I have a group that wants to play monstrous races (lizardfolk, strix, construct, fetchling, centaur, etc...). Many of the AP's are very human (or at least CRB race) focused. Seems to often require some mental gymnastics to justify the inclusion of less common races.
We've often done the 'friend of the half-elf' and just helping him out kind of thing. But this time no one wants to play an even semi-normal race.
My initial thoughts were Kingmaker (though you may have trouble making peace with the neighbors if they think you are a monster) or the pirate AP.
So, in your opinion, which AP seems like it would work best with the really bizarre races.
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Monsters centered adventure and modules was mostly something done in older editions of D&D but anyway...among the current paizo ap:
Serpent Skull, simply because the scenario is you crashing on an island and exploring the mysteries of it. So anybody can fit on there. People don't like Serpent Skull ap...so it's not great.
Reign of Winter...simply because you end up starting in the most tolerant town ever in Taldor where they accept all the weird and freaks. Later interactions in the AP would vary a lot.
Kingmaker yeah you can twist however you want...I just don't expect you to interact much with the humans nearby, which is part of the fun of the AP...so up to what your player likes.
All the other aps, wouldn't recommend for many reasons.
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I would vote against Serpent's Skull simply because IMO it's not a very good AP. The first book or two is okay, up through 5 is pretty bad (3 and 4 are just godawful), and can't say much on 6 because we never got there (group gave up on it).
Kingmaker is probably your best bet. Even with that you'll want someone to have super-good diplomacy so that when it does come time to interact with humans you aren't completely screwed. Perhaps give the party face a bonus Skill Focus (Diplomacy) to make up the racism gap (which would be between -5 and -10 due to bad starting atitudes). Whether the kingdom itself is monstrous is a different story; you could always use the nearby Kobolds (who would populate quickly) and make a monster nation. You can get through at least the first 3 books without needing much/any interaction with standard races if you go the monster nation route, and by book 4 you should have enough diplomacy to barge through anti-monster penalties.
Legacy of Fire, beginning as it does in Katapesh with the players as nominal agents of the Pactmasters, takes all kinds.
If you can't play a weird race in Katapesh, what's the point?
I haven't played it, but I'd be tempted to go with Wrath of the Righteous and play up the whole "See, freaks can be heroes, too!" angle.
Well there was talk about them picking ones that could at least have something in common.
Lizardfolk, nagaji, and kobold are all reptiles and could easily worship the same god.
All deep under ground races that were enslaved by drow and are now fleeing the drow.
But nothing definite yet. They are waiting to see what AP we pick as a group.
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Android, Orcs and Ratfolk are all featured in Iron Gods, so it would be an option. the Player´s Guide also mentions Aasimars, Changelings and Tieflings.
In War of the Burning Sky (ENworld publishing) you could play Orcs and Lizardfolk as you can find them in cities.
Finally, instead of an adventurepath, you could set up a campaign in Forgotten Realm's Undermountain. The PCs are monsters that were captured and locked up in the dungeons of castle Waterdeep (Also known as the Citadel of the Bloody Hand) The party would have to escape and find their way down the Falling Stairs, through Undermountain and finally to Skullport, the not-so-safe haven for criminals and monsters.
There are a lot of issues with a party of monsters. First the fact that they are monsters, many of which (like Strix) will trigger a kill on site reaction.
The biggest problem however, is that there's practically nothing that binds a group of mixed monsters together. When you don't even have species in common, what do you have for glue.? Of course there will be those playing groups that gloss over or even ignore the issue, but that really isn't dealing with it on a roleplaying basis.
This is why I suggested Wrath of the Righteous - party cohesion problems are basically solved by the "misfits fighting evil" dynamic, and people will think twice about murdering that strix if he's sporting a holy symbol of Iomedae.
But again, I haven't actually played the AP so I'd be interested to hear from someone who has.
Skull and Shackles does not care about what race you are. Very easy to think of a reason why a rare race would be there (slavery, trade routes of several different nations, for example).
