Contest: Non-Traditional Races! [Little Red]

[Little Red Goblin Games]

So let’s talk about races!

We’ve done everything from ”race” as social constructs, to wacky halfbreeds (that some of you helped us make), and more recently we even did some pretty dark things. We LOVE to make races but we are BORED with the “standard seven”. We’ve all played, dwarves, humans, elves, some variation of “not-an-elf”, (etc.) or at the very least played with some in a game.

Well, we here at Little Red want some variety and that is exactly what we are doing here. Yes sir, we have 30+ fully realized player races for this book who are entirely unconnected to existing mythology/races/monsters. This book won’t have forty shades of “elf”- we seek to introduce a whole slew of novel and compelling races the likes of which you have not seen before. Each race comes complete with social, physical, societal, and religion overviews as well as an illustration for each (yep... 30+ pieces of art).

So, we want to once again involve you in the process. The submissions we got for Racial Guide 2.5: Halfbreeds and Hybrids were phenomenal and we want to, once again, open up three slots for external submissions as a contest. The contest will run for a month, from today (10/6/2014) until the 6th of November (11/6/2014).

Here are the guidelines:

Spoiler:

Design Principle: We are looking for races that, while remaining within the paradigm of fantasy races, do not draw inspiration or interact with established/Tolkien races. We are looking for new and unique races whose particular allure either defies/subverts old tropes or establishes/explores new or untapped ones. They should be mechanically unique, be able to be dropped into a campaign setting with minimal story requirements, and exciting to play.

Word Count: 1,000-3,000 words. This does not include random starting ages, random height and weight tables but does include racial stats, feats, weapons, and any of the text required in the template. If you have extra word count, feel free to add mundane equipment or racial feats that can tell us a more about your race.

Required: Each race should have an introduction, physical description, societal notes, temperaments/personality, religious notes (even if it is not a full paragraph), and notes on interactions. These do not have to be formal paragraphs, but make sure all of this is covered. We also suggest that you add a “gimmick” (that is what we call it). Something that makes them FEEL and PLAY differently. We openly encourage you to step outside the confines of the Advanced Racial Guide and do something fun and fantastic!

Setting Neutrality: Keep your flavor text setting neutral. You can say your race likes to inhabit mountains rich in iron, but don’t say they have a stronghold known as the Mines of Moria. While you are allowed to mention other races (even the standard seven), we’d suggest avoiding it whenever possible. Instead, use them to indicate similar races. For example, we have an extremely long-lived race known as the Te-Ra who we say gets along with other long-lived races like elves but doesn’t have the patience for the more impulsive races like humans or gnomes.

Racial Points: We don’t rely on the Advanced Racial Guide when it comes to races. We find that it tends to put certain mental constraints on what we are designing. However, we do like to utilize it for racial points and some verbiage. We are designing player races but, what that entails, is entirely up to you. If you write a race that has 25 racial points and is way overpowered, put in a sidebar to let us know why. Not everything that has 16 racial points is overpowered and not everything that has 6 is underpowered. A lot of times you will be ballparking the racial point value for your new abilities and we understand that. It’s the novelty of the mechanic that counts- not the racial point value. Free your mind...

Race Name: Make it something we can pronounce :-)

Template: Link to Doc

Please post any questions, comments, (etc) here and let's have a good one! If you guys want to post links to your race here- please do!
Otherwise they can be sent to us at: [e-mail] or just private messaged to this account.

Good luck!

[Typhon, Father of All Monsters]

IT BEGINS ANEW!

[Little Red Goblin Games]

Typhon, Father of All Monsters wrote:

IT BEGINS ANEW!

Indeed it does. Indeed... it... does...

Oh and we do have ONE race in the book that DOES have a sleight connection to normal lore...
but we just couldn't bring ourselves to cut the tarrasquelings from the book (...and even if we could, they'd just grow back).
I mean come on... "tarrasquelings"!

[Drejk]

I assume that the submission has to be a completely new race and not submitting a critter previously posted somewhere (*cough-blog-cough*)?

[Little Red Goblin Games]

We won't say the answer to that is a definitive "no".

