Quote from: FritzsIf you want trully inhuman "races" try to bring something like Horta to fantasy setting... I probably won't work well...

Technically you could play a Xorn in D&D, for example. I've never seen nor heard of anyone do it though.

Anyway, why aren't you playing Tekumel?

You could play Ewoks using the rules for halflings.

Quote from: dsivisNo no, Vulcans are space elves, descended from the Nox (from Stargate) who are space fey!

Leonard Nimoy had the theory that Vulcans were actually the lost wandering tribe of Israel - that wound up in Outer Space on a desert planet.



- Ed C.

Dwight: I've never readen Tekumel... isn't it some sort of Aztec based setting...? And I think that Xorn isn't inteligent creature, nor have level adjustment, so it's  unplayable (and compared to Horta it just look lame, well most of abberations from Dungeons and Dragons with few exceptions like illithids and beholders looks lame)...

And I think that bringing "scifi" races such as little grey men to fantasy setting would probably be quite annoying for player who expect clasical fantasy game, with elves, orks, windlings, whatever fantasy... with scifi, it's similar situation, OK, space orks are lame, but I don't consider WH40K to be much scifi...

Anyway, if I ever wanted to play some nonhuman inteligent creature in fantasy it would be dragon... these beings are, unlike Horta, estabilished as clasic fantasy creatures...

Quote from: Age of FableYou could play Ewoks using the rules for halflings.

Ewoks are going to be the classic "kobolds/tasloi who rely on sound tactics and traps" ... except they're Ewoks, and more or less evil. Not that I'm going to identify them to my players as such... I'm going to wait till they figure it out. :cool:

BTW, Xorn are cool. We used to randomly roll for our characters' languages back in the 80s, and a friend of mine had an elf who spoke Xorn. That was fantastic.

Xorn in 3e speak not only Terran but Common too! Their intellegence, while alien because of their Elemental Plane origins, is an entirely playable Int 10 (that's just the standard one, which puts them on par with say Dwarves). Motivation needs some tweaking from the very sparse MM entry but meh if you were ok with out-there characters it's entirely playable.

Tekumel has flavours of Indu and Southeast Asian in a similar way to D&D having flavours of Europe. Bugs and other things are standard native inhabitants. Humans are offlanders. It's fantasy with a techish twist (humans arrived via space travel and the planet got sucked into a pocket dimension for example).

Quote from: DwightTekumel has flavours of Indu and Southeast Asian in a similar way to D&D having flavours of Europe. Bugs and other things are standard native inhabitants. Humans are offlanders. It's fantasy with a techish twist (humans arrived via space travel and the planet got sucked into a pocket dimension for example).

This would be a good time to mention SkyRealms of Jorune. Genaltered everyday earth animals developing cultures of their own. Different "strains" of humans. Alien races.

Regards,
David R

Apes.

Quote from: David RI do this very often since I hate those elves & dwarves

Now Star Wars may not exactly be SF but there's a hell of a lot to steal from. My most recent theft :

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ho%27Din

Here's the link for SW races.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Galaxy_Guide_4:_Alien_Races

Regards,
David R

'
This is an outstanding suggestion, especially for Sci-Fi races. If you have any access to the D20 stuff it would be a snap.


in a weirder vein....

how about getting very "inhuman" with the Mi-Go, the Great Race of Yith, Gugs, or Elder Things? Perhaps even Nightgaunts or Bhyakhee, in Cthulhu d20 they are both intelligent races as well.

as this is a fantasy setting, remove the "Sinister Mythos-ness" surrounding them is easy enough.
remove any ability to fly in space, etc. to keep them on the planet and see what happens.
definitely would need a nonhuman mindset to play some of these things.

Yithian wizards. Gug fighters. Nightgaunt Paladins.
that would be very different.


dave

baran i kanu: Somehow I find idea of non-hamanoud specieses having humanoid classes somewhat odd...

Quote from: Fritzsbaran i kanu: Somehow I find idea of non-hamanoud specieses having humanoid classes somewhat odd...

eh. why not. it worked for Thri-kreen.
as long as they can move, can hold things, and can communicate, good enough.

but, yes, i conceed, it does feel odd.



dave

Issue 50 of Dragon - the first issue I bought new at a bookstore - had a fairly extensive article about using Larry Niven's kzinti in a typical D&D campaign. That article really interested me, as I'd been reading the Ringworld novels at the time. The more recent proliferation of anthropomorphic animals in games and settings just seems boring to me, unless there is some rationale for it along the lines of Traveller's Vargr.

I think it would be interesting to use more truly "alien" aliens in a fantasy setting. I'm thinking of 2300's aliens, especially the kafers. They seem more fitting for a low-tech setting to me; I never quite grokked how a race that is for the most part moronic unless in battle could sustain and grow a civilization that could develop industry and technology to make it to the stars. Even if you consider that their leaders could retain quite a bit of intelligence in a stress-free state, it just doesn't quite work for me. But in a fantasy setting? They'd be great.