In many works of fiction, non-humans have classically assigned a "kingdom" on the map, and they build civilizations with their equivalent of towns, pyramids, inns or schools (Sometimes, like in Warcraft 2, the settlements are mirrored 1:1). This can be cool, but to contrast, all the folk tales commonly use dwarves, goblins, elves, etc as inhabitors of the mythical forest, representing the uncivilized peoples that lurk beyond the rational, civilized domains of man.
You got to find a middle point if you want to use them as playable races in a game, though. You want ideally to feel "different", but you cannot use something entirelly alien because, you know, somebody human actually has to interpret that guy.
Anyhow, I've been thinking about a setting without humans, but by trying to add to every race a different facet of mankind and keeping them as much as possible into that niche. I've had fun imagining how does each of the races organize themselves and which place they hold in the world. Also, each class is meant to advance mechanically as though if all their members had the same specific class, making them, as the title says, class as race. Let's start!
1. FIGHTERS
Trow are the feudal, warrior race. They live into mountain halls and stone fortresses to protect themselves from the terrible surface monsters, and in there they form monarchies who rule over a certain land. They replace dwarves in that aspect, but instead of hairy midgets they are a little taller and elegant as if they were drawn by Leiji Matsumoto.
When you play a Trow, you level up as a fighter (doesn't matter which rules you use, if your game uses classes, pick the fighter sheet). The king in your fortress is also probably a high level fighter.
Following the inspiring entry about backloading complexity at Necropraxis, all PCs start as young Trow Knights, and further PCs will be taken from the hireling pool, so, to play a new race you must get them as a hireling first.
Trow Castles have a retinue of knights that are in charge of dealing with important tasks: They are a mix of arthurian knights, samurais, the MI6 and Final Fantasy 8 seeds (meaning that I can go there for inspiration on how to run them). They go into dungeons and wildernesses in the search of treasures, gold and all kind of weirdnesses. Who knows what can be traded to those gnome alchemists for their potions!
Noble houses store some potions as part of their patrimony. That potions are basically one-use spells and is the only access to magic for new characters, so if you get one as starting equipment, cherish it like if it was Q giving James Bond a gadget. In-game, the ingredient and potion economy might be also vital to the fortress itself.
I imagine them behaving and looking a lot like Korean nobles of the Joseon era, with that studded armors and wide brim hats (I've just watched the show Kingdom, is very very good)
They represent the way humans have organized themselves in complex hierarchies, and also the "honorable knight" facet that is many times exclusive of humans in many rpgs (humans are white in magic the gathering).
2. THIEVES
When you play a Hobbit, you level up as a Thief. They have a knack for hiding after all: because they are level 1 thieves. Those low level hobbits are not regarded as thieves by other people, of course. That is just some meta-knowledge. On the other hand, there is probably a legendary rogue out there that has lots of incredible adventurers and has performed legendary heists; and that is just a high level hobbit.
They are weak fighters, so, to protect themselves from orcs and other menaces, they normally live in a relationship of vassalage with trow lords. They live on villages and tend the lord's fields in exchange of protection, or maybe perform as squires or assistans: They are the first hirelings that will be available to PCs, be it as servants, or as freelance hobbits searching themselves for treasure.
I imagine this little fuckers being good navigators and swimmers, riding oxen for transport in the summer, celebrating their holidays around the harvest seasons and staying comfy at home in winter nights. They are the rural peoples in oposition to the court peoples, and neither trow or hobbits cross their respective lines on a meaningful manner.
Even though most hobbits OK with their symbiotic relationship, they are potentially tough and adventurous people and they are who posess the mankind's ability to expand and conquer all biomes. No matter the terrain or the distance, it is always possible to find a hobbit cabin or outpost somewhere. They have that unique drive to expand and go further. Their key concept is adaptation. They develop symbiosis with trow, but maybe they could adapt to other lords, situations or dangers.
For their role of domestic helpers, I'm tempted to call them Kobolds instead.
And now, a note on goblins: They also fit the same thieve role as hobbits. In fact I cannot think of another fitting class for them. So I've thought that, though you can use them if you want, it makes more sense that, whenever an adventure calls for goblins, you substitute them for evil hobbits: bandits who turn their natural skill to find profit, and that may even form clandestine Thief Guilds.
this episode is a good place to get inspiration for one
It makes much more sense that a single race is capable of both law and chaos; than to have an "always good" race and an "always evil" race. The best is that Tolkien also thought about that by showing us that Gollum, in the end, was just a hobbit turned evil; and his goblins are in the end just another name for orcs (which will be covered later as Barbarians)
These two are the starting point, the most human-like maybe, in the sense that they both belong to the most "civilized" states of the world. Beyond here, peoples get more wild, gregarious, strange and crazy.
Stay tuned for part 2
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