I've been toying with an idea for a campaign in which all of the PCs are half-siblings with the same human father. - � They don't know this from the get-go, but find out through the course of the campaign. - � To keep it interesting and allow as many cho - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

I've been toying with an idea for a campaign in which all of the PCs are half-siblings with the same human father. - � They don't know this from the get-go, but find out through the course of the campaign. - � To keep it interesting and allow as many cho

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
rahashe
Jul 22, 2010 11:11:03 I've been toying with an idea for a campaign in which all of the PCs are half-siblings with the same human father. They don't know this from the get-go, but find out through the course of the campaign. To keep it interesting and allow as many choices of race for my players as possible, I want to let them choose from as many races as possible. Without implementing any homebrew, which races can I allow? I know humans can breed humans, tieflings, half-elves, half-orcs, and muls. Did I miss anything? What are the results of human/shifter and human/genasi pairings?
#2
Herrozerro
Jul 22, 2010 11:12:47 Personally? I would let them be whatever race they wanted. they still are "half-Xs" but only they one side shows through. Perhaps aesthetically they look like half and half but statwise they are just one or the other.
#3
AbdulAlhazred
Jul 22, 2010 12:14:51
Personally? I would let them be whatever race they wanted. they still are "half-Xs" but only they one side shows through. Perhaps aesthetically they look like half and half but statwise they are just one or the other.

I think that's what he's wanting to do.

As for what is supported, well there are the existing half races, but you've already assumed others are possible, so I wouldn't worry about what the official 4e 'fluff' says. If the guy is half human and half dragonborn, well then obviously it worked out somehow (and best to be a bit vague on the details...).
#4
alexandraerin
Jul 22, 2010 12:19:14
What are the results of human/shifter and human/genasi pairings?

An infestation of fleas and a painful "burning" sensation.

#5
Ith
Jul 22, 2010 12:26:50 This smacks of "we all grew up in an orphanage together and didn't remember it until now".
#6
averagetable
Jul 22, 2010 12:29:17

I think that's what he's wanting to do.

No, that isn't what he's asking.

He's asking, "What races can I permit without having to make up any unofficial houserules?" In other words, "What races can, officially, be the result of a human/X pairing?"

As far as I know, he's covered them all himself.

- Humans, obviously, are the result of human/human pairings.
- Half-elves are the result of human/elf pairings.
- Half-orcs are the result of human/orc pairings.
- Muls are the result of human/dwarf pairings.
- Teiflings, indeed full tieflings, are (due to a special, "magical" rule) the result of human/tiefling pairings (as well as tiefling/tiefling pairings).

In official 4th Edition, I don`t believe there are any others published thus far. You could certainly invent options for, say, half-gnomes and such; but that would require unofficial houserules.
#7
alexandraerin
Jul 22, 2010 12:35:35 If you stretch the fluff a bit:

According to a fluffbar in Divine Power, Changelings are the descendants of a human woman blessed by Avandra with shapeshifting... she and her children were breeding with humans, and they ended up founding a whole race instead of seeing their shapeshifting talent dwindle to nothing.

Kalashtar are supposed to be humans on a physical level. It never specifies what would happen if one got pregnant by a Human, but I would imagine the child would be Kalashtar for all purposes.

Shifters are supposed to be descended from humans and lycanthropes. Which means, if nothing else, that a Shifter PC could have a lycanthrope mother. The PC would have to have a background that involved being adopted into a Shifter tribe or not raised in one at all.
#8
Kensan_Oni
Jul 22, 2010 12:48:45 I can't help but think the "Girl In Every Port" sailor who has this motley crew show up on his ship one day and go "Hi Daddy!" is just going to die of a heart attack...
#9
Dragoloth
Jul 22, 2010 14:41:32 Revenant is a possibility, they could of been any race before they died. Also if the father was of a heritage feat race all of the PC's could get that feat for free to show their lineage.
#10
Baphogoat
Jul 22, 2010 14:42:52 or just make it an all human or halfrace campaign. If they wanted to be something else just fluff it to be a human from an exotic location. Dragonborn - Humans from the great desert that learn to throw fire. Eladrin - Humans from the great wizard city, magic has infested their bodies. Elves - humans from the border lands who have learned to live in the wild...etc. Keep all the mechanics the same, so the dragonborn human couldn't take human feats only dragonborn, just the fluff is different, likes human instead of dragon, or maybe human with a hint of dragon,whatever.
#11
greatfrito
Jul 22, 2010 15:24:07

As far as I know, he's covered them all himself.

