Reply With QuoteWouldn't it be better to have a template for race creation?
I could create a race....
Full Name: maioribus rutilus muris (greater red mouse)
Name: also called the Amaphus
General Description:
the Amaphus are a race of humanoid/rat-like people with a sleek coat of red fur they have two arms that reach about two feet length each when full grown. The Amaphus stand at about four feet tall. They stand on legs of a length of about two feet each. They have a body length (head to butt) of about two feet. They have blu eyes although a rare chance there may be a green eyed Amaphus born the green will fade into blue by the age of 3. They have 3 claws on each hand and 2 toes on each foot. They have a rat-like snout but it curves upward slightly.
Average lifetime - 32 years
World Record Maximum - 55 years
Age of adulthood - 9 years
(i am using 365 days as a year)
IQ - An Amaphus has the technology of humans in the time of about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8th_millennium_BC they do have written language though. It looks similar to Egyptian Heiroglyphics.
Population - the Amaphus a pretty far spread and live in tribes of 15-50. They are nomadic in a way, They do not travel with the animals but migrate with the weather. Amaphus like medium-cool weather and will move north in the summer and return south in the winter.
Amaphus Religion - Amaphus may have many religions we do not know about but the main religion of the Amaphus is the belief that all the world was created by hundreds of gods, gods of tree, gods of grass, gods of water, gods of arrowheads, gods of sticks. Really everything... The main gods are Apa the god of sky, Dalla the god of meat, Arg the god of tools, and Cagra the god of Fruit. They believe fruit to be the greatest of all the gods gifts and offer meat of the animals they kill to the flames before eating fruit. Fruit, in a way, is as holy as the cross is to a christian. Cagra is obviously the main overuling god of the rest.
ask me if you want more added or even more races... i hope you like it and have a way to use it.
Fruits
Cagra - In looks it could be compared to a pear but with the color of a banana. It does not need a stem because it grows from other Cagra a little like a potato.
Afflama - Inside of an Afflama a large seed can be found. They are about one foot in diameter but the seed takes up about 10 inches of the inside this fruit grows slowly. They look like apples with a rough brown outside and a creamy red inside.
some fruits i thought up... they are probably useless to a world you guys will probably just use ordinary apples and bananas
Wouldn't it be better to have a template for race creation?
I think it is a great idea to start with an adverb to create a race. If you want warlike creatures, they're going to be very different from a fragile race. But I'm also a very visual person. For my last D & D race I decided to make a crystalline race. I was stuck on ideas, so I headed over to my local gaming shop and started digging through the custom mini's to get ideas. After I actually created my own race using a sla prototype at a local design company.
Last edited by MarkoDarko; 06-23-2011 at 04:12 PM.
I love custom mini's and gum... And I'm all out of gum.
I cheat at facebook statuses, so sue me.
I tend to start with a setting or purpose myself, then go logically from one function to another until I have a basic outline of a race and society. Like so;
Start: I need a sapient race that's physically larger than humans and inhabits tropical islands.
-Large animals tend not to be native to tropical islands, so they have to be from somewhere else...
-but they can't arrive there by ship or anything, because they're too large to transport...
-and whales in tropical waters tend to be intelligent, large, and capable of travelling through water, making them perfect, but they're a bit too big...
-but isolation on islands sometimes leads to physical shrinkage to adapt to less resources...
-which means that they couldn't be able swim huge distances if I wanted them to be a reasonable size...
-so maybe they cannot stay underwater for too long (way smaller lungs) but still do work underwater...
-which means that they might build coastal traps for fish and crabs for food...
-which implies that their fins became crude manipulators as they adapted to living on land, though that says nothing about their flukes...
-which in turn implies that they still have them, making them more comfortable moving in water than on land...
-so their buildings probably would be simply adorned but perhaps complexly engineered, with a balance water to move in and air to breathe...
-and having precisely balance water and air in your building would be a great status symbol...
-which means that engineering, and in turn math and physics, are highly valued in their culture...
-which ultimately means that the race would favor both intelligence and practicality in individuals...
-so that hints at a somewhat meritocratic approach to governance...
-and when factored together with how whales form extended family groups in their pods in real life, you might get competing clans, based on a core family group but adopting promising individuals as full members, and on top having a clan where each member is another clan (a government) that works on similar methods.
