Alien Races [Archive] - Wizards Community

Alien Races [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Lanky Ogre Baggy Pants
11-19-04, 03:35 PM If you read my other post I am thinking of having my players get sent to an alien material plane. I am going to use races from the MM, MMII, MMIII, and FF for the major races and not have any of the normal PC races. Most of the races will be obviously animalistic, like the Loxo or Yak Folk. How would the react to the "normal" PC races?
SpellMaster
11-19-04, 04:00 PM They would see them as weak beings, far inferior to themselves, and either use them as slaves, dismiss them in disgust, get rid of them (killing or kicking out of town), or even try to eat them ("A new delicacy, you say? MMMmmmm").
9mm of Mercy
11-19-04, 04:59 PM I haven't seen the other post so excuse me if these questions are redundant.

1. How many sentient races are on this world?
2. Have the ever seen/heard of the 'normal' D&D races?
3. What're the religion(s) and technology of the world like?
4. What's the governing structure(s) like?
Lanky Ogre Baggy Pants
11-19-04, 05:53 PM There will be about half a dozen, most of them still fairly nomadic. The continent is mostly going to be plains/desert with a few mountain ranges and forests. The "normal" races don't exist at all on the plane, so the races don't have any experience with them. Most of the races are tribal structures, who either value strength or int/cunning. Most of the races will interact and trade with each other fairly peaceful. Except for the normal fighting that happens when groups live near each other. There aren't going to be any racial enemies, but its also going to be based closely on Earth history. Except for the "intelligent" races, there won't be any "monsters." Nothing resembling goblins, orcs, etc except what the other races think.

I have just started throwing this idea around, so its not complete yet.
nekrolog
11-19-04, 06:23 PM You'll have to explain how "alien" creatures look like humanoid versions of earth's animals for one thing. Or you could go the Star Trek route... "of course all Klingons speak English!" ;)
spoon242
11-22-04, 12:25 PM have you thought about using races from the star wars rpg? those would be more alien than your planned anthropomorphic races. i'm not sure how well their racial abilities would fit in a fantasy campaign, however.
nekrolog
11-22-04, 02:29 PM I attempted to create a "fantasy" campaign setting with NO semblance of earth's ecology or culture. It was full of alien coolness, but it's not easy coming up with completely original ideas. It's worth it though, if you're a creative person.

Just think about this: if you have a race of people that are humanoids with "cat-like" features, you're implying all kinds of things about them that are assumed by the players. They would be dextrous, good climbers, graceful, good hunters, etc. You're just giving a cat a human's intellect (antrhomorphization, like spoon242 said). That's not really anything new or alien at all... as soon as your PC's hear: "cat people" they'll say "oh, we get it, what else do you have?" Try envisioning completely original races with no pre-conceived ideas attached to them... it's worth it.
DaemeonBlack
11-23-04, 02:49 AM I like this idea, it has my creative juices flowing so be warned, long post ahead.

- Communication. A major thing to consider are language issues. I realy do not think that there will be many common speaking beings in this alternate world, most likely none at all. If you model it more on earth history then the language issue will be even more pronounced as you move from one area to another, the languages will change sometimes dramaticaly.

I would take a base language like Draconic and mold most of the spoken languages in this world on that alphabet. This will allow the PC's a chance to comminicate with them but have the inflections/pronunciation strange so it will not be easy but not impossible. Also use other languages like Sylvan, the planar languages but leave out both common and undercommon.

- Xenophobia. They may not have many racial enemies and trade peacefully but just like anyone else a stranger to your village is still a stranger. To compound this issue is the fact that they (the PC's) are like nothing the natives have ever seen before so there will be fear and possibly hate. This will add to the social difficulty the PC's will face in communications.

- Commerce. The PC's may face a challenge with the monetery system in the alternate world. Everything could be barter only; they could only trade in precious gems as precious metals are realy common or non-existent; they could use a new currency all together such as wood chits carved from precious and rare white oak as money.

-Otherworldlyness/Strangness. Try to give the world a slightly different feel by changing some basic things to tell the PC's they are not in Kansas anymore. For instance the sun is blue and the sky is violet with 2 moons at night. Simple changes such as this will let the PC's know they are not at home, unless you want them to not realize it right away you can leave everything the same on the surface.

One thing you can do to set everything apart is take normal animals/plants and add the Psudonatural template (Manual of the Planes, I think redone in Complete Arcane, not sure) or Insectile template (from Savage Species). This will give you a strange new ecology while using the least effort on your part to make an all new set of flora/fauna for the world. Also never underestimate the simple power of changing a common animal into another by changing simple appearance and/or make it reptillian/mamilian/avian/aquatic.