- Humans, obviously, are the result of human/human pairings.
- Half-elves are the result of human/elf pairings.
- Half-orcs are the result of human/orc pairings.
- Muls are the result of human/dwarf pairings.
- Teiflings, indeed full tieflings, are (due to a special, "magical" rule) the result of human/tiefling pairings (as well as tiefling/tiefling pairings).

Though their reproduction isn't mentioned in 4th
- Changelings are one possible result from a human/changeling pairing (or really any /changeling pairing).
#12
Damon_Tor
Jul 22, 2010 15:45:19 Kalashtar are fine, here, but note that the Kalashtar would need to be females if the father was a human. The Quori spirit only propagates into the same gender child as the parent, so any sons by the pairing would be human.

Note that a half-elf can technically be either half-elf, half-eladrin, or half-drow (there had been feats to support this in 3thED, if I recall)

Shifters are simply the true-bred result of human\lycanthrope pairings, but there's no reason a first generation shifter couldn't come from the father mating with a weretiger or werewolf.

As noted, a changeling can be impregnated by a human, and the child will be a changeling.
#13
thenative
Jul 22, 2010 16:42:10 Deva can work too, right? You could have been born a human, fulfilled your epic destiny and been raised to the status of a god, only to come back. Yeah, it is a bit far fetched, but I think that technically it could work.

Also @ Damon_Tor: I never knew (or it might be that I forgot everything about 3rd edition already) that about half-elves being possibly the result of half-eladrin or half-drow matings. Cool little tid-bit. Thanks.
#14
EscherEnigma
Jul 22, 2010 17:28:58 ... I... really don't think Deva works. A Deva is the reincarnated spirit of a Deva, who was a reincarnated spirit of a Deva, all the way back to the dawn of time. While Deva can have children, their children aren't Devas.

However, wouldn't it be easier to make the father a changeling instead of a human? Since changelings can always have pure-bred offspring with whatever they mate with (and they can swap from being father to mother if they want) it opens the door to anything that has biological parents (sorry, still leaves out Devas) while still letting this common father look like a human if that's what you want.

Of course, that's going off what I remember of 3.5 changelings. Not sure they ever went into that level of detail with 4th edition changelings.
#15
alexandraerin
Jul 22, 2010 18:15:30 Devas can reproduce with other races. The child in this case would be a human with the Deva Heritage trait.

#16
EscherEnigma
Jul 22, 2010 18:38:03 Right. Their children aren't devas.
#17
alexandraerin
Jul 22, 2010 18:54:39 @EscherEnigma: I'm not sure how that stops it from fitting into the OP's back story.
#18
EscherEnigma
Jul 22, 2010 18:56:41 ... because if a deva can't have parents, and the PC is a kid of an NPC, then the PC can't be a deva. A PC could have a deva parent, and the deva heritage feat, but the PC can't be a deva.
#19
greatfrito
Jul 22, 2010 18:59:43 I think the point has been: They're looking for a list of races that could have a single male human parent.

Human is already on the list.

Deva can't go on the list.

For what (little) it's worth, I think most of the "bloodlines" could still be applicable (with DM's approval, of course), no matter what the two direct parents are.
#20
Tony_Vargas
Jul 22, 2010 19:08:20
It wouldn't take much hand-waving to squeeze in others. A human/effreet pairing could result in a fire genasi. A 3.x style 'half dragon' could be represented by a Dragonborn.

#21
alexandraerin
Jul 22, 2010 19:13:09 @EscherEnigma: Ah, you're right... I was never contending that the PC would be a Deva, but in the time since I read the original post my impression of it shifted to where I thought it was asking what races could reproduce with humans. I thought we were collecting races for possible mothers of PCs, in other words, not for the PCs.

@greatfrito: Yeah, I think if the DM wants to allow the greatest possible variety... and keep the emphasis on the idea of the shared human parent and varied mothers, not specifically non-human children... then the heritage feats are a good addition.
#22
kitsunegami
Jul 22, 2010 21:22:42
This smacks of "we all grew up in an orphanage together and didn't remember it until now".

I do so love Final Fantasy VIII. 8o)
----------------

Ss others have said, since fluff is mutable you can pretty much justify any race by simply modifying or ignoring Wizard's fluff. For instance the children of tieflings are always tieflings regardless of who the other parent is. But you can easily choose to ignore that bit of fluff and do whatever you want.

