Other races as PCs?

[badger2305]

In Men & Magic, we've got humans, elves, dwarves, and hobbits. We get half-elves somewhere in there, too. But there is also this:

Other Character Types: There is no reason that players cannot be allowed to play as virtually anything, provided they begin relatively weak and work up to the top, i.e., a player wishing to be a Balrog would have to begin as let us say, a "young" one and progress upwards in the usual manner, steps being predetermined by the campaign referee. (M&M, page 8)

So what other races do you allow? Might you allow? Any monsters? Anything truly different?

[Deleted]

I created a Gnome character class years ago for my campaign, & several of my players over the years have enjoyed it. I posted it here quite a bit ago, so here is the link to it:

odd74.proboards76.com/index.cgi?board=monterstreasure&action=display&thread=1184989332

As for anything truly different, well, a buddy of mine really wanted to play a Kobold, so I let him. I used the Hobbit class as a stepping stone, gave him a couple of the Thief class skills, & ran with it from there. He didn't end up living too long (the Kobold, that is), but it was fun while he was alive. I've had people over the years play Orcs, Goblins, & pretty much any humanoid type listed, but their PC's usually (a) died a gruesome death (& not always by who you would expect) or (b) got scrapped due to lack of interest from the player ("you know, that Centaur really wasn't as fun as I thought..."). These races aren't really out of the ordinary anyway, but nobody has ever approached me with the desire to try a PC that was really weird (like a Gelatinous Cube).

Bottom line is that I'm pretty flexible when it comes to this: if a player has a certain character idea that is out of the norm, then I'll usually do a quick write-up & let them try it out. I think I would only draw the line if it was a race that would give the player an unfair advantage over the other players (Beholders, Dragons, Undead, etc.), but even then I might be {ahem} persuaded to give them a go, too (sound of cash being folded...). ;D

[wulfgar]

I think allowing "other" races as pcs is very much in the spirit of old school D&D. Way back in my first exposure to the game (a hodge podge of B/X, BECMI, and AD&D) I remember adding a kobold and a lizard man to the party. Both of them were captives the other pc's freed during different adventures.

I can also vaguely remember an old mid 80's computer game that let you have all sorts of races in your party- ogrers, minotaurs, etc. For some reason the only name I can think of for the game is Nicodemus- not sure if that's right though. Anyways, we were playing that game at the same time as our early D&D adventures, so I think it contributed to us allowing "monster" pcs. Anyone have any idea what I'm talking about?

[doc]

We had the usual slew of drow, orc, ogre, vampire, etc. characters. We had two githyanki characters, one of which is still very active in my campaign world. The most unusual character we had was a blue dragon paladin. Yes, you read that correctly. His best friend was an elf ninja. Can you tell that we were around 13-15 when we ran this campaign?



Doc

[coffee]

wulfgar said:

I can also vaguely remember an old mid 80's computer game that let you have all sorts of races in your party- ogrers, minotaurs, etc. For some reason the only name I can think of for the game is Nicodemus- not sure if that's right though. Anyways, we were playing that game at the same time as our early D&D adventures, so I think it contributed to us allowing "monster" pcs. Anyone have any idea what I'm talking about?

Sounds like Phantasie (and Phantasie II) to me. The villain's name was Nicodemus, if I recall correctly. And there was one dungeon in the original that you had to have a Minotaur in your party or you couldn't even get in the place.

I very much enjoyed those games (I finished the first, but not the second -- I think the disk got screwed up or something).

[wulfgar]

Yep! That's it. Thanks for the help Coffee. Apparently there was a third game as well:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantasie

[makofan]

Phantasie was excellent. Phantasie was more of the same, but better. Phantasie III was horrible.

[murquhart72]

I think these days I would allow d**n near anything and make it up on a case-by-case basis. Having a strong character concept is the most important thing when making PCs in my eyes.

[leon]

Aug 22, 2010 16:03:15 GMT -6 murquhart72 said:

I think these days I would allow d**n near anything and make it up on a case-by-case basis. Having a strong character concept is the most important thing when making PCs in my eyes.

