Too Many Races?

[Alchemistmerlin]

So my campaign world is just teeming with life, and I'm starting to think that might be a problem. I love the variety it adds, as well as giving the players a lot of choice, but I worry that it comes across as a bit silly. The biggest issue at hand is that I feel I have too many animal-folk races...and you'll see why in a second.

For the purpose of this discussion a Race is differentiated by states. So even though there are 4 tribes of Humans, they are 1 race due to being statistically identical (by default, racial traits and whatnot and pathfinder can change this)

A whole lot of stuff under this spoiler.
Gnomes are my primary races, effectively replacing humans as the dominant sentient species on the planet with several large and many small nations and nation-states sprawled across the planet.

Goblins A racial offshoot of the gnomes, they are tribal and seclusive, mostly keeping to swamps and bayous. They dabble in voodoo magics.

Dwarves (23 sorts.)
Fire Dwarves occupy the role that dwarves due in most settings, that of underground living crafters who drink a lot of beer.(Playable)
Water Dwarves live on the ocean constantly, their capital city is a massive artificial island. They transport the Fire Dwarves' goods to and from their island homes. Technically Fire and Water are 1 nation, but with two distinct parts.(Playable)
Duergar Stolen straight from the Pathfinder concept of them, they are a lost tribe of dwarves who dug to deep and uncovered something dark and sinister that now, in their madness, they are desperately trying to keep from getting out. (Not playable...at all. Total madness)

Elves only 1 type, elves come in all the colors of the rainbow and act as living representations of their artist god's craft. They are fairly standard fantasy elves with the notable difference being that they are made, not begotten, and as such do not reproduce nor do they age. Elves are frequently "recrafted" by their God and may take on a new personality or new physical form entirely.(Playable)

Humans the humans are the newest race on the planet. An attempt by the Elven god to make elves "more perfect" he gifted them with free will, the ability to act against him...and the first thing they did was detach from him entirely. Humans and elves do not acknowledge a common ancestry, and in fact do not even know of the link. Humans worship the primal elements and nature, and are divided into 4 barbarian tribes represented by 4 animal totems: Bear, Hyena, Cheetah, and Raven. They are statistically the same but culturally varied.(Playable)

Murimus take the place of hobbits/halflings. Simple country folk...also they look like mice. They're my nature-linked race, who feel a profound link to the land and worship ancestor deities. They are descended from a group of Musteval who stumbled into the material plane at the beginning of creation when the planes were unstable. (Playable)

Kobolds are divided into 2 statistically differentiated castes, thees are my second "animal"-folk race sort of, being dragon or lizardlike. Both castes are cold-blooded and use magic to operate like their warmblooded peers.
Kobolds, Lesser: Priestly caste tends the great fires and leads social interaction, small sized and scaly like basic 3.5 kobolds.
Kobolds, Greater: Medium sized Warrior-caste, more raptor than gharial.
(Playable) Kobolds are playable, but with the caveat that most people on the surface world find them quite scary.

Bird-folk 3 brother gods with 3 brother species.
Accipter Hawk folk descended from the God Accipter, the Accipter are warlike and militaristic. Their society is strict and focuses on the importance of strength and cunning. Able to fly (Playable)

Strygians descended from Strygius these Snowy-Owl men and women make their home high in the northern mountains. Strygian society is about study and wisdom, with the government being one of academics. Able to fly. (Playable)

Corvan are descended from Corvus, the youngest of the brother gods who's foolishness caused the fall of the three to the mortal realm. Disgusted with their shamed and weeping God the Corvans have turned to darker things for power and leadership. Some say that these dark things have even begun to taint the Corvans and steal their wings. ("Playable" in the same way that Drow are in Forgotten Realms: You really shouldn't, but people will anyway.)

Tengu: Offshoot of the Corvans, Tengu are mutated Corvans born without their wings. They are cast out from Corvan society for being weak and usually wander the countryside without purpose or home.

