Uncommon Races & Background Generator


Advice


Howdy,
So. Pretty much all races are referred to in Ultimate Campaign's Background Generator's table, 1-23 "Race of Adopted Sibling", but for those races themselves there is no mention of which table/ heading would be most appropriate to use (unless I've missed that somewhere in the book, but I kinda doubt that). So what's your take? Particularly, I've got a player making a Kitsune character who REALLY likes to get into detail about her background, siblings, cousins, etc etc. Which tables would you use for these "unusual" characters?


I would invent. Seriously, they'll have WAY more fun than just pulling a background of a table. However, I'm quite fond of writing backstories as well, so I might not be the right reference.


Inventing is always nice, but I've already heard the "Why does everybody else get to roll on a cool chart and I don't?" I guess maybe it has something to do with that random element of fate... and such charts are a great boon to newer/ younger players!


I guess so. It can definitly be easier for some folks. (I often create poor orphans to avoid any "family"/responsibility complications)Then again, I'm not fond of rolling. If only because I tend to roll low. Never monstrously low (I havent gotten a major critical fail yet) but just enough that I dislike randomness. I've built quite a few character backgrounds (even before playing PnP) so it feels more natural to me.


Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

You can always go with the "closest core equivalent" race for background generation IMO. Aasimar use half-elf tables, catfolk use elf tables, dhampirs use half-orc tables, etc.

Kitsune would probably be broadly similar to elves. Since the tables for race only cover homeland, parents, and siblings, it should be fairly easy to interpret the results.


Yeah, that's kind of what I figured as well, although I wasn't really sure just how large the typical Kitsune family is.

How did you come to Aasimar using Half-Elf tables, etc.? Is this some errata I missed somewhere?

Thanks!


Yeah the advanced race guide has aasimars, sylphs, etc living as long as elves or longer, which I prefer. But one of the pathfinder guys didn't like that. And when someone pointed out that the ROTRL campaign had an npc written assuming a more human lifespan, this PF developer kinda had the excuse he may have felt he needed to justify the shorter lifespan.

Now whether they went through with it or not, I can't say. I hate short lived aasimar, ifrits, etc on concept. So I never looked to see if they pushed that through. I guess if they did, I can roll up my Paladin of Asmodeus, since that was in a sourcebook too. :)


Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Aasimar (along with dhampirs, ifrits, oreads, tieflings, etc.) are "cross-breeds" instead of distinct races. They don't have their own culture/society as such. Therefore the closest core equivalents are half-elf or half-orc (depending on whether they are considered more "acceptable" or "distrusted").


Animation wrote:


Now whether they went through with it or not, I can't say. I hate short lived aasimar, ifrits, etc on concept. So I never looked to see if they pushed that through. I guess if they did, I can roll up my Paladin of Asmodeus, since that was in a sourcebook too. :)

The difference between the Aasimar thing and the Paladin of Asmodeus is that they had already established in not only Rise of the Runelords but also in both Blood of Fiends and Blood of Angels that planetouched have human lifespans. So, when the Advanced Race Guide contradicted not one, not two, but THREE other books and totally messed up the entire backstory of an established NPC important to the history of the entire Golarion setting because the developer that wrote that section was not aware of the other books precedent and the others didn't notice it until players pointed it out, that's a big deal. Also kinda funny that you say "This PF developer" like the Creative Director is just some random guy.

That said, yes it will be corrected in the next printing of the Advanced Race Guide last I heard.

As for a Paladin of Asmodeus, if your GM thinks it works, go for it. But, Paizo as a whole decided that the entire idea was a mistake because a Paladin worshipping an evil deity would still be working toward the goals of an evil deity, even if he himself never did anything evil. It's a completely different scenario than what happened with the planetouched ages.


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On the point, I had a PC want to do this with a toon Half-Elf. I let her 'choose' one of those races. The Tiefling chose to be the adopted child of a race of less than sterling qualities (necromancy, human sacrifice, etc.) that his character was 'rebelling' against.

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