I forgot to mention that I also like aquatic races.

Quote from: TheTechnomancer on January 19, 2024, 04:39:17 PM
I forgot to mention that I also like aquatic races.

Do you like the aquatic versions of races too? Like aquatic elves, or sea ghouls?

When I was a kid I read the entry on water trolls, and the thought of one of them bursting out of a river and flipping a boat freaked me out.

Quote from: 1stLevelWizard on January 19, 2024, 07:28:14 PM

Quote from: TheTechnomancer on January 19, 2024, 04:39:17 PM
I forgot to mention that I also like aquatic races.

Do you like the aquatic versions of races too? Like aquatic elves, or sea ghouls?

When I was a kid I read the entry on water trolls, and the thought of one of them bursting out of a river and flipping a boat freaked me out.

Yes I do.

I really liked the githyanki. Played one in my brother's campaign.
But now they're "internet cool", so eh.

Quote from: TheTechnomancer on January 19, 2024, 04:39:17 PM
I forgot to mention that I also like aquatic races.

If have not already. Check out The Sea People campaign book for BECMI D&D. All about undersea campaigns and introduced several aquatic races for a full on undersea setting if so wanted.

I always had a soft spot for small, nasty creatures such as the Mite, Snyad, and Jermlaine.

I almost exclusively play humans.

However in terms of published races my favorites:

Talislanta
Thralls - Clone warriors that are tactical/military geniuses but completely ignorant of everything non-military or combat related.
Ahazu - 4-armed jungle warriors that succumb to berzerker madness. The use these cool throwing blades, and two-handed war-clubs. Fast, agile and strong and their skin gives them natural camouflage.
Mirin - Basically blue-people that live in the frozen north of Talislanta. They know the secret of crafting Adamant. I dig their culture.

Palladium
Wolfen - Roman Werewolves with a massive empire? Sign me the fuck up.
Psi-Stalkers - Psionic vampires that hunt supernaturals for the state. OR tribesmen that fight against the many many threats that exist in Rifts Earth.

D&D
Githzerai/Githyanki - Love them. I'm pretty much a stickler to their original source material from 1e and 2e "enhancements". Some of the 3e stuff is cool. I like nothing about modern notions of them. But I'm a Spelljammer guy, so they're around in my games.
Thri-Kreen - Ever since Darksun. I tend to enhance their "culture" by cribbing a lot from Raymond Feist's "Cho-Ja" from his Empire series.
Mul - Super-jacked gladiators that are tireless badasses? These D&D Thralls. I'm in.
Hadozee - I love having a license to talk shit incessantly and rep that low Charisma. Plus having a prehensile tail and teaching myself to poo on command for flinging purposes is always good for a laugh.


Homebrewed races
Rhizuu - A meta-race that is comprised of an ancient fungal colony that infects other PC-races and turns them into Hyphons. So you look like a "normal" race of your setting, but as a Hyphon you get some other abilities but exist to collect knowledge and experiences for the collective. Invariably you feel the urge to return to the Rhizuu collective to commune and dump that knowledge into the collective. They are not invasive and only infect those that are willing or dying... usually.

I have others but I'm fond of these guys in particular.

Non-standard races I like (as PCs or NPCs) include:

- gith:  githyanki (CE), githzerai (CN), and the homebrew CG one I can't recall the name of
- kenku
- winged folk (from Dragon; I prefer them to aaracockra—more Voltan, less Hawk)
- thelndari (a monster name from one of the Creature Catalogs that I stole for Lew Pulsipher's Timelord class from Drsgon 65)
- shade
- centaur
- fey (not just elf/half-elf but Ars Magica Seelie Court fey)
- new flavors of standard races:  Greyhawk has drow, valley elves,and  grugach alongside snow elves, rock elves, and others, as well as a wide variety of human races (including the Rhenne, among others); I also like Norse variant giants, dwarves, and elves too
- new half races:  half-ogre, , half-gnoll (from Valus), half-drow
- darklings (the deep/evil halflings, inspired by one of my brothers' PCs as well as the Minifigs Greyhawk miniatures which have evil halflings that serve Iuz)

That's not counting the still-bucket list campaigns that I'd like to run where the PCs are new demigods or quasi-deities, and the other where they're unique demons

Allan.

Outside of humans, I mostly run half-humans; half-aliens, half-elves, half-celestials, half-demons (not tieflings), dhampirs (the only type I'll play in a VtM game... not a parasite, not an enslaved addict/ghoul, still has connections to the vampire and mortal worlds without being a freak/revenant) and the like.

