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Author Topic: OSR special snowflake races, yes please.  (Read 2187 times)

GeekyBugle

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OSR special snowflake races, yes please.
« on: October 31, 2021, 02:03:31 AM »
Like the tin says, I want all your write ups for the most special snowflake races, populating a planet is hard work, never mind populating several planets, so I need inspiration for sentient races.

I'm gonna do away with all the magic stuff (except psionics, but I can add those to whatever race I choose)

So give me your cat, hawk, dog people, better if the winged ones have 6 extremities(2 legs, 2 arms, 2 wings).

Yes, even mindflayers and such, anything you have done to have a different race on your games.
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PsyXypher

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Re: OSR special snowflake races, yes please.
« Reply #1 on: November 01, 2021, 01:54:00 AM »
Welp I'll give you some ideas I've had but never got to put into writing, partly because of lack of motivation and that I can't really get anywhere with my fantasy system. A lot of this isn't balanced because Balance is usually a secondary concern for me.

Lizardmen

Originally they were going to have a thing where they could cannibalize others to gain more power, usually in the form of mutations, but that's pretty hard to balance with D&D I think so unless you want it (Which I will gladly splurge my ideas for), I'd go with either giving them Acid Spit or enhanced healing. Maybe sort of how like having high Constitution in AD&D let you regenerate damage. Might also be too overpowered. Either way, I see them as tribalistic humanoids whose interactions with other races can be described as "Indifferent". I imagined them not reacting to stuff like racism because, to their reptile brains, it's somewhat natural to dislike outsiders. Also imagined them making great warriors. Probably not a good PC race when I think about it.

Also, the men would be hulking lizard brutes while the females would be cute lizard girls. Because that sort of thing is to my taste.

Catfolk

Run the spectrum from adorable catgirls and boys with mostly human traits to humanoid lions and panthers. Their huge variance is due to their race's prior exposure to Chaos. The most human-looking could, in theory, pass as human with ease if they keep their tail and ears covered. Naturally would have a bonus to Dexterity (negative to Wisdom, perhaps?) and maybe a special skill involving dodging and/or stealth. Night vision definitely, claws maybe.

The spectrum of human to nonhuman can apply to most beastfolk, really.

Orcs

Came up with this idea recently. Basically, you'd either roll for your breed of Orc, or you'd get special bonuses for levelling. As you levelled, you'd become more Orcy, so to speak. Maybe you'd become a Dark Orc (with a terrifying blue skin tone) or Uruk-Hai equivalent. Maybe you'd just grow bigger and stronger. D&D doesn't have a good system for small increments to size, though.

Some other assorted ideas. Some of these aren't mine.

-Magically adept mushroom folks. Magic Mushrooms, if you will.
-Frog people who can alter their body temperature to extreme degrees in order to inflict fire or cold damage.
-Rat people (or any kind of animal, really) that use the metal in their food to grow metal claws and teeth. Tesso the iron rat style.
-Weasel people who get truly insane physical bonuses in exchange for needing to eat a crap ton of food each day or start starving to death.

You could also add Thri-Kreen because they're awesome.

Okay hopefully something here will help you.
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Re: OSR special snowflake races, yes please.
« Reply #2 on: November 01, 2021, 08:35:51 AM »
Quote
Naturally would have a bonus to Dexterity (negative to Wisdom, perhaps?)

Intelligence. Cats are not really good learners, but they are perceptive.
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PsyXypher

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Re: OSR special snowflake races, yes please.
« Reply #3 on: November 01, 2021, 07:08:45 PM »
Quote
Naturally would have a bonus to Dexterity (negative to Wisdom, perhaps?)

Intelligence. Cats are not really good learners, but they are perceptive.