-----

I also agree with necrolog in not using anthropomorphic animals in your new world as it does give off many preconcieved notions about the races. I would suggest going a step further and using some of the odder/unique races from the various Monster Manual books from WoTC and giving them new spins. This way the PC's may have a few preconcieved notions about the races but they will be differently evolved on this world with perhaps new abilities and absolutly new cultural/social outlooks. I would make none of them evil as a racial outlook to begin with.

Just scanning my books I came up with the below races to use and some ideas for cultural ideas, modeled from real world cultures like you wanted.

- Beholder (MM I pg. 26) Ancient Greece, LN average alignment. Artists, philosophers, amazingly accomplished architects and engineers. They are a peaceful race that greatly enjoys creating art, sculpture, architecture and having debates with other intelligent species on a variety of subjects. Self centered like normal beholders due to their inate natural talents but unlike normal they are very social beings. They look to teach other races in their high knowledge of mathematics, artistic expression and philosoghy, looking to elevate all other races to their lofty ideals of enlightened society.

Remove the eye rays of Fear, Finger of Death, Inflict Moderate Wounds and Slow; replace with Wall of Stone, Stone Shape, Transmute Rock to Mud and Transmute Mud to Rock. This will allow them to create stone from nothing then shape it to whatever they need from sculptures to buildings.

- Elementals (MM I pg. 95) Ant colonies. I see several areas of the world as being one of the elemental type dominant in appropriate areas. The elementals are pretty common in the world but very common in their known areas. They are intelligent but mostly work to further the influence of their element in the world, almost like they are ants just following the biological iperative to procreate their environment/species with no other real concerns.

- Ethergaunt (FF pg. 64) Ancient Egypt. Combining the Ethergaunt caste system with the ancient egypt like society they are a spiritualy devout people who create great works of magic and towering pyramids of beholder construction.

- Neogi (MM II pg. 159) Arabian Nomads. Silk turbans, expansive tents, masters of trade and commerce. Value money over mostly anything else. Do not take slaves but are not against indentured servents due to lack of loan payments.

- Otyugh (MM I pg. 204) European Peasants. Though intelligent they are not overtly bright but not evil either and exist in a symbiotic relationship with the beholders in their great cosmopolitan cities existing on the refuse of society, relativly happy with their lots in life.

- Psurlon (MM II pg. 171) I was thinking Romans maybe, or Japanese perhaps. Japanese style might fit better having a Dynasty Lord with a rigid caste system in place. They have mental powers to combine with their samurai warriors (odd names like The Blades of the Iron Mind, Order of the Psychic Purge) making formidable warriors indeed. Only fight amongst themselves, the 2 rival Psurlon lands have opposing Lords who constantly test each others forces on the field of battle. No other races are dragged in or involved on their own, it is a matter of Psurlon pride to only wage war upon their own kind to test the might and mental prowess of their race as a whole.

- Quaraphon (MM III pg. 128) Nomadic plains people. Very primative but rowdy, think nomadic Vikings.

- Spell Weaver (MM II pg. 187) Mysterious Indian (as in India) Mystic types.

- Stonesinger (MM III pg. 168) An odd collective of musicaly talented creatures, value song over anything else. Reclusive for the most part in their underground homes more than a few have been known to travel foreign lands upon royal request to entertain lords and ladies alike.

- Umber Hulk (MM I pg. 248) I was thinking Indian (this time american indian) tribal types. Very down to the earth, respectful of the natural order and spirit worlds. Ancestor/spirit worship common, lots of druids and rangers.
CzarGarrett
11-23-04, 11:18 AM Daemon has some good ideas there.

Also, make sure to read the entry in the MM. It wouldn't make too much sense to have Yakfolk and Yuan-ti living right next to one another and not constantly be at one another's throats. And it probably wouldn't make sense for two good aligned races to not be rather peaceful and trade without some sort of feud between them.

