Tags
Dungeons & Dragons, Fantasy, House Rules, Labyrinth Lord, postaday2011, Random Tables, Random Thursday, RPG
Deep Gnomes, Dark Elves, Hill Dwarves…
Dark Halflings? Fair Dwarves? High Gnomes?
Hell yes!
Grab a race from your favourite fantasy RPG, and add a variant through this d12 table. If playing a d20 or later edition of D&D, you should probably double the ability score modifiers.
Old School Subraces (d12)
- Brutal | +1 Str, +1 Con, -1 Int, -1 Cha, -1 Wis | The brutal races are known for their cannibalism, pillaging, burning and generally antisocial habits. Most brutal races have been wiped out by their genteel cousins as a preemptive strike. They are much more hirsute than their fairer kin, and typically dress in animal skins and wield as big of weapons as they can get their hands on.
- Celestial | +1 Wis | The celestial races are identified by their finer stature, fair hair and skin, and the often visible aura of otherworldiness about them. Some even glow. However, they lack infravision even if the original race had it, because they live in a world of light and beauty.
- Deep | +1 Con, -1 Cha | The isolationist deep races live deep underground and are toughened by their hostile environment. They gain 30′ infravision or double their existing infravision.
- Dark | +1 Int, +1 Cha | The dark races are feared and hated by the more sensible races. They are xenophobic, hostile and evil. They gain 30′ infravision or double their existing infravision. They suffer from light blindness as goblins do, suffering a -1 penalty on all hit rolls in daylight or in the effects of a continual light spell.
- Desert | The desert races wage war against the lizards that claim the deserts as their own. They gain a +1 bonus on all attacks and damage rolls against lizards and dragons, and +2 on saving throws against fire. However they suffer a -2 penalty on saves versus cold and take +1 damage per die from cold attacks.
- Eldritch | +1 Int, -1 Str, -1 Con | The eldritch races are tainted and marked by magic. They are even more pale than the celestial races, and many of their natural abilities have atrophied (reduce abilities that can be reduced by half, without eliminating any). However they can cast one level 1 magic-user or cleric spell per day, randomly determined at character creation (re-roll nearly useless spells like read magic and perhaps overly powerful spells such as sleep – DM has final say).
- Fair | +1 Cha, -1 Str | The fair races are taller, prettier and more compassionate than their kin. Some can be mistaken for the celestial races, minus the glow. They are also known as the High races.
- Forest | +1 Dex, -1 Cha | The forest races are like a quieter, less hostile version of the brutal races. They can be seen as surface-dwelling deep kin. Isolationists who are quite skilled in their natural environment.
- Insectile | +1 Dex, +1 Con, -1 Wis, -2 Cha | The insectile races are a mystery – deeply changed from their kin, chitinous and frightening. They gain a +1 bonus to their armour class from their chitinous exoskeleton and natural 1d6 damage claw attacks.
- Mountain | +1 Str, -1 Dex | The mountain clans are tough and hardy, if generally squat and prone to long bouts of alcohol abuse, not to mention nearly as hirsute as the brutal races.
- Weird | -1 Con | Weird races are twisted mutants with different skin tones, odd-shaped eyes and often distended limbs, extraneous tentacles and other signs of an unnatural existence. Their twisted genetics do grant them a +1 bonus on all saving throws, however.
- Roll twice and combine the results!
Love it – it’s like taking the race booster cards from Munchkin and porting them into D&D. The players could run into the Celestial Mountain Gnomes, or the Weird Fair Elves.
Thanks. I’ll admit to some Munchkin-influence in this particular list. I’ve only seen the “Dark” racial modifier from Munchkin, but that’s where I was headed.
I like this alot, it’ll help flesh out some interesting variations for exisiting races which can be found in some small pocket of the world, which as I’m currently in the process of expanding the edges of the known world in my game I thought I’d give it a go.
I decided to go with Dwarf for the base race, as they’re fairly stuck in their design and it’d be fun to see what new things could be done with them.
So my first roll was 12, followed by 10 and 10… so I ended up with a ‘Mountain Mountain Dwarf’, which I think pretty much means they’re constantly drunk and are forever falling off of the mountain side (-2 Dex hardly helping there) – so hardly a new take on the race… although they do seem to be the lemmings of my world with their extra reduced size, poor balance and clearly suicidal tendencies.
Your mountain mountain dwarves have made my day. Rename them to drunken lemming dwarves and we’re set. Hell, you probably can’t find the dwarf under all that hair anyways.
This is going straight into my Big Pile ‘O Campaign-Building Stuff! I love it
My first roll was a 12. My second was a 9, and my 3 was a 5. Insectile Desert Gnomes.
These strange and chitin covered people have developed hooked claws for prying under the scales of their draconic foes, though they are also suitable for rending their human foes.
My next try was 12, 2, 2. Celestial Celestial Dwarves.
These dwarves look down on their lesser cousins, and glow with the light of the stars. his is more than just a simple analogy – if closely examined it will be shining in points exactly mirroring the the position of the stars at the time of their birth. They do not share their cousins fondness for beer, and, with few exceptions, completely swear off alcohol.
A few times after that I got 12, 8, 12, 3, 6, 1. Eldritch Deep Brutal Forest Halflings.
EDBFHs have some promise I think. Let’s see…
These Halflings are completely covered in hair, appearing, from a distance, to be extremely short bugbears – or possibly bugbies without the tentacles sprouting from their heads, although their taste in clothes are considerably different. They are also albino, both as a result of the eldritch influence on them, and their habitat – an underground forest of giant mushrooms.
12, 1, 12, 12, 8, 6, 4, 2, 4. Brutal Forest Eldritch Celestial Dark Dark Elves. These will take thinking about. I’ll post a follow-up comment if/when I figure out just what a BFECDDE is.
That should read and my 3rd was a five in the first line. Although the implications of having 3 be a 5 might be interesting.
This is a fun table! Thanks for sharing! I think I will be able to use this as the PCs explore the wider world…
Base class – Corgi – rolled a 7 – Fair.
High Corgis are those that come from the stables of the fairy nobles, and serve as their faithful steeds.
Following your lead on using animals: Eldritch Horse – These strange creatures are completely hairless, and have blood-red eyes. They come from centuries of experimentation by the wizard Gorbarking the Mad, inventor of such spells as Eliminate Salivation in Schoolteachers, Cabalistic Disk of Steak Sauce, Grand Invocation of Butter, and Necromantic Evocation of Balsa.
Raising the weirdness factor a bit, I present the Insectile Lion for you to make.