I was thinking that cats are kinda smart (mine understands how to open doors, but can't) but if I dangle some yarn in front of him he'll immediately try to pounce on it. He also tries to bite my ankles because he thinks I'm food.
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Steven Mitchell

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Re: OSR special snowflake races, yes please.
« Reply #4 on: November 01, 2021, 07:31:54 PM »
If you want to relate it to real cats, then consider they have highly developed but relatively small brains.  This manifests itself this way.  A smart cat's elevator goes all the way to the top, but it doesn't stop on all the critical floors.

Cat folk could take the human "has blind spots" to an absurd degree, with their specialized cat folk brains in some remarkably thick skulls. 

GriswaldTerrastone
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Re: OSR special snowflake races, yes please.
« Reply #5 on: November 01, 2021, 08:00:21 PM »
Hopefully this is what you mean:


Roofolk:
Nu: 1-50, HD: 2/ 1+4, AC: 4, St: 10/7, In: Average/Average, W: 11/11, De: 12/12, Co: 11/10, Ch: 12/14, Mo: 12/8 (males have 18 if females and young are threatened, females have 18 if young are threatened), Mv: 40', Au: Low
Normal Attack: 1-6 // 1-4
Special Attacks: None
Special Defenses: None


These are larger (5' males 4 1/2' females) intelligent wallaroos, nomadic herbivores who roam grasslands and lightly wooded areas, in a number of ways they are like leofolk but roam larger areas.
Roofolk do not have territories as such, but do consider areas they have roamed for generations to be "theirs" as far as the right to be there. Roofolk areas do overlap but meetings are happy among their tribes and they enjoy games and exchanging news when this occurs.
Being nomadic, roofolk possessions are what they can carry easily. Like leofolk they have lightweight but strong dome tents that can be quickly set up or taken down.
Unlike azuralupins or leofolk roofolk are not fierce fighters and generally count on their considerable speed to avoid conflict. If forced to fight they used ranged weapons, preferring non-lethal alchemic attacks. Up close they use shields effectively and special extending/retracting spears tipped with knockout drugs.
Their alignments are generally neutral with good tendencies. They abhor killing. Their demands from life are rather modest: enough food, sunshine and rain in measure, companionship, and safety; running through the grasslands is sheer joy to them.
Although more primitive than others they are literate and have excellent knowledge of their environment and all within it. They will subtly plant seeds in one place and by the time they return the food will be ready for harvesting, yet they do this in a way that is difficult to detect.
Roofolk society is tribal and simple, pretty much patriarchal although rules are few and government is generally not needed; they usually have a chief and several sub-chiefs. Teaching literacy and herbal lore is generally done by females, who are superb parents and skilled at healing. Auramancers may exist among them, albeit low or mid-level.
They like azuralupins and admire their ability to outrun them; leofolk make them nervous but the leofolk's customs and laws forbid them from harming those such as roofolk, especially as the latter are not hostile and indeed the two coexist peacefully- although the leofolk's carnivorous ways do distress the gentle herbivores. Note that the hatred leofolk have for slavery and cowardice means that anyone attacking or attempting to enslave roofolk may well bring down the fury of these fierce feline beings or, worse yet, any azuralupins who might be nearby.
If under determined attack adult males will fight the aggressors as best they can while females flee with the young. A large army of slavers once attacked a tribe of roofolk and killed or captured all the adult males, managed to capture the females and young, but while leading the pathetic captives away the slavers suddenly found themselves ambushed by furious leofolk and two azuralupins who were visiting the leofolk- although the slavers outnumbered their opponents at least ten to one they were quickly and ruthlessly killed to the last after which the surviving roofolk were cared for and escorted safely to where another tribe took them in. Note that the attack was so swift and final the slavers never had a chance to harm or use any of their captives as hostages.
It was believed although never proven that the roofolk captives were to be used in arena games in Venesha as cruel comedy. On the rare occasions roofolk do visit Venesha they are always escorted by azuralupins or some other strong race, on one occasion by a dozen of The Seven Noble Realm's elite guard under orders from the king himself.
Curiously enough another time years before a large force of heavily-armed slavers was taking some roofolk to The Nine Caverns of Tyranny and Torment via the outskirts of The Evilrun- a lone Riverlord appeared and, without saying a word or using any weapon, within seconds slaughtered (the only word for it) the slavers and the grey hags leading them, then led the captives to a place on the outskirts of the deadly region where a large group of adventurers from The Othersrealm happened to be so they would be returned to their homeland. At no time did the Riverlord ever say anything and to this day nobody knows why he did this. Nobody was stupid enough to ask. 
Roofolk alignment can be considered neutral good.



Hey, my game will likely never get off the ground so maybe someone can use something here...
« Last Edit: November 03, 2021, 03:49:19 PM by GriswaldTerrastone »
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Naburimannu

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Re: OSR special snowflake races, yes please.
« Reply #6 on: November 02, 2021, 04:47:39 AM »
John Stater's Pars Fortuna has none of the standard races, so there are several OSR race-as-class types there. His free version of the rules at https://www.dropbox.com/s/vn5t9w9k1og6i3w/PARS%20FORTUNA%20Rules-Basic_Copyright_JohnStater.pdf?dl=0, blog at https://landofnod.blog/ has an index to posts about the project.

GeekyBugle

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Re: OSR special snowflake races, yes please.
« Reply #7 on: November 02, 2021, 11:25:59 AM »
Hopefully this is what you mean:


Roofolk:
Nu: 1-50, AC: 4, St: 10/7, In: Average/Average, W: 11/11, De: 12/12, Co: 11/10, Ch: 12/14, Mo: 12/8 (males have 18 if females and young are threatened, females have 18 if young are threatened), Mv: 40', Au: Low
Normal Attack: 1-6 // 1-4
Special Attacks: None
Special Defenses: None


These are larger (5' males 4 1/2' females) intelligent wallaroos, nomadic herbivores who roam grasslands and lightly wooded areas, in a number of ways they are like leofolk but roam larger areas.
Roofolk do not have territories as such, but do consider areas they have roamed for generations to be "theirs" as far as the right to be there. Roofolk areas do overlap but meetings are happy among their tribes and they enjoy games and exchanging news when this occurs.
Being nomadic, roofolk possessions are what they can carry easily. Like leofolk they have lightweight but strong dome tents that can be quickly set up or taken down.
Unlike azuralupins or leofolk roofolk are not fierce fighters and generally count on their considerable speed to avoid conflict. If forced to fight they used ranged weapons, preferring non-lethal alchemic attacks. Up close they use shields effectively and special extending/retracting spears tipped with knockout drugs.
Their alignments are generally neutral with good tendencies. They abhor killing. Their demands from life are rather modest: enough food, sunshine and rain in measure, companionship, and safety; running through the grasslands is sheer joy to them.
Although more primitive than others they are literate and have excellent knowledge of their environment and all within it. They will subtly plant seeds in one place and by the time they return the food will be ready for harvesting, yet they do this in a way that is difficult to detect.
Roofolk society is tribal and simple, pretty much patriarchal although rules are few and government is generally not needed; they usually have a chief and several sub-chiefs. Teaching literacy and herbal lore is generally done by females, who are superb parents and skilled at healing. Auramancers may exist among them, albeit low or mid-level.
They like azuralupins and admire their ability to outrun them; leofolk make them nervous but the leofolk's customs and laws forbid them from harming those such as roofolk, especially as the latter are not hostile and indeed the two coexist peacefully- although the leofolk's carnivorous ways do distress the gentle herbivores. Note that the hatred leofolk have for slavery and cowardice means that anyone attacking or attempting to enslave roofolk may well bring down the fury of these fierce feline beings or, worse yet, any azuralupins who might be nearby.
If under determined attack adult males will fight the aggressors as best they can while females flee with the young. A large army of slavers once attacked a tribe of roofolk and killed or captured all the adult males, managed to capture the females and young, but while leading the pathetic captives away the slavers suddenly found themselves ambushed by furious leofolk and two azuralupins who were visiting the leofolk- although the slavers outnumbered their opponents at least ten to one they were quickly and ruthlessly killed to the last after which the surviving roofolk were cared for and escorted safely to where another tribe took them in. Note that the attack was so swift and final the slavers never had a chance to harm or use any of their captives as hostages.
It was believed although never proven that the roofolk captives were to be used in arena games in Venesha as cruel comedy. On the rare occasions roofolk do visit Venesha they are always escorted by azuralupins or some other strong race, on one occasion by a dozen of The Seven Noble Realm's elite guard under orders from the king himself.
Curiously enough another time years before a large force of heavily-armed slavers was taking some roofolk to The Nine Caverns of Tyranny and Torment via the outskirts of The Evilrun- a lone Riverlord appeared and, without saying a word or using any weapon, within seconds slaughtered (the only word for it) the slavers and the grey hags leading them, then led the captives to a place on the outskirts of the deadly region where a large group of adventurers from The Othersrealm happened to be so they would be returned to their homeland. At no time did the Riverlord ever say anything and to this day nobody knows why he did this. Nobody was stupid enough to ask. 
Roofolk alignment can be considered neutral good.