Of course, that particular bit of fluff fits perfectly with what you're trying to do but you get the point anyway, I hope. 8o)
#23
thomasjtheobald
Jul 23, 2010 8:31:28 Just make sure all their last names are "Sheen" ).

T
#24
greatfrito
Jul 23, 2010 9:32:26
Just make sure all their last names are "Sheen" ).

T

...
.....
Brilliant!
#25
AdamDray
Jul 28, 2010 13:04:04 Why not tell the players outright what the plan is. The characters won't know, for sure, but the players can keep in-character stuff separate, right? I mean, their characters don't know how to drive a car, either.

Letting the players in on the backstory lets them play with dramatic irony and draw out the "finding out" longer (and more enjoyably).
#26
eazy_e
Jul 28, 2010 19:26:56 While all these combos are nice, this father must have been a ****.
#27
AdamDray
Aug 01, 2010 21:26:30 Not necessarily. Maybe the wives died.
#28
Damon_Tor
Aug 02, 2010 0:56:41
While all these combos are nice, this father must have been a ****.

Sure, and a sailor makes alot of sense for the father, not only allowing for many different partners over a relatively short period of time, but also for a wide geographic distribution of his offspring.

Other options besides a rakish cad are available though. Another option might be a legendary king, who was instructed to propagate with many races as part of a prophecy. Perhaps he was a great hero, a hero with a widely known prophecy regarding the power of his children. Women all over the world would set out to seduce the man to give thier children a shot at this power.
#29
eazy_e
Aug 02, 2010 1:23:55
While all these combos are nice, this father must have been a ****.

Women all over the world would set out to seduce the man to give thier children a shot at this power.

Now I ain't sayin' she a gold digger....
#30
AdamDray
Aug 02, 2010 7:17:58 He could have a harem of wives, as well. There's really no requirement to have him gallavanting across the known world banging every chick he meets.

I ran a campaign where the PCs were all royal siblings. I limited them to human, elf, and half-elf (this was 3.5e, so no eladrin). The king had had two wives. The elven one had died in an attack, and then he had remarried a human woman.

Limiting them this way isn't a horrible thing, as long as they buy into the campaign's premise. It's far more interesting for them to be siblings and half-siblings who grew up in the same household than far-flung bastards showing up to claim the crown. And you can always have one such bastard without batting an eyelash, but 4-5 of them strains credulity. If you must have five PCs of different races, all with the same kingly father, make them arranged marriages with foreign powers. You can make the king a Henry VIII type, for a little extra flavor (where most his wives die on the chopping block after a short time).

