Non European/Tolken Creatures/Concepts that could be made into PC races.

[tbok1992]

It's always kinda bugged me that most derivative (IE, not invented specifically for D&D) D&D races are based on European or Tolken-derived concepts.

They do have a few, like the Hengeyokai and the Kenku/Tengu, that break the mold, and Pathfinder is way better on it with races like Vishnyakas, Varanas, Samsarans (though I do think they're suspiciously similar to D&D's 4e Deva) and my favorite Pathfinder race; the Wayangs, but for the most part basic D&D derives most of it's non-original races from European folklore or Tolken.

So, I ask you folks, what creatures or concepts (Like the Samsarans from Samsara or the Wayangs from shadow puppets) from other cultures folklore, like Asia, Russia, Africa, the American Indians, the Phillipines, and so on, or what creatures from other fantasy works could be knocked-off for a D&D race.

I can come up with five from only the original Wizard of Oz, but I want to see which ones you think would work first.

[Voyd211]

Well, let's see... Japanese folklore comes to mind first, so...

Kappa: A turtle-goblin with a fondness for cucumbers. It has a bowl-shaped depression on its head that holds water.
Shinigami: A god of death. The exact meaning of this varies from source to source: The ones I can think of off the top of my head are Bleach, Death Note and Touhou, all of which are wildly different in their portrayal of shinigami.
Yuki-onna: An ice succubus of sorts, although she makes you cold instead of sucking out your life force. Alternatively, one yuki-onna saved the life of a traveler.
Oni: Actual oni weren't demons, they were more akin to ogres.


That's all I can think of at the moment.

[Gamer Girl]

When you say D&D is European/Tolken your talking only 3X and 4E. D&D 2E was full of all sorts of flavor with races and creatures that did not fit the European/Tolken mold.

What to guess what happened? Well, when they made 3E ''better'' they got rid of all the other stuff except the European/Tolken stuff.

[Yora]

Shinigami as seen now in fiction are a relatively new concept heavily influenced by the grim reaper.
Oni are essentially what D&D calls an ogre mage. Several editions even call them that.
A very good fit for PC races are Nezumi, a race of humanoid rats, but I don't know actually much more about them.
What might possibly work are Kitsune. Kitsune are not just shapechangers that can take the form of foxes, but actually all foxes do have this ability to switch between human and fox form. They can become very old and gain lots of magical power with age, but a young one could work quite well as a PC in an RPG.

A race that is quite common but rarely given much thought are lizard people. There's a lot of potential to make something out of them, but the Iksar of Everquest are the only ones I know. I have lizardfolk as one of the two big races for the setting I am working on, giving them influences from the Jungle Trolls of Warcraft and the Turians of Mass Effect.

[Voyd211]

Kitsune are already in Pathfinder, which is why I didn't mention them.

[Eldan]

Anyway, looking at the SRD...
Aranea: I faintly remember a shapeshifting, poisonous spider creature from either Japanese or Chinese mythology. It turned into a human.
Couatl. Of the Quetzal variety.
Genies are Arabian.
If you count Russian as non-western, the Lich definitely goes there. And if slavic isn't western then, well, vampires too.
Nagas are south and south-east Asian.
Rakshasa, Indian. Though only remotely.

That already covers quite a few. Now, I know it's western, but I'm still said that D&D doesn't have any decent celtic sidhe.

[Morph Bark]

What to guess what happened? Well, when they made 3E ''better'' they got rid of all the other stuff except the European/Tolken stuff.

Except maybe besides the fact that the core of 2E is still quite Tolkienian overall and 3E has a lot of Oriental and original races here and there throughout?

[scurv]

tolken based his stuff on euro folklore

[Prime32]

(Like the Samsarans from Samsara or the Wayangs from shadow puppets)

I'm not sure what a Wayang is, but Samsara is just "the cycle of reincarnation"; calling someone out as a samsaran is meaningless, since it applies to everything.

