I would like to canvas ideas for scifi races in a wuxia setting (such as what I'm trying to work on). I use the word fantasy to indicate that chinese folklore/mythology is the source, but the setting is, i suppose, science fantasy (what else could it be).
What I have thus far:
Kuo - humans. Humans in the Star Wars sense (ie, earth isn't mentioned as the wllspring of humanity though humans, like Luke, are part of that galaxy far away).
Genbu - taken from the concept of the turtle in fengshui mythology: a breed of larger, tougher, but considered and pragmatic beings.
Luduan - humanoids able to perceive 'truth'. Austere, and stern (though not evil).
I'd like to create something like Star Wars - a myriad of different races. But that's impossible in an rpg, since the reason that works in the movies is because it's visual. If an rpg tried to codify all the races we see in movies, games and books etc, the SW rulebook would be huge - and, perhaps more importantly, the writer would run out of ways to make them interesting as playable races in an rpg.
i don't know chinese mythology, but i'm sure there must be analogues to the japanese tengu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tengu) and kitsune (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitsune).
(after skimming the tengu article, i had no idea the name had chinese dog-spirit origins! learn something new everyday :) )
The Qin bestiery has some good stuff you may find of use maybe grab the .pdf off drivetrhu and see what you can use? also theres a few good mythology sites that have pretty in depth listings of chinese myth and legend(along side japanese and other asian myths).
How about some of those Demons from Big Trouble in Little China, almost my favourite movie ever?
I have Tengu (from the settings equivalent of Japan); Kappa amphibious turtle men who were absorbed by the humans there.
Xi Shuai, Fierce Cricket men who are on the edge of the Eternal Empire.
I am trying to decide if I keep the Lesser Dragons, or the Foo Lions. I can see both brightly colored forms speaking with humans.
I'm also keeping "humans" but that's pretty widespread and varied as to what that means.
Maybe I'm stating the obvious, but Spelljammer featured Kara-Tur cultures in "space" (sort of, haha). Pretty sure they got at least one SJ sourcebook between them. There's probably a good bit there that would work if you just switch the magic ships for science-y ones.
Alternately: Space-going Tanuki. The huge duffel bags are a zero-gravity adaptation. (?)
(http://cdn-www.cracked.com/articleimages/ob/wn/3.jpg)
Well, clearly you're going to want some good old fashioned Ox-Tigers, because those are awesome. And you'll want the Crab Soldiers that work for the Dragon King. And your basic Ogre people.
Do you want to use actual Chinese names? I mean, people know what an "Ogre" is, but if you say "Yaoguai" they stare at you as if you said "meow meow meow".
-Frank
That is fascinating spam. The pseudo-random message is so similar to what someone would actually say that I almost got fooled.
-Frank