Exactly, that's why I would be reluctant to allow monsters as PCs. Most of the other races are either too monstrous, too stupid, or just plain alien to be effectively roleplayed. They are way too far removed from humans, this includes most humanoids also, to be worthy as player characters.

[kesher]

I've said this in other threads, but I pretty much allow anything. We've had, variously, a balrog, a skeleton warrior, a goblin, a three-headed talking dog, and a ghoul (named Ghoulio...)

Coffee was the one with the balrog, and he, overachiever that he is, wrote it up as a class; usually, we just agree on a class (almost always Fighting Man), give 'em a couple of common-sense race-based powers/weaknesses, and away we go. Hasn't been a problem so far.

But, on the other hand, I don't have a tightly-defined campaign world, either. If I did, I might not be so open.

[murquhart72]

I can't remember where I read it, but there was an old interview with Gary in which he described how to play D&D. He explained that one of his players wanted to be a dragon and he was all like "Sure, no problem!"
IIRC, the dragon PC started as a hatchling, and as the other PCs gained levels, he gained age brackets (albeit, very slowly).
Sooo, why not?

[Falconer]

There’s no real reason why not. But of course the larger the dragon gets the less likely he will be able to fit in dungeon corridors; he will always (at any age) be the #1 target for missile fire and melee attacks; even assuming he is a “nice” dragon, he will have to stay outside the city altogether. There are other problems with non-humanoid PCs who stand out even less than dragons. For example, a centaur provides some unique challenges due to having four hooves instead of two feet (and under no circumstances able to squeeze through a tight fit, etc.). My point is that 90% of D&D play is challenges tailored for humanoids. If you have more of a campaigney campaign where there is always a lot more going on than dungeoneering and everyone has multiple characters, then, as an option, anything is ultimately a “why not?” in my game.

The AD&D 2e PHBR10 Complete Book of Humanoids is a pretty good place to start. There is a ton of fat to slice out, but its basic approach seemed like it took the AD&D 1e MM and interpreted monster special abilities as player race abilities in a way that made sense most of the time.

[vito]

I want to play as a robot. I've got a back story and everything: The robot was created by an ancient technologically advanced civilization to tend the king's garden. When the city was destroyed in war, the robot survived, but the garden burned. For centuries he has stayed, desperately trying to make the flowers grow again. Unfortunately, the great cataclysm salted the earth so that nothing would ever grow in that land again.
Eventually, he is found by a group of adventurers and goes with them in hopes of finding a new garden to tend.

[calithena]

I have let players play gods for one-shots, usually wandering incognito.

So, yeah, pretty much anything goes here.

[18 Spears]

Oct 3, 2010 0:52:13 GMT -6 @vito said:

I want to play as a robot.

You could have fun with that. High STR and DEX due to sturdy mechanical construction.

Low WIS and CHA due to lack of creative spark and inability to read and interpret subtle body language cues.

At least that is one way to go!

[murquhart72]

As far as playing a robot, I'd say make no changes at all, just list your character as Fighting-Robot instead of Fighting-Man. Healing would be "self repairs" and level increases would be "upgrades".
No fuss, no muss

[apeloverage]

A robot might be immune to sleep, charm and the like.

[murquhart72]

Yep, unless it has a "positronic" or cybernetic brain

[18 Spears]

Sorry it was just a thought.

[murquhart72]

DUDE! Don't apologize for original ideas, just run with it. Your robot PC isn't going to be any better than mine or anyone else's. That's the beauty of D&D: you are always right ;D

[vito]

I can buy robots being charmed or put to sleep. My problem is with poison and disease. It seems like a robot should have immunity to those at least.

[apeloverage]

But they might be extra-vulnerable to other things, eg water and electricity.

[kesher]

vito: You you can play your robot in my campaign anytime! Are you anywhere near Minneapolis?

I had a character play a robot in an old AD&D campaign I ran---he didn't remember his origins (he had wandered away from the ship in the Barrier Peaks...)

He could generate an electrical charge similar to a lightning bolt, so he pretty much pretended to be a Magic User. Once a kobold nailed him with a spear in the chest out in the dark woods. He had higher HP than a Magic User would have, so it didn't kill him---he just kept running with the spear sticking out of his chest...