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There are a lot of issues with a party of monsters. First the fact that they are monsters, many of which (like Strix) will trigger a kill on site reaction.
The biggest problem however, is that there's practically nothing that binds a group of mixed monsters together. When you don't even have species in common, what do you have for glue.? Of course there will be those playing groups that gloss over or even ignore the issue, but that really isn't dealing with it on a roleplaying basis.
This is why I suggested Wrath of the Righteous - party cohesion problems are basically solved by the "misfits fighting evil" dynamic, and people will think twice about murdering that strix if he's sporting a holy symbol of Iomedae.
But again, I haven't actually played the AP so I'd be interested to hear from someone who has.
That's another thought. Regardless of AP, wearing a very obvious holy symbol (and accoutrements) of immensely-good-god-here would typically get people thinking twice. Especially Sarenrae, due to her redemption focus.
Adventures for the "not exactly core book races" are in my long term agenda to go with the Book of Heroic Races Advanced Series. Unfortunately, I don't have any such adventures to help you at this moment.
I have a group that wants to play monstrous races (lizardfolk, strix, construct, fetchling, centaur, etc...). Many of the AP's are very human (or at least CRB race) focused. Seems to often require some mental gymnastics to justify the inclusion of less common races.
We've often done the 'friend of the half-elf' and just helping him out kind of thing. But this time no one wants to play an even semi-normal race.My initial thoughts were Kingmaker (though you may have trouble making peace with the neighbors if they think you are a monster) or the pirate AP.
So, in your opinion, which AP seems like it would work best with the really bizarre races.
Skull and Shackles and Iron Gods are probably the easiest to use strange races with, IMHO. The former is very misfit friendly, since it's all about being pirates, and the Shackles seem pretty open to odder races. The latter is set in Numeria, and with ratfolk, androids, and Kasatha all over the place, I doubt your group will stick out THAT much.
Although something to keep in mind, is that the party make up itself might prove problematic. Strix can fly, and that ability unfettered can make many encounters and set ups obsolete. Centaurs are large and might not be that great for exploring dungeons or operating in more challenging terrain. At least some construct races are hard to heal and can't be resurrected. I don't necessarily see any real issues with the Fetchling or Lizardfolk (other than maybe the normal RP challenges), but it might be really difficult to throw in the other races without combat swinging from lethal to trivial.
Iron Gods seems to be the perfect wierd race AP.
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Why not Reign of Winter or Mummy's Mask:)
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I have a group that wants to play monstrous races (lizardfolk, strix, construct, fetchling, centaur, etc...). Many of the AP's are very human (or at least CRB race) focused. Seems to often require some mental gymnastics to justify the inclusion of less common races.
We've often done the 'friend of the half-elf' and just helping him out kind of thing. But this time no one wants to play an even semi-normal race.My initial thoughts were Kingmaker (though you may have trouble making peace with the neighbors if they think you are a monster) or the pirate AP.
So, in your opinion, which AP seems like it would work best with the really bizarre races.
There are a lot of issues with a party of monsters. First the fact that they are monsters, many of which (like Strix) will trigger a kill on site reaction.
The biggest problem however, is that there's practically nothing that binds a group of mixed monsters together. When you don't even have species in common, what do you have for glue.? Of course there will be those playing groups that gloss over or even ignore the issue, but that really isn't dealing with it on a roleplaying basis.
What binds them together is the same thing that binds a human, dwarf, elf, halfling, and gnome together. After all, they also don't have their species in common. Of course, there are those who gloss over this lack of role playing, but what can you do?
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This thread makes me tempted to think up ways to "reverse" the APs; rework them from the monsters point of view standing up against all of those murderhobos.
Serpent's Skull could probably work really well that way.
Id add in to the Legacy of Fire vote. Katapesh is already so cosmopolitan that nothing will look weird there as long as it behaves in trading places. Lizards tend to like deserts more than mammals do as well should your party choose that way.
Way of the Wicked might make finding an excuse easier, but it will make conspiration parts rather demanding to pull off.
