What are some interesting races for a fantasy setting that avoids the dwarf elf hobbit cliche?

Phenotype has nothing to do with the elf-dwarf dichotomy.

No, because non-human races are unrelatable or something.

Unrelatable for plebs that is. Or just as likely they just don't even try to relate when they see something unexpected. So maybe you can't make a widely popular setting. But you can make a good one.

>Interesting races
No such thing.

I remember one series of books, "Empire of Black and Gold" I think, where everyone was human, but with insect elements.
Beetles were very common, ants too. Mantis and Spider had a rivalry iirc.

One thing the books did interestingly is the rarer tribes had more bug powers, or they were stronger. Mantises were inhumanly good swordsmen, Spiders were master manipulators, Wasps were disciplined soldiers and all that, but the masses were better at tool use, though with less bug powers. Perhaps more human.
"Higher" bug tribe folk found stuff like crossbows counter-intuitive and incredibly difficult to use, whereas beetles and ants couldn't see where the problem was and were engineering focussed.

Bizarrely though, I can't recall any definitive description of the bug tribed people. A couple rarer varieties were mentioned to be monstrous looking, but I do not remember any mentions of skin versus chitin.
Then again I never read the whole series.

>what is James Cameron's Avatar, a movie which gets the audience to side with the giant blue cat-people over humans and results in the main human character becoming one of these aliens
>what are the million Disney movies that feature talking mouse people, dogs, lions, and other creatures that we're supposed to relate to
>what is Shrek, Monsters Inc, etc
>what is a lack of imagination on anyone who is too fucking retarded to suspend their disbelief and play pretend for 2 hours

Only brainlets need humans to attach themselves to because they're too dumb to imagine anything else.

That seems awfully contrarian. Care to elaborate?

I'll help. If the race is what's interesting, the character flatter than the paper it's printed on.

It's not the setting's job to make the character interesting.

Why do you think that both can't be interesting?
And isn't race one of the parts of a character?
Seems like a fallacy to me.

Viper bats
Big Green short snouted pachederm men
Birbs

Alright so elves are tall guys, dwarves are short guys and orcs are tough guys. What we need is more guys.
>Speedy guys
>Hungry guys
>Colorful guys
>Swimming guys
>Numerous guys
>Flying guys
>Poisonous guys
>Nocturnal guys
>Space guys
>Stretchy guys
>Big eye guys
>Cryptic guys
>Parasite guys
>Cloud guys

Right now I have
>Vulturefolk who undergo heavy body modification to wear special masks their god dropped off for them
>Salamander people broken up between the smaller, smarter males and the larger, dumber females females
>Ant-Lion centaur people, the only intelligent ones are female, while the males are cat-sized flying ants who only exist to breed and scout
>Intelligent siphonophores whose bodies are made up of metallic worms
>Humans
I'm wondering if I should include a more 'traditional' race into the mix, since apart from humans, everything I have is animalistic or alien.

>Intelligent siphonophores whose bodies are made up of metallic worms
I like this

I feel as though with such a fantastical line-up, there should be a few things off about the humans too. Some things that are uncanny and make them seem bizarre compared to earth humans.

>fauns
>ghouls
>rainbowniggers
>merfolk
>hivemind controlled lesser humanoids
>harpies
>toxic mutants
>bogeymen
>ayys
>ito men
>biclops
>mole men
>women
>elementals

They are basically blue humans. Reread that post. They are pretty damn human like

>no dwarf elf hobbit cliches, watdo?
hmmm, maybe some tolkienesque races instead then?

Ah, using the Flash Gordon method of naming other races I see

>Movies are the same as TTRPGs or even videogames

Yeah, man, because it's totally the same to watch and relate to a story about an alien character and to play that story and be that alien character

We're humans, we don't know anything more than that. We don't know how to be droids or bees or fish

Did you read the image? That's clearly Bioware and Bioware games have the most relatable aliens outside of Star Trek. All are bidpedal humanoids except for the Hanar and Elcor.
They aren't asking to play as a fucking Elcor or Hanar, they're asking for Quarians, Salarians, Turians and Krogans. Read the fucking image first before you post shite.

Why do you need non-humans in your fantasy?

In sci-fi you might need them if you need siblings, so to speak. Parallel development rather than human diaspora. What fantasy races are good for?

You telling me you don't find these radical motherfuckers relatable?

>women
kek
here's your (you)

You 100% need humans because they are the focal point in any work of fiction. Without humans then there's really no point in being an elf or a dwarf or even a lizard.