A very good fit for PC races are Nezumi, a race of humanoid rats, but I don't know actually much more about them.

Nezumi is just the Japanese word for mouse. Like all animals, with age they become intelligent and can learn how to take human form (though foxes and racoon-dogs are the best at it).

[Togath]

Depending on what exactly the OP means, European Goblins(traditional ones) could be interesting, as could trying to come up with adaptions of various Japanese yokai(some are a bit weird, though a few could make interesting PC races)

[Zombimode]

I fail to see why the cultural background of anything fantasy-related is in any way important.

If I like Orcs, I will use them. If I like Kenku, I will use them. I couldn't care less if the ideas originally come from ancient Rome, medieval Japan, or my grandma.

[Yora]

If you have any north european that havn't been done to death a thousand times, I am sure it will be very much welcome here.

[BootStrapTommy]

I feel like crytozoology (pronounced:ˈkrāzē) would be an endless fount of this kind of stuff.

Bigfoot (is there already a bigfoot, or no? There's a yeti.)
Any number of the X varieties of Bigfoot that exist in North America
Those one things which are like midget bigfoots in Asia
El chupacabra.
Some things like that?

tolken based his stuff on euro folklore

Yes, but his depictions of elves was very original and he invented orcs.

[123456789blaaa]

Shinigami as seen now in fiction are a relatively new concept heavily influenced by the grim reaper.
Oni are essentially what D&D calls an ogre mage. Several editions even call them that.
A very good fit for PC races are Nezumi, a race of humanoid rats, but I don't know actually much more about them.
What might possibly work are Kitsune. Kitsune are not just shapechangers that can take the form of foxes, but actually all foxes do have this ability to switch between human and fox form. They can become very old and gain lots of magical power with age, but a young one could work quite well as a PC in an RPG.

A race that is quite common but rarely given much thought are lizard people. There's a lot of potential to make something out of them, but the Iksar of Everquest are the only ones I know. I have lizardfolk as one of the two big races for the setting I am working on, giving them influences from the Jungle Trolls of Warcraft and the Turians of Mass Effect.

Nezumi's are actually in the Oriental Adventures splatbook (as a PC race) for dnd 3.0 .

[Ravens_cry]

I fail to see why the cultural background of anything fantasy-related is in any way important.

If I like Orcs, I will use them. If I like Kenku, I will use them. I couldn't care less if the ideas originally come from ancient Rome, medieval Japan, or my grandma.

I can see where you are coming from. On the other hand, maintaining some semblance of cultural theme can help create tone.

[Dimers]

Gremlins/mogwai, like from the old movie, but with adaptations to make it PC-appropriate. Infinite castings of Summon Baby Gremlin (just add water) is ripe for abuse.

Gummi Bears (from the 1980s cartoon series) and Care Bears could each provide fodder for homebrew. And if you ask me, halflings are no more threatening than Care Bears are.

The vast array of folk tales from sub-Saharan Africa includes were-spiders -- they could transform into spider swarms.

Aborigine 'sky heroes' could make a decent race for a high-level adventure game. They'd definitely have LA.

EDIT: Oh, and a shout-out for Raymond E. Feist: cho-ja and Thun.

[Serpentine]

From aboriginal stories of the Dreamtime you can find... people? Tribes? Families? that heavily blur the line between animal and human. Humans turn into animals, animals act like humans... Could be potential for something interesting there.
There's the yowie, which is sort of Australia's equivalent of Bigfoot.
There's plenty of monsters in Australian folklore, but I'm not sure how many are really good fodder for PC classes. The devil-dog, a sort of were-dingo, could possibly be adapted. There's also a harpy/mothman-like creature, with a tooth-filled mouth set into its shoulders (i.e. no neck) and huge, stinking, smothering wings; it was a terrifying monster, but you could always use a bit of artistic licence.

