Sup/tg/, I come asking an important question.
Suppose elves and dwarves take a backseat or aren't really there in a campaign. Suppose beastfolk comprise some of the main playable races. How do you use them without focusing on them too much, without turning it into Monster Musume, and without turning it into Furaffinity?
...
...
The key points are to make them distinct from humans, but to also flesh them out beyond animal stereotypes.
Mostly because ANY one note race is shite.
Just admit to yourself you're a degenerate and stop giving a fuck what others say. And if your race is developed well enough, nobody will say anything.
I mean, my setting has anime dogpeople and catpeople as two major races, but they are reasonably fluffed out, follow 's guidelines and are non-sexualized. Players are fine with them.
A good resource on designing cultures is frathwiki.com
multiple cultures of the same race, fill it for all of them. Bam, you have races that are interesting to interact with, not just one-note "oh this guy has a wolf head, okay, i guess" dudes.
>How do you use them without focusing on them too much,
Just make them one of several races to use.
>without turning it into Monster Musume,
No monster girls, only beastfolk. Also no harem shit.
>and without turning it into Furaffinity?
Stay away from sex, I guess? Im not exactly sure why you would want to stay away from a good place to find beastfolk art, though you might have to sift through a lot of dreck.
For me at least, my beastfolk are properly integrated races of the world. The gnolls of the Casmaron region are loosely based on central asian cultures with specific features that reflect their heritage as being humanoid spotted hyenas.
The ratfolk are aliens from another world that crashed on the world many millennia ago. Their gods are ascended ratfolk and the AI of the ship given divine power. The Dire rat is basically a chimp version of their species that escaped into the world along with them. They live as caravans of traveling merchants and tinkers. They are the foremost experts in clockwork and other such technologies. Halflings have a severe and utterly irrational hatred of them.
The horsefolk are intellectuals and strongmen who have been friends with humanity (degenerate atlanteans) since their creation during the beginning of the Age of Darkness many millennia ago. Their culture is vaguely greek and mycenaean, with elements of other mediterranean island cultures.
And several others. You can find any of these people in many parts of the world, leading normal peasant lives. Communities of horsefolk farmers who live with humans and dwarves and elves who have settled in the same city, gnoll textile merchants who have traveled to the trade city on the border of their lands, ratfolk watchmakers who live in the great metropolises, and such.
And any species that is roughly as smart as humans, and humanoid like us, is going to have very similar minds to us.
What SF author had the thing about as smart as a man but not the same as a man? I want to say it was Asimov.
There are no Mustelid races at all.
Well, you start by fleshing out all the traits. Catgirls, for example, are all self-centered sociopaths, because cat. Wolfgirls are extremely loyal to their pack, foxgirls we should probably just refer to kitsune for...
It's only light anthro, just the ears and tail, rather than full anthro so it shouldn't be full-on Fur Affinity, right?
The horsefolk are ugliest and dumbest looking beastfolks.
...
Furry is in the eye of the autist. If you players don't see furry in it you can have pantsless wolves with neon facepaint running all over the place and there won't be a problem. If your players sperg out at the mere mention of antrophomorphic animals no amount of effort on your part will make it work.
wat?
You run them as pic related
>If you players don't see furry in it you can have pantsless wolves with neon facepaint running all over the place and there won't be a problem.
Scratch the neon part and you have slightly hairier Scotsmen...
>Monster Musume, and without turning it into Furaffinity?
Oh my god... By not bothering to bring up the furry topic maybe? Seriously furries are like the creepy anime fans with a room full of body pillows.
There are normal people out there that like anime. Ergo: ...
Literally who gives a shit. The most obnoxious sparkle-dog neon green fur affinity tier character with a self-lubricating butthole is literally no different from 90% of this board's sorceress elf waifu.
Beastfolk are fun, easy, and make for great setting material. Even if you run the most boring catfolk in the world, it's still leagues better then fucking elves and dwarves again.
I want weasel people so badly. Pure energy and cuteness. Ironically they are ruthless fearless predators and oddly strong for their size.
This user has the right of it. It's okay to use animal behavior or associations as building blocks - gnolls as matriachal, or practicing necromancy, or being hedonistic (long story short, hyenas have a LONG association with sexual potency & deviancy) are all good building blocks, but they shouldn't be the be-all, end-all of the race.
Look at the Dach'youn or Rodduns of Wicked Fantasy; they're both vanilla gnolls and ratfolk under the hood, but both have distinctive cultures that don't make them blatant fetish-fuel or one-note jokes.
That's funny, I've had the same idea now as well. Pretty unique compared to ratmen, and very aesthetic as well.
avoid making half of their race description be about sex and relationships.
don't make them just have all the traits of the original animals and nothing else.
you need to give players who want to play as, let's say, the wolf people, more reasons to play them than " it's a woofie!". this mean developing their concept beyond the yiff.
>you need to give players who want to play as, let's say, the wolf people, more reasons to play them than " it's a woofie!"
youtube.com
They should be open minded and communicative, but sacrificially fearless on battlefield. Something like military republic.
