 am

Stahlseele wrote:Dorfs and Giants were, i think, the very first other races of fantasy. In ther northern mythology in europe at least. The Edda etc.
It's easy after all. One is just a short angry human and the other is a big angry human. Elves and Orks i actually have no idea where they are supposed to come from.

Elves started as dick normal-sized humans that love to play pranks on and manipulate other species, also lurking in unknown areas (aka forests) so that it's harder to get revenge on them after they play their pranks on you.

Orcs started as dick normal-sized humans that also love screwing with other people, but do so in direct, usually violent ways, instead of the elves subterfuges.

Blicero · Post by **Blicero** » Sat Mar 19, 2016 6:20 am

Just to chime in re: the elf/dorf stuff, there seems to be a large segment of players that really likes being able to write "elf" on their character sheet and have it mean something. Every group I have ever played in has had at least one. This includes when there are wacky races like Snakemen and Kenku and Robots and shit available in addition to the standard fantasy lineup. If you are writing this for any group other than the one you have, you might want to consider how you would deal with such a player.

Other questions I might have are:

How many of these species are something you could play as? Does every species have access to every class? Do any of them come with "monster levels" built in?
How homogeneous is each species? If I need to build a Steve for a monster-of-the-week, which species are Stevable and which are not?

[/list]

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Sat Mar 19, 2016 8:33 am

I think you can get away with elves, dorfs, and so on being bloodlines of humans that are just especially squat and thick, have pointier ears, have certain magical traditions, and so on.

spongeknight · Post by **spongeknight** » Sat Mar 19, 2016 3:35 pm

Blicero wrote:Just to chime in re: the elf/dorf stuff, there seems to be a large segment of players that really likes being able to write "elf" on their character sheet and have it mean something. Every group I have ever played in has had at least one. This includes when there are wacky races like Snakemen and Kenku and Robots and shit available in addition to the standard fantasy lineup. If you are writing this for any group other than the one you have, you might want to consider how you would deal with such a player.

Other questions I might have are:
How many of these species are something you could play as? Does every species have access to every class? Do any of them come with "monster levels" built in?

How homogeneous is each species? If I need to build a Steve for a monster-of-the-week, which species are Stevable and which are not?

[/list]

Crazy stuff like dragons and wraiths are going to need some sort of restrictions, unless being ethereal at level 1 somehow becomes a viable option. But I'm thinking of going in a different direction than the Tome method of converting monsters since I will have a finite (and small) amount of monsters I have to actually convert. So I might just say that wraiths are playable at level 5 with full class levels and these particular powers, or come up with a racial advancement for them, or something. They should all be playable. Also, giants and dragons and shit will have the harmless form option so they can get into inns to sleep the night.

Omegonthesane · Post by **Omegonthesane** » Sat Mar 19, 2016 6:02 pm

spongeknight wrote:Also, giants and dragons and shit will have the harmless form option so they can get into inns to sleep the night.

"So that they can get into dungeons to wreck shit" seems like the more valid concern - dragons can sleep outside, and if giants are a prevalent race then I wouldn't be surprised to see giant-friendly construction. Esp. depending on how giant we are talking here - Andre, Robert Wadlow, Bruce Banner, The BFG?

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Sat Mar 19, 2016 6:23 pm

Paul Bunyan?

erik · Post by **erik** » Sat Mar 19, 2016 11:37 pm

This write-up of races doesn't really give me anything to evaluate whether they are sufficient or necessary for "good setting consistency".

I don't know if I'm just in a mood, but I'm not really inspired by these at all.
I guess this is supposed to be a D&D equivalent, but without any of the standard races. If I were going to use these races then I would feel the need to tweak almost everything.

There's no good reason for wardroids to look anything like people. Make em golems. If they must look like humans on the outside, and act like humans, then just make them your humans. Most humans don't get their skin flayed off anyways, and the difference between wires and nerves seems academic here.

Make Vampires and Were-Creatures come from the same pointy-eared stock as distant cousins.

Dump Beastmen for a variety of were-creatures.

Make Fairies little insectoid peoples.

Make giants into stone giants, whose talents crafted most ancient structures (gives you an in for letting them adventure. don't make them shift sizes, ew)

Tree people are okay with a mobile middle-life cycle (that's what I did for my future-fantasy world, so I guess I have to approve), but I don't understand why mulching them isn't fatal.

I'd make celestials have glowy lantern archon bodies and people tend to see something positive and beautiful when they look, but may not share the same vision as each other. Making winged humans just feels uninspired.

I'd make demons look akin to the pointy-eared stock of the werevamps but they acquire more signs of corruption as they age (tho people may say as they commit more acts of depravity).

Wraiths should be mostly tangible, just able to phase intermittently. That lets them be playable out of the gate. I'd probably just make them a race (or dead race) of their own. I'd drop the driven by revenge/obsession twist unless these are only intended as simple antagonists.

I don't know what the elementals being sentient brings to the table. I mean, they are formless and don't want for anything.

Snakemen aren't that compelling. Competitive jerks who demand gifts of visitors. It's not the worst hook, but it has no legs.

Humans seem utterly boring and I would drop em.

Dragons seem best as npcs.

spongeknight · Post by **spongeknight** » Sat Mar 19, 2016 11:50 pm

erik wrote:Snakemen aren't that compelling. Competitive jerks who demand gifts of visitors. It's not the worst hook, but it has no legs.

I see what you did there.

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Tue Mar 29, 2016 4:36 am

In FFXIV there's a species of horned guys with tails that are assumed to be dragon related, but going into the lore they're more likely to be demon people. Making their origins vague was a nice touch.

They were more overtly demonic in concept art: