Way back in 2001 or 2002, when I first started work on my Ranoc Muskets-and-Magery Renaissance Fantasy setting, it was a bog-standard D&D3.X setting, with all of the usual conceits and cliches that entails. Back then, I worked out places for the usual D&D races, treating them with the same effective blandness about the races that D&D at the time was known for: Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Halflings, Gnomes, Half-Elves, and Half-Orcs.
As time went on, I began to consider changes to the setting. D&D was dropped in favor of GURPS as D&D at the time was increasingly unable to meet my growing designs on the setting. The first blow to Ranoc being a D&D world was, of course, the really poor handling of firearms in D&D and D20 games in general. The second blow was the inflexibility of the races; I wanted to introduce a race that was essentially a winged human, but D&D at the time called for a serious level adjustment, which essentially ensured that no one would want to play one! The same went with Centaurs and Minotaurs as playable races; in fact, those were even worse with their level adjustments! And when I had an idea for an Elf-Orc hybrid race, many D&D-ites were just "aren't those just Humans?" I facepalmed greatly.
(The third blow was the insistence on using Vancian magic, which I was growing increasingly annoyed with.)
So I switched to GURPS, where the only "penalty" for various races was having a proportionately larger point cost, but overall effectiveness compared to other races wasn't hindered by "levels".
Then I began to give twists to the various races, to differentiate them in some manner from the "classical" D&D races.
I started with the primary D&D races, of course, which are admittedly taken from Tolkien, who himself used a lot of Celtic and Norse background. From Dungeons & Dragons, I worked with Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, Orcs, Half-Elves, Half-Orcs, Goblins, Hobgoblins, Kobolds, Centaurs, Minotaurs, Ogres, and Lizardfolk, renaming the latter to "Mohani". From GURPS Classic Fantasy Folk, I borrowed the Winged Folk, renaming them "Aeralons". And from my own brain, I added Orfs, the afore-mentioned Orc-Elf hybrid race, and a canine race that eventually settled on the name "Vulptens", which began as a kind of hyena people but ended up as being based off vulpine (fox) stock. I originally had Drow and Gnomes in the setting, but over time I dropped those races as not fitting the setting; Drow were removed because Ranoc does not have anything resembling an "Underdark" or worldwide network of subterranean caverns; and Gnomes were removed because for all intents and purposes Halflings filled the same general niche.
Of course, Humans are the most common and widespread race in the world, dominating the continent that is essentially my Eurasia counterpart.
For the Elves, I began with removing the inherently superior eyesight that's been known since Tolkien; my Elves are all about the ears. Ultrasonic and Subsonic Hearing, with the option to purchase Parabolic and Discriminatory Hearing, I also made them mortal, though extremely long-lived with an average lifespan of 600 years, tossing in mythology that indicated that they may have been immortal at one point, with uncertainty as to whether that is the actual truth. For their native environment, I decided to keep them in the forests of the world, but moved the majority to a sub-tropical island-continent, roughly analogous to our mythical Atlantis. They tend to be patient, and rather Machiavellian in regards to long-term thinking, more than capable of making short-term sacrifices for a long-term two-hundred-years-down-the-line goal.
Dwarves have changed the least. I went back to Tolkien, indicating that even Dwarf women sport beards. I never understood the need for Dwarves to sport Scottish accents; my Dwarves have accents that are closer to German and Austrian, with provisions for Norse accents. They are still naturally inclined toward being miners and craftsmen. The biggest change with Dwarves is their natural habitat; while they still prefer mountainous abodes, they do not live in tunnels and caverns. Instead, Ranocian Dwarves build vertically on the sides of mountains, with mechanical elevators and dozens of high-level walkways between buildings.
Halflings haven't changed that much, I'm sad to say, mostly because while I'm trying to make sure they're not from The Shire, I'm currently failing. They are small, about three feet tall on average, nimble, dexterous, and able to land on their feet after falls that would leave Humans out of breath. They are also hard-working folk, to the point of working themselves into exhaustion.
Orcs are short-lived brutal cousins of Humans who hail from the northern mountainous Scandinatia-expy region. This lends them to being quite akin to Vikings, spending a lot of time raiding the southern nations while expanding outward due to short gestation periods and a tendency toward multiple births, leading to a mindset of "life is cheap, so earn renown or be forgotten". These same tendencies make them prized shock troops elsewhere.
For Goblins, I decided to take a page from Peter Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring adaptation, giving them Clinging, enabling them to climb on walls and ceilings. They're roughly the same size as Halflings, and for a major twist I integrated them into Human civilization. In addition, I gave them a slick secretion that they can use to help get through tight spaces.
Hobgoblins were a little trickier, and I admit I'm still not fully satisfied with them. At present, they dominate the breadbasket region in a military dictatorship, which was granted to them in an effort to "civilize" them by one of the ancient empires in times past. They share the secretion of their goblin kin, but are larger and have a natural ability to blend into their surroundings.
Half-Elves and Half-Orcs have bred true; the third hybrid race, Orfs, the Orc-Elf hybrid, are currently very rare, so rare that no two that aren't related have ever been seen in the same place. The bulk of the Half-Elves originated in the southern portions of the European-expy region, while the bulk of Half-Orcs hail from the northern regions. All three can be found throughout the western Eurasian-expy continent. One nation was founded by Half-Elves and Half-Orcs fleeing discrimination in their home nations, and have a nation which has taken reverse discrimination to its inevitable extreme, being prejudiced against the three parent races.
Centaurs I haven't changed much,. I've kept them in the grassy plains areas, in keeping with their mythological roots as tales of Scythian horsemen from the steppes reaching the Aegean.
With Minotaurs, I decided to make them the quintessential "gentle giants", making them vegetarian with severe cases of wanderlust.
Ogres are little more than dumb animals that can speak. They are in wide demand as menial labor slaves. I suspect that they won't see much use as PCs, but some players might one day surprise me; I would love to see someone play a Ranoc Ogre at some point.
Kobolds, I decided, were a bit more reptilian than their D&D counterparts. My Kobolds hiss, not bark, and have sharp claws and teeth to match their scales. I made them jungle-dwellers, not subterranean, and are not commonly evil. As a race, they are fascinated by magic; unlike D&D Kobolds, Ranocian Kobolds are not related to dragons. I gave them a nation in the northern jungles of my Africa-expy continent, noting that two prior nations had risen and fallen over time.
Also in my Africa-expy continent's jungles are an adaptation of the Lizardfolk, whom I have renamed Mohani. Mohani live in nomadic tribes and tend to eschew most of the trappings of civilization, believing that "civilization" means "separate from nature." They are not only carnivorous but cannibalistic, eating their fallen enemies (and allies), and not always ritually.
Aeralons are a winged race of Human descent, the origins of which are lost to antiquity but which has been attributed to one of the sky gods. They tend to share space with Dwarves, also residing in mountainous abodes. Aeralons have wings coming from their shoulderblades which give them the ability to fly, but are otherwise indistinguishable from Humans. A child of a Human and an Aeralon will always take after the mother rather than the father.
Finally, my canine race, the Vulptens, are still undergoing an evolution. They began as Gnolls in D&D, and transitioned to wolfen stock when I realized that hyena-people weren't working out, before ultimately settling on vulpine stock. In this particular case, it was changing the name and then changing the race, rather than deciding on a name that reflected the species.
Details on the various races, including racial packages, will come later.
For Goblins, I decided to take a page from Peter Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring adaptation, giving them Clinging, enabling them to climb on walls and ceilings. They're roughly the same size as Halflings, and for a major twist I integrated them into Human civilization. In addition, I gave them a slick secretion that they can use to help get through tight spaces.
Hobgoblins were a little trickier, and I admit I'm still not fully satisfied with them. At present, they dominate the breadbasket region in a military dictatorship, which was granted to them in an effort to "civilize" them by one of the ancient empires in times past. They share the secretion of their goblin kin, but are larger and have a natural ability to blend into their surroundings.
Half-Elves and Half-Orcs have bred true; the third hybrid race, Orfs, the Orc-Elf hybrid, are currently very rare, so rare that no two that aren't related have ever been seen in the same place. The bulk of the Half-Elves originated in the southern portions of the European-expy region, while the bulk of Half-Orcs hail from the northern regions. All three can be found throughout the western Eurasian-expy continent. One nation was founded by Half-Elves and Half-Orcs fleeing discrimination in their home nations, and have a nation which has taken reverse discrimination to its inevitable extreme, being prejudiced against the three parent races.
Centaurs I haven't changed much,. I've kept them in the grassy plains areas, in keeping with their mythological roots as tales of Scythian horsemen from the steppes reaching the Aegean.
With Minotaurs, I decided to make them the quintessential "gentle giants", making them vegetarian with severe cases of wanderlust.
Ogres are little more than dumb animals that can speak. They are in wide demand as menial labor slaves. I suspect that they won't see much use as PCs, but some players might one day surprise me; I would love to see someone play a Ranoc Ogre at some point.
Kobolds, I decided, were a bit more reptilian than their D&D counterparts. My Kobolds hiss, not bark, and have sharp claws and teeth to match their scales. I made them jungle-dwellers, not subterranean, and are not commonly evil. As a race, they are fascinated by magic; unlike D&D Kobolds, Ranocian Kobolds are not related to dragons. I gave them a nation in the northern jungles of my Africa-expy continent, noting that two prior nations had risen and fallen over time.
Also in my Africa-expy continent's jungles are an adaptation of the Lizardfolk, whom I have renamed Mohani. Mohani live in nomadic tribes and tend to eschew most of the trappings of civilization, believing that "civilization" means "separate from nature." They are not only carnivorous but cannibalistic, eating their fallen enemies (and allies), and not always ritually.
Aeralons are a winged race of Human descent, the origins of which are lost to antiquity but which has been attributed to one of the sky gods. They tend to share space with Dwarves, also residing in mountainous abodes. Aeralons have wings coming from their shoulderblades which give them the ability to fly, but are otherwise indistinguishable from Humans. A child of a Human and an Aeralon will always take after the mother rather than the father.
Finally, my canine race, the Vulptens, are still undergoing an evolution. They began as Gnolls in D&D, and transitioned to wolfen stock when I realized that hyena-people weren't working out, before ultimately settling on vulpine stock. In this particular case, it was changing the name and then changing the race, rather than deciding on a name that reflected the species.
Details on the various races, including racial packages, will come later.