You'll be thinking "look how weird I am as a dinosaur person" but guess what; we're all dinosaur people. So at that point why aren't we all just humans instead. But by having humans in the setting you've got the norm to deviate away from.

If dinosaur people are just the same as humans, then why doesn't it work the other way around then? Just have everybody a dinosaur person and it shouldn't make a difference.

Because fantasy usually draws from our own mythology, and most mythologies usually have intelligent, non-human or not-quite-human races. They help illustrate a world that is mostly unknown and bizarre, just like how our ancestors viewed the world.

It doesn't work the other way because then it comes down to would you rather having something that's attractive and marketable or something ugly and niche.

TV show Dinosaurs
The Hobbit (Gandalf wasn't 'human')
LotR, only two of the Fellowship were 'human'
John Carter of Mars

Ugly and niche

It is a pastime activity, it isn't about need but want. Because you don't need any of this to a degree that warrants any kind of imperative. You might as well read a history book for entertainment.

It is sad that apparently some kind of mental procurement form is needed in order to imagine something for entertainment purposes.

But if a reason is absolutely crucial, then it is for exoticism and a sense of discovery, because it looks aesthetic, because it is a neat gimmick, because it can serve to set the property apart from others, because you want something new and different, or you want something old with just a new paint.

You can engage in an endless chain of substitution for stuff that might work as well but at some point you are in a whole other ballpark than what you wanted.

Why write a new fantasy property? We can do a grimdarkened fairytale remake instead.
Why have black people in the story? Whites will do as well, we are all people.
Byzantium might be a bit obscure, lets use Romans instead, practically the same.
Why do you have to have scissors, use a knife, or a sharp stone, or your teeth.

But it's the GMs job to make the setting interesting.

I will never stop recommending these. Cynocephalus are so fucking cool.

>Bioware games have the most relatable aliens outside of Star Trek.
They also make most of their characters bisexual, gay, trans, autistic, or some other snowflake orientation that I GUARANTEE you over 98% of players can't relate to.

So, you're basically taking the side of a bunch of SJW hacks by saying players can't relate to unusual alien species, but they can still relate to characters who are part of some bizarre LGTBBQ++¥! spectrum? I really hope this is trolling, because it's a sad day when people start agreeing with BioWare. And Mass Effect is a shitty series anyway.

Reminds me of something of an "original" setting I've wanted to try a hand at - a prehistoric inner world beneath the surface crust of the upper one, where characters have to navigate the amazon wilderness, survive amongst the lizard-people, dinosaurs, etc., whether they want to try and get back to civilization or go full Warlord and take the motherfucker over

How does the setting get more interesting by removing points people can potentially find interesting?

So Iron Sky 2?

>make most of their characters bisexual, gay, trans, autistic, or some other snowflake orientation
They do? Most of the characters (statistically at least) in Inquisition at least were straight from what I remember

And I always got the impression from the constant ROMANCE ROMANCE ROMANCE marketing that they were just doing it because they thought it was what audiences wanted, like some kind of trashy harem manga publisher surprised they haven't covered polyamory yet if they were aiming for everything

I'm surprise that there was a show out there I didn't think of that didn't have humans in it.

Everything else you named has humans in it.

As terrible as Orson Scott Card is, "Wyrms" had the freakiest take on non-humans ever.

They were all crossbreeds formed by the giant telepathic caterpillar-wasp race that were trying to fuse their kind with humans.Also half of where I got my oviposition fetish.

Not sure I really see the connection you're making, but I never did watch the film, so for all I know maybe it had more Mesozoic jungles and dinosaur wizards than what was advertised.

I'm talking about Iron Sky 2. It's not out yet.
youtu.be/JKPwtDjzJMI?t=123

Ooh! Then yes, just less Nazi dinosaurs.

> Orson Scott Card
> Terrible

You sir, have plebeian taste

>tfw Liara was up for a threesome relationship in ME1 but neither Kaiden or Ashley were willing to play ball.

add some sort of goblin-esque race

maybe make them amphibian people or something who all live in swamp territory and are rarely seen outside it

Stuff like this?

Depends what you mean by "interesting". D&D has a long history of weird races:

1d4chan.org/wiki/List_of_D&D_PC_Races

For example...

N'djatwa are elf/ogre hybrids with elven beauty, intelligence and magical prowess, but ogrish stature, strength and cannibalistic hungers.

Hsiao are faerie philosopher-priests of great sagacity who happen to be talking owls the size of halflings.

