One of the problems I find with players playing races other than human that they wind being a variant of Star Trek's aliens with bumpy foreheads. They act pretty human in nearly every regard.

So instead of trying to fight this in my write up I embraces. Every race, other than Elves, in my campaign are result of Demons playing around with humans.

With that in mind I figure what was done to create that particular race and asked myself "If a group of people had that happened to them. What will be the changes in later generation if they stuck together." I then extrapolate from there. For my dwarves  their decreased fertility and long life span is what dominates the resulting cultures.

Many of the minor races of my campaign have mono-cultures because their numbers are low and they never spread far from their original environment. The races that did are much more diverse.

In some ways what you've done is similar to what I've got, though instead of Demons mucking about with the races of Man, you've got the 'Proto-Human' race of Titans who created specific slave/servant races, and from the mixed muddling of two of those races you eventually got humans.

There are in fact 'non-bumpy' races available, though at least one isn't meant for play (Kobolds, who are so alien they can't even communicate with the Titanic races as their thoughts are too alien for the languages to be learnable (both ways. No one has any idea what Kobolds are saying either) and the Lizards whom you can read about in their own thread elsewhere, but are playable.  Of course, at the end of the day, smart lizards want what smart monkeys want: Food, shelter and reproductive security.

I also do postulate that not every difference is purely cultural. The dwarven fondness for alcohol is a side effect of a grain based diet, based in turn on their biology, and their booze is frankly unpaletable to non-dwarves as a result (note: Not too strong, unpaletable. Then again, the elves like their wine when its damn near vinegar so who are they to judge?)

But yeah: Players play their characters predominantly as people with funny skins. Well... there WAS that one guy that kept flicking his tongue and eating bugs... but thats another story and a different race.

Simlasa: I don't disagree with your take, though it doesn't fit in Haven particularly. Well, the southern Clans maybe.  Dwarven cities are, in fact, caves, and if I were inclined to pay for artists to depict that I would hope that it would be reflected by looking, well, cavelike.  Of course, MY Dwarves were driven underground, not native to it.  They prefer open skys and particularly amber waves of grain.  

Of course... now I want to talk about dwarven bee-keepers for some fucked up reason.

One thing that is often overlooked, even by yours truly, when discussing the Dwarves of Haven is that they are by nature Farmers rather than Miners. Their affinity for mining and working of stone and metals is a hard won racial 'skill' brought on by millenia of 'forced' living underground.  Their reknown merchantile abilities and 'spendthriftness' come from those same millenia of living in a scarcity culture, where every last resource counts.

In fact, a large number of Dwarves live in human villages by choice, to be closer to the 'heartlands' of their dreams without leaving the comfort of hearth and home... that is, packed assholes and elbows with other people.

A Dwarf who has managed to aquire a large patch of open farmland on the surface is, essentially, living the dream... though one must wonder at the costs if so very few actually attempt to do so.  Certainly their affinity for the earth and things that grow in it is never more obvious than when you see a dwarven farm that is somehow flourishing while the human farms nearby are suffering a drought.  Oddly enough Dwarves who farm rarely, if ever, plant orchards or in fact anything other than grain stocks.  At best you'll find a small garden with a few herbs and beans and the like as 'flavoring'.

In fact the only sort of food dwarves seem to enjoy as much as grains is Honey, and they are still credited by many for introducing Mead to the world, though this is a proven myth.  Dwarves do enjoy mead where it is available, but they drink it much as a human might drink hot chocolat, as a treat rather than a staple. This myth was prompted by the fact that Mead was fermented first by the Reve, and traded with outsiders from Dwarven caravans through the Rottarschvine Mountains.

But the Dwarves do love their honey, and any good Dwarven farm will include at least one or more beehives.  The Dwarves practice their beekeeping somewhat differently than other races. Due to their tough skins and resistances to toxins, dwarven beekeepers rarely bother with the tough suits used by other races.  Of course, they also prefer not to rile the bees in question up either, thus they don't generally smoke their hives.  Rather, a dwarven beekeeper will lure the queen of the hive out through means that are poorly explained to non-dwarves and allow her to climb on the beekeeper as he raids the hive for the honey.  A proper beekeeper never takes too much honey from the hive, as the dwarves view, at least in this case, the bees in their charge as members of the family, and thus overtaking is a sin. Once he's collected his share, the beekeeper convinces the queen to return to her hive.  This unusual, and generally inefficent, means of collecting honey is unique to the Dwarves, be they farmers or clanholders with surface holdings, and is a sight to see.

This leads one to discuss the dwarven diet.  Dwarves frequently enjoy handfuls of toasted or even raw grains, often mixed varieties and rolled in honey, and will frequently eat this throughout the day, particularly on the march or while working on some long term project.  They generally find porridges and boiled grains to be 'soggy' and only fit for infants and ancients, though still preferrable to a salad.  Dwarves generally mill their grains as coarsely as possible for baking purposes and their breads are exceptionally dense and hearty.  Dwarves can and do eat meats, though they prefer them ground up, sausages and the like are preferred.  Fatty grease is a staple in dwarven cooking, however, and in deeper clanholds the art of mushroom cultivation is alive and well. While most dwarven foods are barely palatable to non-dwarves unless adapted (as the Sandwhich has been), dwarven chefs are considered by even non-dwarves to be the absolute masters of cooking mushrooms.  Ironically, the Dwarves can barely stand the things, and mostly eat them because they are available or out of old habits.  

Of course, as long as you have good teeth and a strong stomach, having a dwarf cook your meals for you is an excellent idea for adventurers and travellers of all sorts. Dwarves have a knack for finding edible foods and making the most with the least, and of all the races, aside from humans, their food is edible, if not enjoyable, by every other race.  Orc 'cuisine' is generally toxic unless ingredients are provided for most other races and elf food tends to taste... spoiled or vastly undercooked with a few notable exceptions, giving most of the other races various digestive problems.

Dwarves bore me.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;342572Dwarves bore me.

RPGPundit

I am sure they find you a silly bore as well

Pundit vs the Dwarves News at 11.

Quote from: estar;342585I am sure they find you a silly bore as well

Pundit vs the Dwarves News at 11.

News at 12: Pundit lost kneecaps.

Nah, I got nothing against the Dwarves, they're just dull. The Gnomes, on the other hand...

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