Not everything would fit into Skulls and Shackles, but still more than most APs.
Haven't read Iron Gods yet, but with the numerian themes it might not be that cool to be a weirdo after all. Sure - plenty of excuses, but as I understand locals will still see an abomination (only difference being they see those more often than other nations)
This thread makes me tempted to think up ways to "reverse" the APs; rework them from the monsters point of view standing up against all of those murderhobos.
Serpent's Skull could probably work really well that way.
I've done this before. Where the PCs are orcs, goblins, kobolds, etc who survive the events of the old Keep on the Borderlands modules. They're basically forced together for the sake of mutual survival at that point, as there's no other orc, goblin, kobold, etc tribes in the area for them to join up with. Eventually they're able to for a new mixed race tribe and take the fight to the "pink skins".
Shattered Star could probably be done without too much fuss. Change some of the background (not working for the Pathfinders, for instance), but otherwise, it should be fairly easy to do. The biggest difficulty would be figuring out the Magnimar portions and why the constabulary isn't attacking your group, but again, something that should be fairly easy to rectify creatively.
My initial thoughts were Kingmaker (though you may have trouble making peace with the neighbors if they think you are a monster)
Every neighbor of note in Kingmaker is either a monster in its own right or wants to kill you and take your stuff anyway. Your actual employers (which have no real presense in the AP besides explaining where your settlers come from) are about the only exception.
So it is pretty much ideal. The party I'm currently runnig there consists of a fey, a catfolk, a centaur and an awakened wolf. Only the latter causes serious PR problems and then because the major force of evil that would be substituting for Pitax in part 5 employs worgs heavily.
Keep in mind that the ARG Race Points system is highly broken anyway. No way should Svirfneblin cost 28 RP -- they're not terrible, but they're not THAT good; likewise, the Elemental-touched other than Suli aren't so terrible as to be worth only 6 RP to 7 RP each.
Iron gods would probably not be a good choice book 3 involves befriending the people of a small town and weird races might turn the townfolk off.
Its a very small part, and not essential to befriend them:-)
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^Even if it is, you could just talk to the townfolk paraphrasing Monsters vs Aliens: "Robot problem? Monster solution!"
^I told my daughter that, her reaction "If the Mayor Starts playing a Keyboard i'm stabbing him in the face!" hmmm, Iadenveigh might be a problem for us.....:-p
If you were going for a "theme" group of monsters, you could always try Carrion Crown with Dhampirs, Fetchlings, Changlings (I think they're thematic at least), and the guys from Blood of the Moon. Gives you a creepy gothic group vibe.
I know lots of folks don't particularly care for Carrion Crown, but then I've always been a big fan of fantasy horror. You will run into some Xenophobia as it happens in Ustalav, but with decent disguise scores the above races should be able to sneak about decently.
Well, Carrion Crown is out. We just got done running that. The GM had the xenophobia out of control even with just the standard core races.
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Add another vote to Skull and Shackles. Pirates were rough around the edges, and even still so on matters of race, but they were still several more degrees more tolerant and cosmopolitan than the homeliest peasant or the most well-travelled noble.
In the "Black and Grey" morality of the Caribbean, on matters of race, pirates were a lot more grey at times.
Well there's Way of the Wicked (Evil AP so they're supposed to be monsters inside why not outside too), and the unfinished Throne of Night (Underdark/Darklands AP) by FMG.
There's also the (against the) Rise of the Drow mega adventure/AP by AAW. Their Snow White mega adventure can perhaps feature fairy tale like PC races.
Coliseum Morpheon can host any weird race though it's not an AP. (You could run some old Planescape modules before though like this guy did. In Planescape anything goes...)
Or run an all kitsune Jade Regent maybe? All tiefling Council of thieves?
Go all Shabti & Samsaran then they can tell past life stories around the camp fire and call themselves Shirley & The McClaines
;-p
I would like to do those, but I seriously doubt they will all agree to the same race. A group of semi-related races is probably the closest they will ever get.