Provided it was written, in its entirety, by you (or you get the formal consent of all involved) and not posted on a blog of someone like another publisher- sure why not. You may need to adjust pending designer feedback so just keep that in mind.

However, we'd encourage people to write something new as this is an opportunity to really cut loose and go for something completely original!

[Ambrosia Slaad]

Hmmm, the most difficult part is going to be keeping it within wordcount. :)

[Secret Wizard]

Writing my entry as we speak!

[Little Red Goblin Games]

@Secret Wizard
Fantastic! Can't wait to see it!

@Ambrosia Slaad
Isn't it always?
I always say a good designer can write good material but a great designer can do it within the word count ;-).
However, we are a LITTLE flexible with the word count but nothing to killer (like +200-500 is ok if you REALLY feel like you can't constrain it to 3k)...

[Orthos]

I think I have an idea of what I'd like to run with, it just needs a bit of revision....

[kevin_video]

I didn't even know that the last half-breeds book was something other people collaborated on. Thought it was all you guys. If I can come up with a cool concept, I'll throw it in. The problem is the majority of the ones I like, or did up conceptually, other people did up for other releases. Mine seem like rip-offs. Definitely going to try come up with something unique.

[christos gurd]

kevin_video wrote:

I didn't even know that the last half-breeds book was something other people collaborated on. Thought it was all you guys. If I can come up with a cool concept, I'll throw it in. The problem is the majority of the ones I like, or did up conceptually, other people did up for other releases. Mine seem like rip-offs. Definitely going to try come up with something unique.

oh yes indeed, in fact the halfling/flumph race was created by beloved board member mikaze.

[Little Red Goblin Games]

The vast majority were us. There were, I believe, 3 winner submissions included in the book.

[Shadowborn]

Gives me some incentive to dust off an incomplete idea and bring it to life. See what we have in the next day or two.

[Curaigh]

I have often wondered why more PC races didn't make it into the monster rounds of RPGSS (when CR allowed).
Now I have to wonder which of the previous ones will best fit the bill.... :)

[Orthos]

Probably due to the "no class levels" requirement of RPGSS.

[Little Red Goblin Games]

Monstrous races are good. We have a few with unusual anatomy/high race point values but all of them can be dropped into a game without issue. There are a few we have that have high race point values for the sake of some BIG gimmick. For example, we have a playtest balanced huge-sized race (they actually make pretty "meh" melee characters).

[Little Red Goblin Games]

Hey look, someone posted about this contest on a game design site. Cool.

[Wolfwaker]

Is there payment if we win? And if not, we retain all rights?

[Little Red Goblin Games]

We are not doing payment for this contest, but we do allow you to retain full rights (see the molemen from Racial Guide 2.5).

[RonarsCorruption]

Sweet contest! Now all I gotta do is come up with some new race to pitch you. ;)

[Little Red Goblin Games]

Just a heads up, our website is going though some changes so our @LittleRedGoblinGames.com email might be a little touch and go for a few days. You can message me either here with a personal message or at [e-mail]

[Curaigh]

Just for test I ran word count on the featured races come to 44k or more. That is the six (four?) page spread in the ARG. The uncommon races the two spread page in the ARG clock in at 1,200 to 1,500 words. Just an FYI

Adding
LittleRedGoblinlings [Feats]
LittleRedGoblinlings have access to the following [feats]

for alternate racial traits, feats, spells, equipment, magic items, archetypes etc. took almost 8% of the minimum wordcount. That is just the above words, not any actual feats, spells, abilities, etc. :)

I am about halfway done with a short entry word count, probably a third of what I want to do.

[Little Red Goblin Games]

Thanks for the word counts. We looked over some of those same numbers when we were planning this out. We have a certain max word count for the book and we reserved about 7.5k for the contest entries. Unfortunately we cannot support a book that large at this time.

While all of the races have background, racial stats, and base height/weight what else is included is a bit of a mixed bag. A few have alternate racial traits, weapons, equipment, or supporting feats (etc). If it serves to further the race entry, we’d encourage you to include it.

The authors of the contest winners can talk with us about expanding the wordcount of their entries if they feel it is necessary.