[scurv]

http://www.skindeepcomic.com/archive/issue-1-cover/

You can read though here, and check korys blog. She might have something to offer.

[Eldan]

...his depictions of elves was very original...

Not really all that much. Sure, it was novel compared to Victorian ideas of flower-hugging pixie-elves, but compared to the Alfar or some celtic ideas, they aren't all that new.

[Voyd211]

What about Kami? You know, the Shinto beings that are basically gods of everything. At least, that's what I've been able to determine.

[Yora]

Kami is more of an adjective than a noun. If it's a spirit that can be praised, it's a kami. Some can make good PC races, most don't.

[tbok1992]

I'm not sure what a Wayang is, but Samsara is just "the cycle of reincarnation"; calling someone out as a samsaran is meaningless, since it applies to everything.

This is true, but what makes the Samsarans special is that their reincarnation works Time-Lord-regeneration-style, and they do remember a bit of their past lives.

And Wayangs are a race from The Plane of Shadow based on those elaborate, jointed asian shadow-puppets, which I think is an incredibly clever idea. They also have a Bard build based on making lethal shadow puppets ala "Killer Klowns from Outer Space", which I think is hillarious.

"And this one's a gorilla, who is going to tear out your intestines and strangle you with them!"

Also, here are those 5 races from the first Oz book that'd work well to base D&d races on:

The Flying Monkeys- Sort of like Hadozee with actual flight, but with a heavy vulnerability to mind control in exchange due to an unwise pact the race made generations prior (Ala their link to the golden cap in the first book)

The China People- Yes, they were known in the book for being fragile and small, but they might work as a race that could not only do extra melee damage when at half helf (Due to shards of them cutting extra hard) but also able to be repaired by spells designed to mend constructs and objects as well as by healing spells, though they'd be made extra-fragile to compensate.

The Scarecrow- While they don't give a reason why he came to life after being finished in the original book, I could easily see it being explained via primal spirits giving a bunch of scarecrows life to become agents for some unknown purpose.

The Tin Man- if any of you are familiar with the Tin Man's pretty gruesome backstory, it seems like a good hook for a sort of Warforged subrace. I mean, a group of people so heavily injured that they had to be modified with construct parts until they consider themselves no longer human? there's loads of character potential there.

The Hamemrheads- Alright, this is kinda cheating, as they seem more suited for a monster/villain race than a PC race, but it would be interesting to stat out an armless race with those funky weaponized heads. So sue me, I couldn't come up with 5 real races from that book.

[Giegue]

If you have a more "modern" setting why not borrow from the modern mythology that is conspiracy theories? The shape-shifting reptilian aliens from the (insane) conspiracy theories of David Icke would make an excellent PC race and I actually created an approximation of them using the pathfinder race creator for pathfinder once. They can also be used in less modern settings if you ditch the alien backstory and just make them lizardmen who can shape-shift and are extra manipulative and evil.

If your into Native American mythology the Skinwalkers could make interesting enemies and possibly a good PC race(Though they may need some LA). Also, while they have been mentioned, the Tanuki and Kitsune from Japanese mythology are both suitable for PC use and the latter have already been stated as a Pathfinder race. If you don't mind borrowing from anime and manga the infamous "catgirl" would make a good PC as well, though they'd need a new name since there would be male members of the race as well.(The version of them I use of them are called the "Nekoran") The same general "catgirl" aesthetic can also be applied to other animals to make other races, Wolves/Dogs being a popular choice for this.

[tbok1992]

If you have a more "modern" setting why not borrow from the modern mythology that is conspiracy theories? The shape-shifting reptilian aliens from the (insane) conspiracy theories of David Icke would make an excellent PC race and I actually created an approximation of them using the pathfinder race creator for pathfinder once. They can also be used in less modern settings if you ditch the alien backstory and just make them lizardmen who can shape-shift and are extra manipulative and evil.