To be notice. Its very hard to draw small mustelids in sexualized way. Their body structure make them rather difficult to be drawn like topical furry characters. They and other unpopular animals are good way to avoid furry attention.
>Energetic, cutesy
>Ruthless predators
I'd assert that any negative stereotypes would deem them as 'psychotic under an adorable visage'? Kind of like a certain rabbit from Monty Python and the Holy Grail?
Setting control, especially NPC responses. Things are only a big deal in a TTRPG if they're made to be a big deal.
So the things you don't want you ignore, and the things you do want you highlight.
I think not. Weasels and ferrets are friendly animals who get along with dogs and humans very well. Weaselfolks will not pretend to be nice and shy. They just whant you to not f*ck with them. They never fall without fight and hit above their weight.
youtu.be
Isn't it amazing? Just call furries beastfolk and you can break the rules all you want because the resident free doer is a furfag!
Exactly! "Aww, they look so nice and friendly... then one pulled two knives and carved up the guardsmen."
Well, your best bet is but also, just consider drawing from less common beast types.
Kagaroo-people (great for kickboxing monks and klepto rogues)
Emu-people (like sapient chocobo)
Firefly-people
Naked Mole Rat-people
Electric Eel People
The list goes on. If you go with the common tropes of beastpeople, and leave them one-dimensional, it's obvious. Exotic ones that are fully developed and NEVER reference their source material, they look more creative.
Ready for eels?
Beastfolk have been a part of TTRPGs for over three decades. They have been a part of Scifi books for over 5 decades, probably going on damn near 7 or 8, while fantasy is even older than that. Animal people have been part of mythology for damn near a millennia or two (cynocephali, adlet, and a whole fuckton more).
The earliest signs of humanoid animal people in human thought is a 40,000 year old statue of a lion person carved from ivory found in Germany.
If we can't talk about an integral part of the games and genres are games coem from, that would be utterly stupid.
...
I disagree, you can make them identical to humans and it still works.
Mustelids are difficult to exhaust, because their metabolism is very effectively fill the blood with oxygen. They can use normal weapon and dont care about stamina. Axe, mace and heavy blades benefit the most from spring-like muscles.
Why fox have a tail? Other animals don't have them.
Is it normal to be blamed as furfag for using plots from fucking ovid fucking metamorphoses!?
On Veeky Forums? Yes, unfortunately. Seriously, if it has any form of humanoid animal person or even just intelligent animals, you'll get accused of furfaggotry by newfags and idiots who don't play games or autists with no appreciation for mythology or its themes.
"Juanjo Guarnido (the illustator) said in an interview that he put the tail on the fox for several reasons:
" 1) it is used to identify immediately because we often do not notice his face (when he’s hooded or when he’s in the car at the end, for example)
2) Blacksad discovers traces in the snow cleared. In nature, foxes actually scan their own tracks with their tail
3) In the sex scene it is not only instantly recognizable, but also it gives the scene its bestial side. But it reduces the shocking / pornographic effect too, because it’s like seeing two dogs copulating. I'm quite shy, and I would have been uncomfortable drawing this scene if it showed two people.""
He's not the only time tails have appeared in Blacksad but they are rare.
Most of the other examples are on child characters which gives them a more playful look.
With the way Blacksad is about having human characters be physically represented by the animal their personality is akin to there perhaps is also some thought of the ones with tails being "closer" to the animal side than most.
Basically, haflings done well.
There is one weasel above all others. Animals so based and strong that only few has right to know. Killer of pandas, horror of mokeys, sweet tail of death... The yellow-throated marten. They need no protection from eyes and bright colors are just a warning for the others. Think about it.
youtu.be
This is very important, but at the same time I feel at least some part of the animal stereotypes or traits need to be maintained, or at least played with in some way.
Aside from trying to keep them from being a human reskin, one should strive to integrate key anatomical, or mental 'features' that the real animal displays, or at least a twist or approximation of it. Something, that keeps them more on the alien side as far as behavior and thought process/culture goes.
In many cases for example, people are outright afraid of giving their non-human races both powerful capabilities/traits, and crippling issues that could severely impact their ability to do certain things.
As long as it isn't a sergal, just treat beastfolk like orcs or goliaths and you should be fine.
* Animals are People
Give distinctive cultures to beasts,like Zootopia, they are humans with some quirks, and it is pretty good.Bunnies are hobbits that can multiply. Timber wolves are Spartan like and so on.
* Animals are animals
Their primal urges shape their societies. this is Futurama, like the planet of Zoildberg that is a aristocracy with ritual mating combats.
what the fuck is a sergal?
A miserable pile of vore and rape.
just like most of the furry community, but i mean, that doesn't looks like any animal i can think of, is it made up?
Yes its made up, the modern sergal as perceived by the furry community looks like a wolfraptor/sharkwolf, but the original Japanese artist claims they're a fusion between a airplane's sleek aesthetic and a rabbit that gradually got more wolf-like since their initial creation back in the early 2000s.
shet