Erik's editorial in Dungeon 133 (Lovable Losers) got me thinking: what would a D&D world where the only monsters were those "custom made" for the game be like?
I’m one of those people who have problems figuring out how all the beasties compiled over four volumes and counting of Monster Manuals and Fiend Folios are supposed to find room in a single setting. I like the idea that a setting has a choice selection of monsters. Not necessarily a limited selection, just not an unlimited one. I mean, from a gamer’s point of view, Middle-Earth is pretty sparse on monsters. It’s pretty much orcs all the way, with half a dozen unique or very rare and very powerful others thrown in, which does not make for a lot of variety (and entertainment) when it comes to throwing adversaries at your PCs.
So any way, here we go. Let’s get rid of anything lifted from literature or mythology. So there go dwarves, elves, halflings and gnomes. There go goblinoids, orcs, ogres, trolls and giants. There go griffons, harpies, manticores and al the rest. Whoa – there go dragons! Bye-bye to skeletons, zombies, wraiths, ghouls…
What have we got left? The weird stuff. Rust monsters, owlbears, mimics, chokers, mind flayers, all sorts of deadly blobs of slime and psychopathic fungi. The really interesting stuff.
What would their world be like? The forests no longer ring with elven laughter. There aren’t any lost dwarven halls beneath the mountains, now the breeding warrens of goblins and majestic nests of sleeping dragons.
My first thought is that it will be something more Vancian and less Tolkienesque. Most of the civilized folk you meet are going to be human, and monsters will be monsters. Not endless species of folk with green skins or animal heads queuing up for an ecological niche. I mean freakish things born on a wizard’s workbench that have escaped into the wild, crossbred with something else and established themselves as a real menace to tourism. The things that evolve when rising damp gets in the way of a misfired spell or a spilled potion and goes on to get that first taste of human blood.
But, hey, over to you.
I once ran a game where the only races were humans and planetouched, and I think the game lost something because of that. The races of a world help define it as different to our own. We take our own, European-based human behavour for granted until we see that not all peoples are as typically selfish, or warlike.
The elves are unthinkably patient. The dwarves would die rather than give up their traditions. The little halflings will always find a place to fit in wherever they go. Humans can have these aspects, but not the entire human race as a rule, and I think that says something about people today and how little we've changed since medieval times. We're not all brave, or patient, or skilled, and I think that's why heroes are special, because they always are.
D&D isn't about realistic player characters - it's about heroes. Your human fighter isn't constrained by petty human weaknesses, in part because he's a hero and in part because the player doesn't have a reason to. Your hero is always brave because the person controlling him is safe. He is patient because time spent waiting passes swiftly for the player. He always finds his way and takes the difficult road because he knows he will grow from it and is not afraid of the conseqeuences. The fact that he's being played is what makes him a hero.
My own game world has no non-human races so all the characters are human ( classes are unaffected). It has no monsters with the exception of vermin, animals (both normal and dire),undead and select templates such as vampires and werewolves. Occasionally the story's circumstances and happenings will throw up creatures or characters which are plainly not normal and I use various monster stats straight from the MM for these, but they are always unique occurences tied to the story.
It all works out fine for me and I never have to worry about who has darkvision or speaks elven or whatever.
hehe, who the heck would want to play a human; I play at being one everyday, I expect something more from a D&D game. Tolkein also has lots and lots of spiders, some intelligent enough to talk. When I play a character; I dont want to play something ordinary or run of the mill regardless of race or culture even if its only background. A good background and templetes can make all the difference.
It's fantasy roleplaying. The more of the fantastic you take out, the less fantasy you have.
Jack
It's fantasy roleplaying. The more of the fantastic you take out, the less fantasy you have.
...not necessarily. I've read one really fantastic (in both meanings of the word) book where the fantasy was simply brought in applying traits found in real life insects to antropomorphic scale. Result was a strange mixture of otherness and familiarity...