You might want to take a history book and kinda assign certain races to certain cultures and base their interactions with one another. The cultures who were resistant to interacting with different cultures (Japanese, certain Native American tribes) would react poorly to standard race PCs. Cultures like the Huns who respected anyone who could fight well, might be friendly to the PCs if they can prove themselves.
davidslay
11-24-04, 01:56 PM I liked the suggestion about the Star Wars rpg adds.
I use one or two from the Farscape just for flavor. Hynerians for aquatic and delvians for dryad like creatures:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1887953574/qid=1101322559/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/102-5162566-2977707?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
If that helps.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Lanky Ogre Baggy Pants 11-19-04, 03:35 PM	If you read my other post I am thinking of having my players get sent to an alien material plane. I am going to use races from the MM, MMII, MMIII, and FF for the major races and not have any of the normal PC races. Most of the races will be obviously animalistic, like the Loxo or Yak Folk. How would the react to the "normal" PC races?
SpellMaster 11-19-04, 04:00 PM	They would see them as weak beings, far inferior to themselves, and either use them as slaves, dismiss them in disgust, get rid of them (killing or kicking out of town), or even try to eat them ("A new delicacy, you say? MMMmmmm").
9mm of Mercy 11-19-04, 04:59 PM	I haven't seen the other post so excuse me if these questions are redundant. 1. How many sentient races are on this world? 2. Have the ever seen/heard of the 'normal' D&D races? 3. What're the religion(s) and technology of the world like? 4. What's the governing structure(s) like?
Lanky Ogre Baggy Pants 11-19-04, 05:53 PM	There will be about half a dozen, most of them still fairly nomadic. The continent is mostly going to be plains/desert with a few mountain ranges and forests. The "normal" races don't exist at all on the plane, so the races don't have any experience with them. Most of the races are tribal structures, who either value strength or int/cunning. Most of the races will interact and trade with each other fairly peaceful. Except for the normal fighting that happens when groups live near each other. There aren't going to be any racial enemies, but its also going to be based closely on Earth history. Except for the "intelligent" races, there won't be any "monsters." Nothing resembling goblins, orcs, etc except what the other races think. I have just started throwing this idea around, so its not complete yet.
nekrolog 11-19-04, 06:23 PM	You'll have to explain how "alien" creatures look like humanoid versions of earth's animals for one thing. Or you could go the Star Trek route... "of course all Klingons speak English!" ;)
spoon242 11-22-04, 12:25 PM	have you thought about using races from the star wars rpg? those would be more alien than your planned anthropomorphic races. i'm not sure how well their racial abilities would fit in a fantasy campaign, however.
nekrolog 11-22-04, 02:29 PM	I attempted to create a "fantasy" campaign setting with NO semblance of earth's ecology or culture. It was full of alien coolness, but it's not easy coming up with completely original ideas. It's worth it though, if you're a creative person. Just think about this: if you have a race of people that are humanoids with "cat-like" features, you're implying all kinds of things about them that are assumed by the players. They would be dextrous, good climbers, graceful, good hunters, etc. You're just giving a cat a human's intellect (antrhomorphization, like spoon242 said). That's not really anything new or alien at all... as soon as your PC's hear: "cat people" they'll say "oh, we get it, what else do you have?" Try envisioning completely original races with no pre-conceived ideas attached to them... it's worth it.
DaemeonBlack 11-23-04, 02:49 AM	I like this idea, it has my creative juices flowing so be warned, long post ahead. - Communication. A major thing to consider are language issues. I realy do not think that there will be many common speaking beings in this alternate world, most likely none at all. If you model it more on earth history then the language issue will be even more pronounced as you move from one area to another, the languages will change sometimes dramaticaly. I would take a base language like Draconic and mold most of the spoken languages in this world on that alphabet. This will allow the PC's a chance to comminicate with them but have the inflections/pronunciation strange so it will not be easy but not impossible. Also use other languages like Sylvan, the planar languages but leave out both common and undercommon. - Xenophobia. They may not have many racial enemies and trade peacefully but just like anyone else a stranger to your village is still a stranger. To compound this issue is the fact that they (the PC's) are like nothing the natives have ever seen before so there will be fear and possibly hate. This will add to the social difficulty the PC's will face in communications. - Commerce. The PC's may face a challenge with the monetery system in the alternate world. Everything could be barter only; they could only trade in precious gems as precious metals are realy common or non-existent; they could use a new currency all together such as wood chits carved from precious and rare white oak as money. -Otherworldlyness/Strangness. Try to give the world a slightly different feel by changing some basic things to tell the PC's they are not in Kansas anymore. For instance the sun is blue and the sky is violet with 2 moons at night. Simple changes such as this will let the PC's know they are not at home, unless you want them to not realize it right away