I've been considering an all human campaign, and I could just have attributes associated with different nationalities, but aside from a few skill bonuses, it just doesn't bide well with me. That and I'd like everyone to be from the same place. Then it came to me, most fantasy "races" are just body types and possibly associated with a profession or living style. Orcs are your strong men, halflings are short ones, gnomes are the eccentric ones, elves are the slim ones, dwarves are your hardy types, and humans are the average ones. So my question is whether this sort of thing would be considered interesting and add depth or if most people would just find it arbitrary and limiting.
It sounds to me like a personal preference that would not be shared by many gamers, but you might get lucky with your group and they'd be all excited about it.
Doesn't do anything for me, frankly. But then I'm known for pursuing custom races when I play. I like my fantasy to be fantastical.
I actually did something like this in a 999 AD game I ran, however we actually used "races" as in you're a northern barbarian, +2 con, you're a Spanish Moore +2 Int, things like that. I worked great for the campaign.
It sounds to me like a personal preference that would not be shared by many gamers, but you might get lucky with your group and they'd be all excited about it.
Doesn't do anything for me, frankly. But then I'm known for pursuing custom races when I play. I like my fantasy to be fantastical.
I was looking more on the comparison of choosing body types to nationalities rather than body types to "races". It's planned to be an all human campaign either way.
I was looking more on the comparison of choosing body types to nationalities rather than body types to "races". It's planned to be an all human campaign either way.It sounds to me like a personal preference that would not be shared by many gamers, but you might get lucky with your group and they'd be all excited about it.
Doesn't do anything for me, frankly. But then I'm known for pursuing custom races when I play. I like my fantasy to be fantastical.
If the goal is to create some sub-races of human that have different "racial" modifiers and abilities, then unless they exactly match the existing racial modifiers of other actual races, then I'd have a concern about how you were balancing things.
If the goal is to use the human racial characteristics but restrict certain choices to certain sub-races, then that just sounds like imposing your own view of what a sub-race would be on the players.
If the goal is to just use normal human racial characteristics and just use "body type" as pure fluff, then I'd be disappointed that you were limiting racial choices in your campaign to human only.
What exactly are you doing with your body types? Will you have a "body type" that exactly matches the characteristics of a half-orc, another that exactly matches the characteristics of an elf, etc?
What exactly are you doing with your body types? Will you have a "body type" that exactly matches the characteristics of a half-orc, another that exactly matches the characteristics of an elf, etc?
Somewhat more or less, I haven't invested too much into it because I still don't know how to feel about it.
Obvious things is that no matter what you choose as your "body type", language is separate, and they won't get any special perception. However, I do plan to try and have abilities swapped out for things of equal value (which is really just eyeballing). If abilities get too unbalanced, I might just let it affect ability scores.
Just trying to put out some feelers first though.
This has been done many times before.
I've got my old copy of the revised Arduin on the shelf and it has a table with various builds, including skinny, obese, and extremely muscular, in addition to having various height and weight modifiers for assorted human ethnic groups.
The question is whether you're wanting this to be a fully balance point-buy type thing or whether you want it to be roll-your-dice, take-your-chances random.
Personally I think random is a better choice for this. Otherwise everyone will find the body type that's most optimal and make characters like the old Masters of the Universe which are just different faces stuck onto the same extremely muscular torso (done because it was "optimal" for Mattel to have only one mold at the factory).
This has been done many times before.
I've got my old copy of the revised Arduin on the shelf and it has a table with various builds, including skinny, obese, and extremely muscular, in addition to having various height and weight modifiers for assorted human ethnic groups.
The question is whether you're wanting this to be a fully balance point-buy type thing or whether you want it to be roll-your-dice, take-your-chances random.
Personally I think random is a better choice for this. Otherwise everyone will find the body type that's most optimal and make characters like the old Masters of the Universe which are just different faces stuck onto the same extremely muscular torso (done because it was "optimal" for Mattel to have only one mold at the factory).
I want to keep it simple and abstract, trying to go with body archetypes and not get into too much detail on particular height and weight. I was also planning on letting the player choose. I'm a fan of concept first. It shouldn't be any less balanced than when someone chooses their race in a standard D&D or PF game.
Um, 'eccentric' doesn't have anything to do with body styles. Just sayin'. But the idea has some merit. Though the floating +2 covers it somewhat.
I know a kid who is only 150 pounds, 6'4" ...
By definition, that isn't large.