[Shadowborn]

I'm ballparking my finished entry at about 1500 words minimum, 1750 on the high end, and it will be about as complete as the ones found in the ARG.

[TarkXT]

Just discovered this.

It will be done by the time I turn 31.

[Little Red Goblin Games]

How old are you now?

[TarkXT]

30.

[Little Red Goblin Games]

Well, so long as your birthday is within a month or so you're good! ;-)

(If so, happy early birthday)

[Kerney]

Looked at the template and noticed:

Quote:

●Racial Trait (2): Filler have yadda yadda yadda...
●Racial Trait (2): Filler have yadda yadda yadda...
●Racial Trait (2): Filler have yadda yadda yadda...
●Racial Trait (2): Filler have yadda yadda yadda...
Racial Points: 9

If I were to use an ability not included in the in the Advanced Race Guide and therefore not assigned a point value, how would I include that, if I can?

[Little Red Goblin Games]

We 100% encourage you to use non-ARG race traits. In fact, we fully expect you NOT to purely use it. I'd say take a stab at the point value best you can. You might just include a note somewhere like:

Quote:

*I wrote these myself and assigned my own point value

Or not. I mean we are familiar enough with the ARG's abilities that we can tell when something was not from it and will just assume you made your own trait.

We are more looking for thematic cohesion in your design. We are more apt to go for a novel and interesting race over a mechanically excellent one.

Good question.

[Shadowborn]

Is the LRGG email stable again?

[Little Red Goblin Games]

Basically we updated a plugin on our site and it crashed it. We are working with our host to get it back up. It LOOKS like it is up but we have to re-connect our emails.

[Little Red Goblin Games]

Ok it is working now and I got 2 race submissions.

[Secret Wizard]

I don't know if my race is brilliant or insane.

I need to "reshuffle" the racials a bit though, to make sure replacement traits overlap a bit.

[Little Red Goblin Games]

Why does it have to be just one? Brilliant AND insane is perfect!

[motteditor]

Check its mental stats. If it's got a boost to Intelligence, that leans toward brilliant. A penalty to Wisdom could well indicate insanity.

:)

[Rysky]

How many ideas are we allowed to submit?

[Little Red Goblin Games]

Ideally only 1 but if you have like 2-3 we'll take a look at them. Keep in mind even if you are the top 2 we can only use one of your submissions.

[Jeffrey Swank]

This is one of the first creations I've made that I have been REALLY excited to submit. lol

[Little Red Goblin Games]

Sounds fantastic! Can't wait to see it :-)

[Secret Wizard]

Anyone willing to check my submission out for bugs before I send it?

[Little Red Goblin Games]

We'd be happy to provide feedback. However, it might be fun to post it here if you want some open feedback from folks.

[Secret Wizard]

Well, alright.

If anyone is interested, please take a look at the madness that is THE OUPHES.

The problem with being a thoroughly thought out race is that that doc clocks in on 13k pages. So trimming is in order. If anything, please skip straight to racial traits and gimme your 2c on the Erratic Mutation feature. Do remember to take a look at the alternate mutations.

[Secret Wizard]

Bump! Take a look at the race! I promise it's fun.

At least I'd like to know if I'd have to trim it before submitting it.

[Little Red Goblin Games]

It IS a very cool race. I don't have time right now to post all the feedback I have but it is very solid.

[Secret Wizard]

Little Red Goblin Games wrote:

It IS a very cool race. I don't have time right now to post all the feedback I have but it is very solid.

Cool, let me know! I'll use that info to shorten the submission so it's viable for this contest.

[Little Red Goblin Games]

Hey guys! We are 50% done with the submission time! We've got a few good submissions but are always looking for more!

Check out some of the awesome artwork we already have for some of the in-house races in this book:

Pon'pari, Gaoth, Mannequin

And as a bonus, one of our artists (Meg) turned our "Wug" into the "ultimate wugraior"... for some reason.
(And it's as awesome as it is hilarious, once you read the race)

[Orthos]

*sneeeeerk*

[Secret Wizard]

Love them all, great artistic direction on the Gaoth!

(Still waiting for the feedback <3)

[Drejk]

I had a dream...