Hey, my game will likely never get off the ground so maybe someone can use something here...

Yes, thanks, what do you mean your game will never get off the ground?

Need any help?
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jmarso

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Re: OSR special snowflake races, yes please.
« Reply #8 on: November 03, 2021, 09:54:16 PM »
"Curiosity killed the cat" ---> the penalty for catfolk should go to wisdom, if anywhere. Cats do a lot of unwise things in order to satiate their curiosity.

Omega

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Re: OSR special snowflake races, yes please.
« Reply #9 on: November 05, 2021, 05:48:44 AM »
Quote
Naturally would have a bonus to Dexterity (negative to Wisdom, perhaps?)

Intelligence. Cats are not really good learners, but they are perceptive.

You wish!
I wish!
I've had several cats that parsed out what a door was and one that very knew what a doorknob was for. Just couldnt turn it. But by god she was hellbent on trying!

Cats can learn. They just seem to usually not want to, or have a need to.

As for any of the examples of races above. Normally they arent. And far too often its not the snowflakes that want them. It is the min-maxers and especially power gamers. Gamma World seemed to attract the power gamers and their demands with every edition.

Snowflakes tend to be overall more harmless and are just playing something that seems interesting. And sometimes it IS interesting. Or with a little guidance can be. Id rather show someone how to make their ideas work rather than just reject.

That said. If Im runnign a system that does not have say sentient paper-mache people in it and someone wants to play one. Im going to sit back and look at the system and either say NO, because its say Boot Hill and it fits in no possible way. Or maybe, with some tweaks. Like a sort of paper golem. Or sure, because its Rifts and of course there are paper-mache people in Rifts! There are bubble people in Rifts!

Banjo Destructo

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Re: OSR special snowflake races, yes please.
« Reply #10 on: November 05, 2021, 02:30:07 PM »
I don't have any races for snowflakes, but because some people like Templates to apply to races, here are some Snowflake Templates.

TOXIC TEMPLATE
The toxic template applies to your race when your character has hair color that is bleached or dyed into any colors that their race does not have naturally. Such as green, pink, blue, purple, or even a mix of multiple colors.
This is nature's way of driving toxic people into self-identifying their toxicity.  Characters that take this template will have VENOM added to any bite attacks they make which will cause victims of their bite attack to save VS Poison, or make a Fortitude save, or make a Constitution save (depending on your edition).

SELF ESTEEM REEEEJECT TEMPLATE
These characters have bulldozer parents that have made everything easy for them their entire life, even cooking and cleaning for them throughout their level 1 class training in adventurer university. Every time they roll a dice and fail, they go into a REEEEEEEEE-age and will gain +4 Strength and +4 Constitution as their complete lack of coping skills send them into a berserk rage.