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 rahashe Jul 22, 2010 11:11:03	I've been toying with an idea for a campaign in which all of the PCs are half-siblings with the same human father. They don't know this from the get-go, but find out through the course of the campaign. To keep it interesting and allow as many choices of race for my players as possible, I want to let them choose from as many races as possible. Without implementing any homebrew, which races can I allow? I know humans can breed humans, tieflings, half-elves, half-orcs, and muls. Did I miss anything? What are the results of human/shifter and human/genasi pairings?
#2 Herrozerro Jul 22, 2010 11:12:47	Personally? I would let them be whatever race they wanted. they still are "half-Xs" but only they one side shows through. Perhaps aesthetically they look like half and half but statwise they are just one or the other.
#3 AbdulAlhazred Jul 22, 2010 12:14:51	Personally? I would let them be whatever race they wanted. they still are "half-Xs" but only they one side shows through. Perhaps aesthetically they look like half and half but statwise they are just one or the other. I think that's what he's wanting to do. As for what is supported, well there are the existing half races, but you've already assumed others are possible, so I wouldn't worry about what the official 4e 'fluff' says. If the guy is half human and half dragonborn, well then obviously it worked out somehow (and best to be a bit vague on the details...).
#4 alexandraerin Jul 22, 2010 12:19:14	What are the results of human/shifter and human/genasi pairings? An infestation of fleas and a painful "burning" sensation.
#5 Ith Jul 22, 2010 12:26:50	This smacks of "we all grew up in an orphanage together and didn't remember it until now".
#6 averagetable Jul 22, 2010 12:29:17	I think that's what he's wanting to do. No, that isn't what he's asking. He's asking, "What races can I permit without having to make up any unofficial houserules?" In other words, "What races can, officially, be the result of a human/X pairing?" As far as I know, he's covered them all himself. - Humans, obviously, are the result of human/human pairings. - Half-elves are the result of human/elf pairings. - Half-orcs are the result of human/orc pairings. - Muls are the result of human/dwarf pairings. - Teiflings, indeed full tieflings, are (due to a special, "magical" rule) the result of human/tiefling pairings (as well as tiefling/tiefling pairings). In official 4th Edition, I don`t believe there are any others published thus far. You could certainly invent options for, say, half-gnomes and such; but that would require unofficial houserules.
#7 alexandraerin Jul 22, 2010 12:35:35	If you stretch the fluff a bit: According to a fluffbar in Divine Power, Changelings are the descendants of a human woman blessed by Avandra with shapeshifting... she and her children were breeding with humans, and they ended up founding a whole race instead of seeing their shapeshifting talent dwindle to nothing. Kalashtar are supposed to be humans on a physical level. It never specifies what would happen if one got pregnant by a Human, but I would imagine the child would be Kalashtar for all purposes. Shifters are supposed to be descended from humans and lycanthropes. Which means, if nothing else, that a Shifter PC could have a lycanthrope mother. The PC would have to have a background that involved being adopted into a Shifter tribe or not raised in one at all.
#8 Kensan_Oni Jul 22, 2010 12:48:45	I can't help but think the "Girl In Every Port" sailor who has this motley crew show up on his ship one day and go "Hi Daddy!" is just going to die of a heart attack...
#9 Dragoloth Jul 22, 2010 14:41:32	Revenant is a possibility, they could of been any race before they died. Also if the father was of a heritage feat race all of the PC's could get that feat for free to show their lineage.
#10 Baphogoat Jul 22, 2010 14:42:52	or just make it an all human or halfrace campaign. If they wanted to be something else just fluff it to be a human from an exotic location. Dragonborn - Humans from the great desert that learn to throw fire. Eladrin - Humans from the great wizard city, magic has infested their bodies. Elves - humans from the border lands who have learned to live in the wild...etc. Keep all the mechanics the same, so the dragonborn human couldn't take human feats only dragonborn, just the fluff is different, likes human instead of dragon, or maybe human with a hint of dragon,whatever.
#11 greatfrito Jul 22, 2010 15:24:07	As far as I know, he's covered them all himself. - Humans, obviously, are the result of human/human pairings. - Half-elves are the result of human/elf pairings. - Half-orcs are the result of human/orc pairings. - Muls are the result of human/dwarf pairings. - Teiflings, indeed full tieflings, are (due to a special, "magical" rule) the result of human/tiefling pairings (as well as tiefling/tiefling pairings). Though their reproduction isn't mentioned in 4th - Changelings are one possible result from a human/changeling pairing (or really any /changeling pairing).
#12 Damon_Tor Jul 22, 2010 15:45:19	Kalashtar are fine, here, but note that the Kalashtar would need to be females if the father was a human. The Quori spirit only propagates into the same gender child as the parent, so any sons by the pairing would be human. Note that a half-elf can technically be either half-elf, half-eladrin, or half-drow (there had been feats to support this in 3thED, if I recall) Shifters are simply the true-bred result of human\lycanthrope pairings, but there's no reason a first generation shifter couldn't come from the father mating with a weretiger or werewolf. As noted, a changeling can be impregnated by a human, and the child will be a changeling.
#13 thenative Jul 22, 2010 16:42:10	Deva can work too, right? You could have been born a human, fulfilled your epic destiny and been raised to the status of a god, only to come back. Yeah, it is a bit far fetched, but I think that technically it could work. Also @ Damon_Tor: I never knew (or it might be that I forgot everything about 3rd edition already) that about half-elves being possibly the result of half-eladrin or half-drow matings. Cool little tid-bit. Thanks.