Depending on the setting I might also run a "neo-human" (genetically or cybernetically enhanced human).

Never done a half-orc or half-dwarf though.

Quote from: tenbones on January 20, 2024, 12:35:01 PM
I almost exclusively play humans.

However in terms of published races my favorites:

Talislanta
Thralls - Clone warriors that are tactical/military geniuses but completely ignorant of everything non-military or combat related.
Ahazu - 4-armed jungle warriors that succumb to berzerker madness. The use these cool throwing blades, and two-handed war-clubs. Fast, agile and strong and their skin gives them natural camouflage.
Mirin - Basically blue-people that live in the frozen north of Talislanta. They know the secret of crafting Adamant. I dig their culture.

Palladium
Wolfen - Roman Werewolves with a massive empire? Sign me the fuck up.
Psi-Stalkers - Psionic vampires that hunt supernaturals for the state. OR tribesmen that fight against the many many threats that exist in Rifts Earth.

D&D
Githzerai/Githyanki - Love them. I'm pretty much a stickler to their original source material from 1e and 2e "enhancements". Some of the 3e stuff is cool. I like nothing about modern notions of them. But I'm a Spelljammer guy, so they're around in my games.
Thri-Kreen - Ever since Darksun. I tend to enhance their "culture" by cribbing a lot from Raymond Feist's "Cho-Ja" from his Empire series.
Mul - Super-jacked gladiators that are tireless badasses? These D&D Thralls. I'm in.
Hadozee - I love having a license to talk shit incessantly and rep that low Charisma. Plus having a prehensile tail and teaching myself to poo on command for flinging purposes is always good for a laugh.


Homebrewed races
Rhizuu - A meta-race that is comprised of an ancient fungal colony that infects other PC-races and turns them into Hyphons. So you look like a "normal" race of your setting, but as a Hyphon you get some other abilities but exist to collect knowledge and experiences for the collective. Invariably you feel the urge to return to the Rhizuu collective to commune and dump that knowledge into the collective. They are not invasive and only infect those that are willing or dying... usually.

I have others but I'm fond of these guys in particular.

Awesome list!

Quote from: Chris24601 on January 23, 2024, 08:51:57 AM
Outside of humans, I mostly run half-humans; half-aliens, half-elves, half-celestials, half-demons (not tieflings), dhampirs (the only type I'll play in a VtM game... not a parasite, not an enslaved addict/ghoul, still has connections to the vampire and mortal worlds without being a freak/revenant) and the like.

Depending on the setting I might also run a "neo-human" (genetically or cybernetically enhanced human).

Never done a half-orc or half-dwarf though.

Everything is half-something, IMO. Even elves are half-fey, and dwarves are very close to human.

https://methodsetmadness.blogspot.com/2023/05/all-elves-are-half-elves.html

I think having half-X PCs is cool to give you a glimpse into X without knowing everything about their culture, secrets, etc.

Quote from: Chris24601 on January 23, 2024, 08:51:57 AM
Outside of humans, I mostly run half-humans; half-aliens, half-elves, half-celestials, half-demons (not tieflings), dhampirs (the only type I'll play in a VtM game... not a parasite, not an enslaved addict/ghoul, still has connections to the vampire and mortal worlds without being a freak/revenant) and the like.

Depending on the setting I might also run a "neo-human" (genetically or cybernetically enhanced human).

Never done a half-orc or half-dwarf though.

I suppose this is as good of a place as any to ask this question: Does anyone know why Gygax elected to include half-orcs as a player race in 1e?

Half-elves are in Tolkien, and with both Elf and Human as player races, it makes sense that romances between them were cropping up in the game and had to be addressed. But half-orcs seem always seemed like a curious choice. I'd guess TSR was getting requests for orcs as a playable race, and it was a compromise, but Gygax doesn't seem like the kind of guy who'd make that compromise. I'd have expected half-dwarfs and half-halflings(?) before half-orcs, but outside of Muls in Dark Sun, I don't think we've ever gotten official versions of them in D&D.

EDIT: changed the language somewhat.

It is a curious choice indeed.

"Orcs" are not a thing in the appendix N (outside Tolkien).

AD&D does mention they "pass" as human, IIRC.

Half-dwarves, eh... dwarves are too human already, feels pointless unless they have a separate history (as muls).

Crab people, of course.

Quote from: ForgottenF on January 23, 2024, 08:13:30 PM
I suppose this is as good of a place as any to ask this question: Does anyone know why Gygax elected to include half-orcs as a player race in 1e?

Half-elves are in Tolkien...

There's a half-orc in Fellowship, in Bree I think. He's a spy.