Different Races of Humans

[The_Scourge]

I'm writing up a custom world for a game I'm going to be running in the fall and in doing so I've come across the need for three different types of humans. I've got a British based country, a Russian country and a Japanese Country. You know what, here's a write up of each one.

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Galloway:
Galloway is the dominant superpower with vast colonial power and an undefeatable navy. It is the most technologically advanced nation in the world next to Jern with a musket equipped military and ships with cannons but swordplay is still considered a vital part of warfare. The main island (Nestled next to Tredonia) is mostly bustling cities and farmland with a large mountain range to the north. Humans are the dominant race here with other races mixed in lesser proportions Galloway is a democracy, it won its right to be a nation of free people after a vicious civil war about a hundred years ago. The ruling system is parliamentary with each province within the country electing a representative to go to the capital city and participate in running the country. The current Prime Minister is Lady Alaina Foster a fiery redheaded woman from the southern coast. She’s been reelected 4 times and is well loved by the people.

Zehr:
Zehr is a human kingdom, but unlike the peaceful Tredonia, Zehr has a King decided by might. Contests of strength or even all-out fights determine who leads. Because of its size, Brown is split up into 31 provinces, each overseen by a close lieutenant of the King or Queen. A new king is crowned by beating the current king in some form of contest. Once a challenge is issued the King decides how the matter will be decided, the laws state that this contest may be anything the king wishes but it is most often a fight to the death. This way the rebellious element is crushed and it serves as a demonstration to other would be usurpers. The current warrior king is Lord Geoffrey the Hammer (King Mark’s firstborn son was named after the Hammer in honor of a peace agreement reached between the two men and their nations). Geoffrey is rather intelligent for a Brown nation man (On one occasion he was challenged only days after being injured in a different challenge and rather than fight the large man in his weakened state Geoffrey trounced the man in a game of logic and sent him on his way) but in his advancing years Geoffrey has taken to the drink and leaves most of the more boring affairs to his advisor Beckham and the 31 state Chieftains.
Because of the natural barrier provided by the mountains, brown nation is fairly primitive. Often warriors wear leather or hide armor and use only the simplest weapons. They make up for it with their strength and vast population. Dwarves dwell within the mountain range, independent of Zehr but often trading with those around them.


Saul:
Saul is the third human nation, without surprise, it is an oriental nation. Honour is highly praised in this nation; a man's word is as good as any signed contract from Galloway. This culture has thrived because of its advances in technology, but it does not use them in warfare. They believe it is more honorable to meet one's enemy face-to-face. Religion is vastly different here than anywhere else. The one god system is still in place but Yellow worships him in twelve different aspects represented by the traditional signs of the Chinese zodiac. Pretty much all the aspects of Saul will revolve around the 12 aspects (Ox- strength, Dragon- power, Rat-intellect, Tiger- spirit, Rabbit-wisdom, Snake- change, Horse- honour, Sheep- compassion, Monkey- innocence, Rooster- courage, Dog- loyalty, Boar- discipline) and the symbolism will be heavy. The Emperor Di Quoe is a very old man and has reigned for 144 years ever since he was 12 days old. He is seldom seen except at large public events and at his yearly speech on December 12 at noon. Language barrier will be enforced here.
The Gallowayan colony here is mostly jungle but this is where Galloway gets most of the timber for its vast navy. It is well protected and the waters around it constantly patrolled.

So that's that. Now, I want each race to have it's own feel, crunch-wise so that choosing which race of human a player chooses has some effect on the character beyond RP.

I've spent a good week trying to figure this out and I'm stumped. Any help would be appreciated

[Elfin]

Well, for a start, they could get different starting languages, and maybe some appropriately flavored weapon proficiencies.
To balance this bonus, instead of the free extra feat of your choice, each type of human has an assigned feat which they get.
Maybe, if you're from Saul, you get a different feat depending on which year you were born in, correllating to your sign's attributes.

[awa]

oriental adventures did something a little like this with the various clans
each clan had at least one associated prestige class and a number of special feats which to spend your bonus human feat.
You could do something like that either making up new prestige classes or modifying an existing class.

[RTGoodman]

In general, different races/cultures of humans SHOULD NOT have different racial abilities. That way lies argument and locked threads, as we've seen before.

Instead, humans from each of those places should get to choose their bonus feat from a list specific to each nation, like the Regional feats of the Forgotten Realms setting.

For your Zehr, for instance, since they're naturally strong, perhaps one of their feat choices gives them a +4 bonus on Str ability checks. Citizens of Saul can choose one of 12 regional feats, matching the 12 birth signs, that give a skill bonus or some such. Or, since they're sea-going people, they could instead choose Sea Legs or some such, giving the bonuses to fighting and movement on board ships.

The idea of different languages is also a given, I think.

[lsfreak]

It's perfectly fine that people from different regions get different stats as well. Think about it this way - compare the racial stats for a 21st-century Western with the racial stats for an Old Kingdom Egyptian. The thing is, you just have to treat them as cultural differences rather than "racial," even though we use that term in D&D. Someone from one born or raised from a young age in the other would likely have all the racial stats of the culture they were raised in (with the exception of a handful of things unlikely to come up in game mechanics, such as sunburning and vitamin D acquisition for changes in skin color).

Magic might screw a few things up, for example a magic-heavy kingdom might have actually altered stats rather than simply cultural differences.

[Mongoose87]

It's perfectly fine that people from different regions get different stats as well. Think about it this way - compare the racial stats for a 21st-century Western with the racial stats for an Old Kingdom Egyptian. The thing is, you just have to treat them as cultural differences rather than "racial," even though we use that term in D&D. Someone from one born or raised from a young age in the other would likely have all the racial stats of the culture they were raised in (with the exception of a handful of things unlikely to come up in game mechanics, such as sunburning and vitamin D acquisition for changes in skin color).

Magic might screw a few things up, for example a magic-heavy kingdom might have actually altered stats rather than simply cultural differences.

Would the average Medieval human have a penalty to constitution for their absurdly bad nutrition, healthcare and hygiene?

[lsfreak]

Would the average Medieval human have a penalty to constitution for their absurdly bad nutrition, healthcare and hygiene?

Well, strictly in D&D terms, they wouldn't have a penalty and we wouldn't have a bonus. It's just that one of the two is exposed to disease much more often than the other, and therefore in a given day more likely to roll a failing save. I suppose nutrition problems, if you wanted to get that specific, could impose certain stat penalties and eventually certain "diseases," though not in the D&D usage of the word where you take ability damage until making saves.

(Though I did just get the hilarious idea of killing off a PC due to water intoxication. I think that's about as anti-climactic as you can get.)

[SoD]

I think something similar exists in Iron Kingdoms, where humans of various places get an optional stat bonus/penalty.

[daggaz]

Theres absolutely no ingame reason for human subraces not to have slightly different stats. We have it in dwarves, orcs, elves, halflings, gnomes... yeah pretty much everything.

The only reason threads get locked here (and the reason WotC avoided it as well) is because stupid people start bringing real life implications into it.

Keep it ingame, and you will be fine.

[Amiria]

Mongoose' Publishing's OGL Conan RPG has this too. Each human race of the Hyborian Age has its own racial traits.

Bonuses on skill checks in their homeland/favored terrain similar to rangers, small skill bonuses (+1 or +2), stat bonuses/penalties (+2 / -2), bonus feats, race-exclusive feats, favored weapons (proficiencies and/or attack bonuses), favored and probibited (starting) classes, starting language selection, etc.

[Leon]

I think something similar exists in Iron Kingdoms, where humans of various places get an optional stat bonus/penalty.

Yep
not just Stat bonus/penalty but skill bonus and social drawbacks aswell as Save bonuses

[bosssmiley]

AD&D Birthright - five different human cultures, each with modifications to their attributes, class preferences and physical appearances. Each culture had particular cultural weapons, armour and skill preferences. There was no such thing as a default human in Birthright.

The 3E equivalent would probably be background feats, or culture-specific proficiencies and skill preferences...

[daggaz]

Another one that does this is the Morrowwind/Oblivion series. They've got redguards and northerners, and another one as well I believe. Some are more endurance based, others are more diplomatic, and they have various immunities/weaknesses and special abilities as well.

The elves and the orcs in this series have the same thing, so not giving it to humans? That would be racism..

[SirKazum]

I did this for my homebrew campaign setting - I divided humankind into a bunch of "subraces" (including a few "sub-subraces" where a certain group branches off from a bigger group in a significant way). Their "crunch" wasn't quite as extensive or distinctive as actual D&D races, which was intentional. Mostly I just took the basic human bonuses (i.e. bonus skill points, bonus feat, and flexible favored class) and tied them to the subraces - i.e. instead of skill points, you'd get a free skill with max ranks, from a list of three skills; your bonus feat came from a list of three exclusive feats that could be gotten only this way; and you'd have to choose one out of two determined classes to be your favored class. Those lists (skills, feats, classes) depend on the individual subrace, or "ethnicity" as I called it. I made it an optional rule, and nobody ended up using it, since most people preferred the flexibility of by-the-book humans

Still, one thing that all humans (even those not using these rules) got, and which I think is a good idea for any campaign setting anyways, is a bonus language. I mean, every race knows their own native language plus Common, and I thought it was a bit ridiculous for all the many different nations of humankind to speak the same language (not to mention it just *happens* to be the "trade tongue" of the whole world). So, in my campaigns, each human nation has its own language as well, which humans know as a bonus.

[archon_huskie]

You should also consider equipment. A character from Galloway should have a skill with swords and thus should be caring a sword. Swords from Galloway should also be cheaper and better made.

Zehr will have people with leather working kits to repair armor and the rare people with a foriegn chainmail shirt will be of high esteem. It also would be good to add dwaven as an adjective to many of their items to reflect their trade with the dwarves. Dwarven axes, Dwarven brandy, books written in Dwarven etc.



Also a few nitpicks: Lady Alaina Foster is a firery redhead? Just once I'd like to see someone be a firery brunette or a firery blond.

[Darrin]

Theres absolutely no ingame reason for human subraces not to have slightly different stats. We have it in dwarves, orcs, elves, halflings, gnomes... yeah pretty much everything.

You might want to take a look at Dragon #306's racial variant templates: Aquatic, Arctic, Deep, Desert, Magic-Blooded, Wild. (Check Crystalkeep's 3.0 templates for more details) These can be applied to any base race, including humans, with no LA (except for Deep, LA +1). Four of them have stat adjustments.

Dragonborn of Bahumat (RotD) is another template-ish way to modify your racial stats, although it's generally not a good idea for humans.

[The_Scourge]

Nice. Thanks guys, I still don't know what I'm going to do yet but it's given me a lot more to think about.