I could go on forever, but so far we have a race that probably look like a cross between a whale and a mermaid, live on the coasts of tropical lands, practice aquaculture of various forms, tend towards practicality and judging others based on their merits, and rule themselves through an aristocratic council of some sort; a good outline for a civilization to write about or have others encounter.
The logic in these leaps doesn't have to be especially coherent, direct, or, well, logical (you can always plug the holes later, and the plugging, at least for me, is my favorite part), but they should make a little sense at least. Also, if you happen to like obscure trivia, here's where it shines; being able to link two ideas that do not belong together in nature is the best way to start an in-story conflict.
So, basically extend this for several pages, come up with reasons for anything I missed earlier, and that's how I create races.
Wow, nice derivation.
Nice derivation, Falconer
once again plugging for my 'dorcs' - i'm shocked and kind of upset that the entire gaming community hasn't risen up en masse to champion them.
overall similar to orcs, with a few characterisms.. they tend to gravitate towards mechanical aptitudes and wide screen tv. they are entrenched in lassitude and a need for heirarchy and say things like "get 'er done". would've fit in foglio's strip in dragon magazine..
Damn Falconer, that's some really awesome work there
I have a list of unique races for my world of Soni of (not even the human-like species is actually human) of hopefully unique design and what not. Don't want to detail too much. But I don't mind sharing some details of one with you all. (yeah, so please don't use this, I just like to share, sorry.)
This is probably pretty obvious but don't feel restricted that you have to follow fantasy-standards and make elves, dwarves, or orcs. The unique races in fantasy worlds are always the coolest - like the Argonians in Elder Scrolls. They don't need to have hands if you don't want to them. Hell, they could do all of their everyday tasks using magicka.Name: Hakoro (Ha-core-oh)
Height: 5-6 feet tall
Age: They descend from the Hrickten Val whom are known to have the longest life-span in Soni, they can live at an average of 370 years.
Appearance: Humanoid in basic structure, they have a large pair of wings on their back reminiscent of bats, 4-toe clawed feet and arms, white fur, a short tail, a head like resembles a cross between a wolf and a kangaroo, but more of a wolf. They also have large ears that allow them to detect out-of-place sounds in the thickest of snow flurries, to counterbalance the negatives of how cold large ears can get.
History: Hakoro are descendants of a race known as the Hrickten Val (also known as the Black Wingen). They left had come to a land thousands of years ago called Naus that is filled with many dangers. Besides it's all-year-round snow-covering that spans the middle of the landmass known as "The Arctic Strip", the Hakoro face a local threat of hive minded creatures known as the Inaby (In-nah-bee). Using magicka techniques in the arts of alteration, over generations, changes by this alteration magic slowly affected them to be more well suited for their new home, literally speeding up the processes of adaptation. Eventually, they have come to resemble nothing like their ancestral race, which is still very active at this time.
Culture/Attitude: Hakoro are under a constant state of war, whether it's against the Inaby, or countries to the north aiming to invade them. As such, they make sure to stay on their A-game at all times, stealing technological advances from their enemies (as well as their "friends") and devised a system of government reminiscent of Sparta's.
Last edited by Vurtax; 06-17-2012 at 09:24 PM.
Interesting ideas above. Love the 10ks, Jax =)
I usually start with a drawing. Sometimes on purpose (the bug). Sometimes they just appear while I'm doing something else and it throws me off on a tangent for a bit (like the map guy). I have no clue where the bird came from. I was just warming up for a map design style. You're welcome to use these guys, just know that I'll be doing my own things with them too, so if you want something truly unique, go with something else. Or commission me to draw something.
spoonbill bird thing web.jpg Map Man web.jpg alien bug web.jpg
I have created races for my group's games and RPG settings for near on a decade!
How I created initially was "I want desert humans" so I would plonk down humans on a desert region and give them 'deserty stuff'. Which is alright if that is how you wish to go but these days I base it off evolution and/or magic if they are a magical race.
A species or race borne from the desert will be taller and have flatter noses because it irradiates heat more efficiently. They may have thicker eye lashes and beards to protect them from the windshear and sandstorms.
Deep jungle races would be(at least in my view) a little shorter and wiry from the lack of larger nutritional beasts that you might find in open areas.
typically I settle on geographical situation, resources and wildlife. they usually determine (for me) the customs, temperament and appearances of races.
Posting Permissions
