We only had one player actually play one in all the years our old group was together. We were using the RC as our favorite version of D&D and had retrofitted the Centaur into a race class using the Humanoid Handbook from 2e.

I had begun enforcing the rules for getting lost, starvation, etc and they had gotten trapped in a dungeon room with the Cleric dead and a couple of hundred Orcs pounding on the door. Food and water ran out quick because they didn't think I was serious and hadn't stocked up on supplies. Really, how much damn encumbrance does a week of iron rations cost? 15 GP. "Oh we'll just hunt our food or kill some monsters and he can cast Purify Food and Water." Cheap bastards. After a few days of trying to find a way out with secret doors (there were none, it was essentially a 20' x20' empty stone closet) they got desperate.

Rather than begin starving (and starvation is harsh in RC) and losing their precious HP's, they killed and ate the damn Centaur. His player was pissed and I thought there was going to be a fist fight over that one.

They made a break for it and got nickel and dimed to death by the pursuing Orcs.

I had better success playing a Wemic in one of our player's mini-campaigns.

I'm currently playing an evil Unicorn druid in our high level PF campaign.  Does that count?

We've had Centaur NPCs over the years but none as players.  Unicorns are OK balance wise.  Some big bonuses but sometimes being a horse is a real drag...

I tend to like centaurs in general.

Recently I bought the first season of "XENA: The Warrior Princess" because it was at a bargain price somewhere.  Thats when I remembered that on that show they had an attempt of an ongoing arc with centaurs and how they were discriminated against in some parts of that world's society.

Not the greatest bit of literature - but the show was fun often enough that I remembered that small bit of writing over the years.
Thought it was kind of cool.

To anbswer some of the objections you guys have mentioned - IF Centaurs were a standard part of a setting or world:

1) The hallways and corridors of any 'dungeon' would be high enough and wide enough for Centaurs to navigate comfortably. (Thay're part of the world, not an afterthought)

2) Most Bars, Inns, and Taverns would already have comfortable seats or couyches for Centaurs and rooms sized for them.  Especially the more 'cosmopolitan' towns and cities. Remember "Fellowship of the Ring" ? The Inn at Bree had lodging that was sized with Halflings/Hobbits in mind.

3) There would likely be a whole special etiquette or set of manners and rules for if anyone could 'ride' on a centaur's back - and who a Centaur would allow as a 'passenger'.

4) Courting, marriage, romance, and interspecies breeding - some areas of the world would allow Centaur/Human and Human/Centaur relationships or romances anmd some would not. There might be severe biases against it and also some places where it was very accepted as the norm.

5) Clothing.
How much 'clothing' or covering woulkd equal a decent and respectful Centaur and what would be the norms from area to area? What standard says if a Centaur is 'half-naked' and when a centaur is acceptable dressed for polite company or even a society banquet with a trown's mayor or even the local Duke?

Just some thoughts.

As I said some of the objections in posts seem to me that a GM didn't quite thoroughly think out how a world with centaurs as normal would actually work in practice.

- Ed C.

Koltar, seeing that you like centaurs, you might enjoy checking out the Stinz comics by Donna Barr. It's set in a WWI era Germanyish country that happens to have a valley populated by civilized centaurs.

http://stinz.com/

She also illustrated Lace & Steel.

Quote from: Machinegun Blue;466183Koltar, seeing that you like centaurs, you might enjoy checking out the Stinz comics by Donna Barr. It's set in a WWI era Germanyish country that happens to have a valley populated by civilized centaurs.

http://stinz.com/

She also illustrated Lace & Steel.

Already the early stores of that when it was in the back of an independent space opera comic called "FUSION".


- Ed C.

Quote from: Koltar;466180I tend to like centaurs in general.

Recently I bought the first season of "XENA: The Warrior Princess" because it was at a bargain price somewhere.  Thats when I remembered that on that show they had an attempt of an ongoing arc with centaurs and how they were discriminated against in some parts of that world's society.

Not the greatest bit of literature - but the show was fun often enough that I remembered that small bit of writing over the years.
Thought it was kind of cool.