BODY POSITIVE TEMPLATE
Your character is so body positive, their clothes are positively bursting at the seams!  Your character has grown one size category greater than their base racial size.  Small character races become Medium. Medium character races become Large, etc.
They lose 4 points from all of their attributes while going up 200-2000 lbs for their possible max weight. 
If anyone says anything about how they are unhealthy, they become enraged and are able to respond with a special "body roll" attack where they roll over their enemy like a boulder, squishing them flat in one attack.

GeekyBugle

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Re: OSR special snowflake races, yes please.
« Reply #11 on: November 05, 2021, 02:42:02 PM »
I don't have any races for snowflakes, but because some people like Templates to apply to races, here are some Snowflake Templates.

TOXIC TEMPLATE
The toxic template applies to your race when your character has hair color that is bleached or dyed into any colors that their race does not have naturally. Such as green, pink, blue, purple, or even a mix of multiple colors.
This is nature's way of driving toxic people into self-identifying their toxicity.  Characters that take this template will have VENOM added to any bite attacks they make which will cause victims of their bite attack to save VS Poison, or make a Fortitude save, or make a Constitution save (depending on your edition).

SELF ESTEEM REEEEJECT TEMPLATE
These characters have bulldozer parents that have made everything easy for them their entire life, even cooking and cleaning for them throughout their level 1 class training in adventurer university. Every time they roll a dice and fail, they go into a REEEEEEEEE-age and will gain +4 Strength and +4 Constitution as their complete lack of coping skills send them into a berserk rage.

BODY POSITIVE TEMPLATE
Your character is so body positive, their clothes are positively bursting at the seams!  Your character has grown one size category greater than their base racial size.  Small character races become Medium. Medium character races become Large, etc.
They lose 4 points from all of their attributes while going up 200-2000 lbs for their possible max weight. 
If anyone says anything about how they are unhealthy, they become enraged and are able to respond with a special "body roll" attack where they roll over their enemy like a boulder, squishing them flat in one attack.

LOL, but I mean different races you might have allowed/created for PCs. As in the ones special snowflakes tend to gravitate for.

So an intelligent Chelonia (turtles), Ant, Badger, etc. for OSR games of course. Thieflings, aasimars, dragonborn, whatever, need them to change them into sentient aliens for my worlds of adventure (not the actual name) Pulp game.
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Here is why this forum tends to be so stupid. Many people here think Joe Biden is "The Left", when he is actually Far Right and every US republican is just an idiot.

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RandyB

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Re: OSR special snowflake races, yes please.
« Reply #12 on: November 05, 2021, 06:40:56 PM »
I want Planet of the Apes ape races. Gorilla, Orangutan, Chimpanzee... OK, even Bonobo.

GeekyBugle

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Re: OSR special snowflake races, yes please.
« Reply #13 on: November 05, 2021, 06:43:56 PM »
I want Planet of the Apes ape races. Gorilla, Orangutan, Chimpanzee... OK, even Bonobo.

Good idea, not exactly Pulp but it fits almost perfect with the Sword & Planet genre.
Quote from: Rhedyn

Here is why this forum tends to be so stupid. Many people here think Joe Biden is "The Left", when he is actually Far Right and every US republican is just an idiot.

“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.”

― George Orwell

Theory of Games

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Re: OSR special snowflake races, yes please.
« Reply #14 on: November 06, 2021, 07:34:51 PM »
Sorry but -

The Wild: a group of people who were trained in arcane or divine magic but developed mental powers and left their teachers, As a matter of survival they grew in their mental powers like true D&D Psychics and became their own Class. For their spell slots I let them choose arcane or divine spells as abilities to shape their PC. When Pathfinder came out with Occult classes those worked fine. It was ugly because Occult classes didn't require the normal components. They were superhumans.

Currently it's required that Psychic/Occult classes make the original AD&D roll of 10 or less on d100 to have that class. Because it's silly.
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