#14 EscherEnigma Jul 22, 2010 17:28:58	... I... really don't think Deva works. A Deva is the reincarnated spirit of a Deva, who was a reincarnated spirit of a Deva, all the way back to the dawn of time. While Deva can have children, their children aren't Devas. However, wouldn't it be easier to make the father a changeling instead of a human? Since changelings can always have pure-bred offspring with whatever they mate with (and they can swap from being father to mother if they want) it opens the door to anything that has biological parents (sorry, still leaves out Devas) while still letting this common father look like a human if that's what you want. Of course, that's going off what I remember of 3.5 changelings. Not sure they ever went into that level of detail with 4th edition changelings.
#15 alexandraerin Jul 22, 2010 18:15:30	Devas can reproduce with other races. The child in this case would be a human with the Deva Heritage trait.
#16 EscherEnigma Jul 22, 2010 18:38:03	Right. Their children aren't devas.
#17 alexandraerin Jul 22, 2010 18:54:39	@EscherEnigma: I'm not sure how that stops it from fitting into the OP's back story.
#18 EscherEnigma Jul 22, 2010 18:56:41	... because if a deva can't have parents, and the PC is a kid of an NPC, then the PC can't be a deva. A PC could have a deva parent, and the deva heritage feat, but the PC can't be a deva.
#19 greatfrito Jul 22, 2010 18:59:43	I think the point has been: They're looking for a list of races that could have a single male human parent. Human is already on the list. Deva can't go on the list. For what (little) it's worth, I think most of the "bloodlines" could still be applicable (with DM's approval, of course), no matter what the two direct parents are.
#20 Tony_Vargas Jul 22, 2010 19:08:20	It wouldn't take much hand-waving to squeeze in others. A human/effreet pairing could result in a fire genasi. A 3.x style 'half dragon' could be represented by a Dragonborn.
#21 alexandraerin Jul 22, 2010 19:13:09	@EscherEnigma: Ah, you're right... I was never contending that the PC would be a Deva, but in the time since I read the original post my impression of it shifted to where I thought it was asking what races could reproduce with humans. I thought we were collecting races for possible mothers of PCs, in other words, not for the PCs. @greatfrito: Yeah, I think if the DM wants to allow the greatest possible variety... and keep the emphasis on the idea of the shared human parent and varied mothers, not specifically non-human children... then the heritage feats are a good addition.
#22 kitsunegami Jul 22, 2010 21:22:42	This smacks of "we all grew up in an orphanage together and didn't remember it until now". I do so love Final Fantasy VIII. 8o) ---------------- Ss others have said, since fluff is mutable you can pretty much justify any race by simply modifying or ignoring Wizard's fluff. For instance the children of tieflings are always tieflings regardless of who the other parent is. But you can easily choose to ignore that bit of fluff and do whatever you want. Of course, that particular bit of fluff fits perfectly with what you're trying to do but you get the point anyway, I hope. 8o)
#23 thomasjtheobald Jul 23, 2010 8:31:28	Just make sure all their last names are "Sheen" ). T
#24 greatfrito Jul 23, 2010 9:32:26	Just make sure all their last names are "Sheen" ). T ... ..... Brilliant!
#25 AdamDray Jul 28, 2010 13:04:04	Why not tell the players outright what the plan is. The characters won't know, for sure, but the players can keep in-character stuff separate, right? I mean, their characters don't know how to drive a car, either. Letting the players in on the backstory lets them play with dramatic irony and draw out the "finding out" longer (and more enjoyably).
#26 eazy_e Jul 28, 2010 19:26:56	While all these combos are nice, this father must have been a ****.
#27 AdamDray Aug 01, 2010 21:26:30	Not necessarily. Maybe the wives died.
#28 Damon_Tor Aug 02, 2010 0:56:41	While all these combos are nice, this father must have been a ****. Sure, and a sailor makes alot of sense for the father, not only allowing for many different partners over a relatively short period of time, but also for a wide geographic distribution of his offspring. Other options besides a rakish cad are available though. Another option might be a legendary king, who was instructed to propagate with many races as part of a prophecy. Perhaps he was a great hero, a hero with a widely known prophecy regarding the power of his children. Women all over the world would set out to seduce the man to give thier children a shot at this power.
#29 eazy_e Aug 02, 2010 1:23:55	While all these combos are nice, this father must have been a ****. Women all over the world would set out to seduce the man to give thier children a shot at this power. Now I ain't sayin' she a gold digger....
#30 AdamDray Aug 02, 2010 7:17:58	He could have a harem of wives, as well. There's really no requirement to have him gallavanting across the known world banging every chick he meets. I ran a campaign where the PCs were all royal siblings. I limited them to human, elf, and half-elf (this was 3.5e, so no eladrin). The king had had two wives. The elven one had died in an attack, and then he had remarried a human woman. Limiting them this way isn't a horrible thing, as long as they buy into the campaign's premise. It's far more interesting for them to be siblings and half-siblings who grew up in the same household than far-flung bastards showing up to claim the crown. And you can always have one such bastard without batting an eyelash, but 4-5 of them strains credulity. If you must have five PCs of different races, all with the same kingly father, make them arranged marriages with foreign powers. You can make the king a Henry VIII type, for a little extra flavor (where most his wives die on the chopping block after a short time).