So that's roughly 13 playable races, there are no Orcs, Half-Orcs, Half-elves, or Halflings. I feel like each race has its niche spot in my setting, but I worry about it being oversaturated. Opinions?

[Lappy9000]

Well, if you want to have lots of different races in your setting, you should! That said, it can tend to overwhelm players, and it might not be possible to give the same level of attention and polish to the write-ups of every race.

So, I think you should stick with 5-8 "player races" and have the rest be optional "monster races" that players can play if they choose. There are several ways of justifying this in a setting. The first is social stigma. A kingdom/ruler in the past declared that these races are superior and due to the level of control from the ruler/kindgom, the races were able to flourish and increase greatly in number. Good if you don't mind the racial overtones.

It could be biological. These races were made by an ancient progenitor race, again able to flourish. Or there could be some kind of magical tie going on. Only these races have access to helpful magic (Dragonmarks in eberron, Avramiran influence in my Lords of Avramir setting) and use it to their advantage.

Or maybe they were simply made that way. This option probably won't work as well for you if you want a lot of equal races, typical 3.5 style, but good for a "monstrous races are monsters" setting. Pretty self-explanatory, the main races are simply the only ones that have the mental, physical, and/or social capacity to develop advanced civilizations.

Again, use them all, put your focus on a small selection of core races, but keep lots of options available.

[arguskos]

Again, use them all, put your focus on a small selection of core races, but keep lots of options available.
This is what I ended up shooting for, personally, and it's served me well.

I've got humans, illithids, trepek (living starfish robots), two flavors of elves, orogs, and the goblinoids (which compose like seven species, only three of which are primary PC races). Then, you have dwarves, tasloi, and the remaining four goblinoids, all of which are secondary background races used for flavoring the world. They're all playable enough, but the 9 primary races are definitely at the forefront. The other four are there, but not expected to be at the forefront of the game. Focus on the core, and use the rest as optional flavor elements.

Looking at your set up, I'd roll with gnomes, elves, humans, lesser kobolds, fire dwarves, and accipters as the primary races, with the others all serving as the secondary races. You have a few "evil" races, a few variants, hobbits, and outcasts, all of which make excellent background material and fun variants when tossed into a more "standard" party.

[nihil8r]

if it were my game i'd say "these are the most common races, but if you want you could also play . . . . " i agree that you should pick which are the major races and which are the minor races. this doesn't mean that the "minor" races are weak, but rather that the major races dominate by population and power.

[Alchemistmerlin]

if it were my game i'd say "these are the most common races, but if you want you could also play . . . . " i agree that you should pick which are the major races and which are the minor races. this doesn't mean that the "minor" races are weak, but rather that the major races dominate by population and power.

Well yes, that's defined in my fluff. The gnomes are far and away the most prominent species, making up 1/4 of the population by themselves. The Dwarves follow as a far away second, and the Owls and Hawks in third/fourth after that. It goes on that way with humans and kobolds being the least common.


I think part of my problem stemmed from not wanting "Orcs" in my setting. That is, I didn't want a race that players said "It is ok to kill them, they're green.", so I tried to give everything that might appear, including the sentient "Monster" races, a culture and history. Every death should be a significant one, a conscious decision. You're killing a person, regardless of how green or scaly they may be.

[nihil8r]

i wouldn't worry about it too much then if the game world supports each race. there's a big difference between saying "you can be anything" and "here's the peoples of my game world, pick one." :)


Every death should be a significant one, a conscious decision. You're killing a person, regardless of how green or scaly they may be.

and i agree with that entirely :)

[Lyndworm]

I agree with Nihil8r entirely. I have a lot of races in the campaign setting I'm developing, but I think they all have a pretty clear place and some support (except the warforged, but their place is that they don't have a place).

I have two kinds of dwarf, three kinds of elf, orcs, gnomes, halflings, humans, three kinds of half-human, three kinds of goblinoid, three kinds of kobold, goliaths, and warforged as the main races. No amount is too much if you're willing to put in the effort to explain why they're there.