To anbswer some of the objections you guys have mentioned - IF Centaurs were a standard part of a setting or world:

1) The hallways and corridors of any 'dungeon' would be high enough and wide enough for Centaurs to navigate comfortably. (Thay're part of the world, not an afterthought)

2) Most Bars, Inns, and Taverns would already have comfortable seats or couyches for Centaurs and rooms sized for them.  Especially the more 'cosmopolitan' towns and cities. Remember "Fellowship of the Ring" ? The Inn at Bree had lodging that was sized with Halflings/Hobbits in mind.

3) There would likely be a whole special etiquette or set of manners and rules for if anyone could 'ride' on a centaur's back - and who a Centaur would allow as a 'passenger'.

4) Courting, marriage, romance, and interspecies breeding - some areas of the world would allow Centaur/Human and Human/Centaur relationships or romances anmd some would not. There might be severe biases against it and also some places where it was very accepted as the norm.

5) Clothing.
How much 'clothing' or covering woulkd equal a decent and respectful Centaur and what would be the norms from area to area? What standard says if a Centaur is 'half-naked' and when a centaur is acceptable dressed for polite company or even a society banquet with a trown's mayor or even the local Duke?

Just some thoughts.

As I said some of the objections in posts seem to me that a GM didn't quite thoroughly think out how a world with centaurs as normal would actually work in practice.

- Ed C.

I always figured that 'dungeon's were build for the size of the peope that built them, so a goblin warren uses a base 4 foot high tunnel, a dwarf about 5 -6 feet etc. I don't see Centuars digging down or really building strongholds though I guess they could.

I guess etiquette depends on the culture of the centuar rather than its species. I am pretty certain you couldn't get interspecies breeding though I expect centaur males would be pretty popular in certain quarters....

I woudl expect centaurs to wear shirts etc But again that is cultural rather than species driven.

Quote from: jibbajibba;466230I always figured that 'dungeon's were build for the size of the peope that built them, so a goblin warren uses a base 4 foot high tunnel, a dwarf about 5 -6 feet etc. I don't see Centuars digging down or really building strongholds though I guess they could.

I guess etiquette depends on the culture of the centuar rather than its species. I am pretty certain you couldn't get interspecies breeding though I expect centaur males would be pretty popular in certain quarters....

I woudl expect centaurs to wear shirts etc But again that is cultural rather than species driven.

I believe there was an episode of Xena where there was a male centaur who had married a human woman, and their son was also a centaur...I really couldn't see this working that well, from an obstretric perspective.

But, as long as you don't ask questions about how centaurs are born in spite of being L-shaped, they're OK. We had a reasonable length campaign that had a centaur PC, and he was pretty cool. I did have a problem trying to run prepublished modules: I ran Myriador's d20 conversion of the fighting fantasy adventure Caverns of the Snow Witch without really reading through it, with a centaur PC, and eventually it gets to a point in the plot where the PCs actually have to get on a flying mount or die from a curse...oops. I houseruled this on the spot to claim he'd have time to make it up the mountain before dying due his having a sturdier-than-human constitution, but this could very easily have been an Oops moment. Teaches me to run modules without fully reading them, I guess.

Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;466333I ran Myriador's d20 conversion of the fighting fantasy adventure Caverns of the Snow Witch without really reading through it, with a centaur PC, and eventually it gets to a point in the plot where the PCs actually have to get on a flying mount or die from a curse...oops.

Generally if an adventure involves "a point in the plot where the PCs have to _____" you are asking for trouble.

Gene Wolfe's Latro in the Mist had satyrs and centaurs that appeared to be normal humans to those that didn't know better. Maybe they can achieve some sort of in between state. Sort of like shape shifters, only not. Could explain the cross breeding thing.

Quote from: Cole;466334Generally if an adventure involves "a point in the plot where the PCs have to _____" you are asking for trouble.

Yeah...

I had fond memories of the original solo adventure, but as a tabletop game, it wasn't as good due to the massive railroading - including NPCs being assumed to die at particular junctures, curses with no saving throws, required items and so on.

Centaurs are one of the core classes of the Revised Mazes & Minotaurs rules and the last issue of the Minotaur (the free M&M webzine) contains a gazetteer on Centaur culture in the M&M fantasy world of Mythika. The M&M Creature Compendium also includes various Centaur sub-types, hybrids and special breeds.