you can leave everything the same on the surface. One thing you can do to set everything apart is take normal animals/plants and add the Psudonatural template (Manual of the Planes, I think redone in Complete Arcane, not sure) or Insectile template (from Savage Species). This will give you a strange new ecology while using the least effort on your part to make an all new set of flora/fauna for the world. Also never underestimate the simple power of changing a common animal into another by changing simple appearance and/or make it reptillian/mamilian/avian/aquatic. ----- I also agree with necrolog in not using anthropomorphic animals in your new world as it does give off many preconcieved notions about the races. I would suggest going a step further and using some of the odder/unique races from the various Monster Manual books from WoTC and giving them new spins. This way the PC's may have a few preconcieved notions about the races but they will be differently evolved on this world with perhaps new abilities and absolutly new cultural/social outlooks. I would make none of them evil as a racial outlook to begin with. Just scanning my books I came up with the below races to use and some ideas for cultural ideas, modeled from real world cultures like you wanted. - Beholder (MM I pg. 26) Ancient Greece, LN average alignment. Artists, philosophers, amazingly accomplished architects and engineers. They are a peaceful race that greatly enjoys creating art, sculpture, architecture and having debates with other intelligent species on a variety of subjects. Self centered like normal beholders due to their inate natural talents but unlike normal they are very social beings. They look to teach other races in their high knowledge of mathematics, artistic expression and philosoghy, looking to elevate all other races to their lofty ideals of enlightened society. Remove the eye rays of Fear, Finger of Death, Inflict Moderate Wounds and Slow; replace with Wall of Stone, Stone Shape, Transmute Rock to Mud and Transmute Mud to Rock. This will allow them to create stone from nothing then shape it to whatever they need from sculptures to buildings. - Elementals (MM I pg. 95) Ant colonies. I see several areas of the world as being one of the elemental type dominant in appropriate areas. The elementals are pretty common in the world but very common in their known areas. They are intelligent but mostly work to further the influence of their element in the world, almost like they are ants just following the biological iperative to procreate their environment/species with no other real concerns. - Ethergaunt (FF pg. 64) Ancient Egypt. Combining the Ethergaunt caste system with the ancient egypt like society they are a spiritualy devout people who create great works of magic and towering pyramids of beholder construction. - Neogi (MM II pg. 159) Arabian Nomads. Silk turbans, expansive tents, masters of trade and commerce. Value money over mostly anything else. Do not take slaves but are not against indentured servents due to lack of loan payments. - Otyugh (MM I pg. 204) European Peasants. Though intelligent they are not overtly bright but not evil either and exist in a symbiotic relationship with the beholders in their great cosmopolitan cities existing on the refuse of society, relativly happy with their lots in life. - Psurlon (MM II pg. 171) I was thinking Romans maybe, or Japanese perhaps. Japanese style might fit better having a Dynasty Lord with a rigid caste system in place. They have mental powers to combine with their samurai warriors (odd names like The Blades of the Iron Mind, Order of the Psychic Purge) making formidable warriors indeed. Only fight amongst themselves, the 2 rival Psurlon lands have opposing Lords who constantly test each others forces on the field of battle. No other races are dragged in or involved on their own, it is a matter of Psurlon pride to only wage war upon their own kind to test the might and mental prowess of their race as a whole. - Quaraphon (MM III pg. 128) Nomadic plains people. Very primative but rowdy, think nomadic Vikings. - Spell Weaver (MM II pg. 187) Mysterious Indian (as in India) Mystic types. - Stonesinger (MM III pg. 168) An odd collective of musicaly talented creatures, value song over anything else. Reclusive for the most part in their underground homes more than a few have been known to travel foreign lands upon royal request to entertain lords and ladies alike. - Umber Hulk (MM I pg. 248) I was thinking Indian (this time american indian) tribal types. Very down to the earth, respectful of the natural order and spirit worlds. Ancestor/spirit worship common, lots of druids and rangers.
CzarGarrett 11-23-04, 11:18 AM	Daemon has some good ideas there. Also, make sure to read the entry in the MM. It wouldn't make too much sense to have Yakfolk and Yuan-ti living right next to one another and not constantly be at one another's throats. And it probably wouldn't make sense for two good aligned races to not be rather peaceful and trade without some sort of feud between them. You might want to take a history book and kinda assign certain races to certain cultures and base their interactions with one another. The cultures who were resistant to interacting with different cultures (Japanese, certain Native American tribes) would react poorly to standard race PCs. Cultures like the Huns who respected anyone who could fight well, might be friendly to the PCs if they can prove themselves.
davidslay 11-24-04, 01:56 PM	I liked the suggestion about the Star Wars rpg adds. I use one or two from the Farscape just for flavor. Hynerians for aquatic and delvians for dryad like creatures: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1887953574/qid=1101322559/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/102-5162566-2977707?v=glance&s=books&n=507846 If that helps.