Funny thing, in my somewhat-Gonzo mondern setting for my NaNoWriMo novel I'm gonna be working on (The closest comparison would be the Dr. McNinja setting, though the story would be set in a heavily fictionalized version of my hometown, Tucson), the Icke-style Lizardmen are a major running subplot.

Though, the joke about them would be that they're utterly; hillariously incompetent as a species at conspiracy-mongering, with the results usually being hillarious failure (The only political family they've managed to marry into is Gerald Ford's) or their "projects" going out of their control and becoming far more dangerous than them (Like this setting's alien-controlled version of Scientology).

Speaking a little off topic, I think I'm going to make a topic on said novel to see if I can get any help from these forums on it, because while I have quite a bit of ideas for vignettes, as the story's structure would be very episodic, with the plot's threads slowly intertwining until the climax, I'm not sure how to fit those together Would that be a good idea?.

[Lyndworm]

If your into Native American mythology the Skinwalkers could make interesting enemies and possibly a good PC race(Though they may need some LA).

Skinwalkers strike me as more of a class than a race (so much so that I posted my take on that concept, if you care to see some inspiration), given (some versions of) their origins and abilities. A similar Native American concept better suited for a race would be the nahual, though they'd probably be almost identical to D&D's lycanthropes (nahual aren't always carnivores, are often good guys, don't have a weakness to sivler, and don't spread their "curse," but the main concept of shapeshifter is wholly intact).

If you don't mind borrowing from anime and manga the infamous "catgirl" would make a good PC as well, though they'd need a new name since there would be male members of the race as well.(The version of them I use of them are called the "Nekoran") The same general "catgirl" aesthetic can also be applied to other animals to make other races, Wolves/Dogs being a popular choice for this.

Both of those already exist in 3.5, actually; the catfolk (LA+1) are in Races of the Wild and the lupin (LA+0) are in the Dragon Compendium, though the lupin have wolf heads instead of wolf features on a human head. To a lesser extent, shifters could also fill both roles (the razorclaw and longtooth varieties, respectively).

[Serpentine]

As Oz is being brought up so much, I really want to make an adventure based on Return to Oz. I'm not sure how many of the characters in it would make good races as opposed to unique creatures, but anyways (note, it's been ages, so the names at least are probably gonna be wrong):

The Clockwork Soldier: a Warforged prototype, perhaps? An intelligent (usually...) construct, which needs to be wound up to work. It has a different key for different faculties: iirc, one for thought, one for senses, and one for action. Lawful Good or Lawful Neutral.

Wheelers: Definitely Chaotic, possibly Chaotic Evil (although I could see an argument that it was just circumstantial that made them so nasty), human-like creatures except that instead of hands and feet they have wheels.

Trolls: Rock-creatures, greedy and covetous. I actually can't remember what these guys were like at all, except they were practically a part of the stone itself. I think I also sort of conflate them with the rockmunchers from Neverending Story - which would themselves be a good race.

Jack Pumpkinhead and the Gump: I put these two together because they were both "born" using the same methods. They're creatures cobbled together using bits and pieces then sprinkled with a dust that brings them to life. They're only as sturdy as their initial construction, and bits tend to fall off them throughout the movie.

The head-witch: I can't really imagine this character being turned into a race, but she's a witch who likes to steal other people's heads and swap them around with her own like stylish hats. Actually quite creepy.

[Geostationary]

Gummi Bears (from the 1980s cartoon series) and Care Bears could each provide fodder for homebrew. And if you ask me, halflings are no more threatening than Care Bears are.

You have no idea how well Care Bears can be used.

[Morithias]

Kitsune, Earthman, Undine, Wood mana, fey....

Go play a Japanese RPG you'll get a ton of creature concepts.

[Eldan]

At least the Undine and Fey are western, so they don't really count.

[Morithias]

At least the Undine and Fey are western, so they don't really count.

Screw it, I'm going to break an unwritten rule.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...aneseMythology

Here. Have fun.