Kubbits are 18 inch tall dinosaur-hunting amazon warriors.

Hurwaeti are frog-gnome people with a dash of Ferengi who reproduce like seahorses.

Chitines are small humanoid spiders who weave weaponry and armor out of solidified silk, and who reproduce eusocially if you want to bring in their 5e lore.

Nagpas are wizards cursed by the gods into being Skeksi-expies.

The MtG Planeshifts have given us races like the Kor, Merfolk, Khenra, Nagas and Amonkhetian Minotaurs, all of which have their own distinctive flavor.

Heck, there's even respins on classics that you can borrow ideas from; Furchins are halfling Inuits, Krugels are orcish cowbows, the list really does go on...

Are there any interesting races that aren't [animal]-people or tread on the elf-dwarf-orc feet?

Puppeteers

Hivers are pretty cool.

he said interesting races

There are 5 races in my donut steel setting

Dudes with wings
Giants
Dudes with 4 arms
Aquatic eel dudes
Sheep people

Are you him? Interesting is subjective.

Allow me to rephrase: any races that fit the dynamic of looking -almost- human, but being distinct in their own rights. Is there any room left to make a race as prolific as dwarves/elves/orcs? These are more sci fi races demonstrating a different body type, I'm looking for something more 'human'

Were mushroom people already sugges...Oh wait orks

Plot twist: it's the humans who are results of magical experimentation

Are these supposed to be intelligent, or are you just making creatures? Crablizard sounds like a monster encounter to me.

PLZ CENTAURS

That's crabtist.

The tolkien races are at their core 'humans but'

Humans with wings, humans with horns, albino cave-people. There's tons of shit that would work well in a tabletop setting.

I loved the one that was smoking a cigar through his facegills.

>Ooh! Then yes, just less Nazi dinosaurs.
Well, we're not allowed to have those anymore anyhow. They killed them all on Danger 5.

Wasn't that the background fluff of Warhammer Fantasy?

Oh, I was avoiding those on grounds that something humanoid with ears approaching remotely pointy would immediately be called an elf, and something a bit gnarled an aggressive would just be seen as orc.

May I direct you to the race array of Talislanta? It has many humanoids.

I've always been very partial to any animal-human hybrid where the author actually takes a minute to consider the consequences that would have on their society, and not just have it be "Oh hey look at this weird guy". Thinking of the perdido street station bird people, where their entire system of morality is based around maximizing freedom and all the crimes are just variations on "stealing others' choices".

Nothing groundbreaking, I just enjoy those little 'oh, that's clever' moments in fiction.

What would be interesting instead of WEIRD anatomy would be something that makes sense and fulfills a role in its world and story.

I'm thinking of making a race tied to each element for my setting, what kind of stuff would you think would be cool?

(Fire,water, air and earth. None of this uranium stuff)

I mean, you can go the classical route and use like... dryads and nymphs and shit. Salamanders? Mythological salamanders are neat.

I'm thinking water will be a bunch of salamander goblin things, that hunt via large numbers and ambush tactics.

The others are hard

And you assume when you see something WEIRD it can't make sense or fulfill a role in it's world and story? You see a picture and immediately decide that that it is just an interchangeable player avatar skin?

...

>James Cameron's Avatar
That shit was one-dimenisal as possible. You have a bunch of people with giant eyes which are cute and therefore likable and they just follow the noble savage cliche, particularly being modeled after Native Americans. Combined with the antagonists being being white corporatist hicks, it just forces every common westerner to sympathize with the blue cat people.

Also all the other stuff you mentioned are movies made for kids.

Nobody posts that.

A group of tall muscular people with red skin and 4 arms. They don't wear traditional clothes, instead they secret a very sticky sweat that they use to "glue" things to theselves like leaves. Before going into battle they are known to use their strength to smash boulders and outfit their body in stone armor.

Salamanders are fire elementals, bruh. Get your mythic research thang on. Your standard paracelsus layout for 4 elementals was:

Gnome = Earth
Undine = Undine
Sylph = Air
Salamander = Fire

Do you have a decent explanation for why there is a menagerie of sapient life running around?

>Do you have a decent explanation for why there is a menagerie of sapient life running around?
A wizard did it.

I like to use some form of Giantkin for fire. They're all explosively emotional. If they hate you, they will literally destroy your entire bloodline just to make a point. If they're happy, they will build you a big ass castle as a gift. They tend to be solitary because of this though, since living with anyone for too long will lead to conflict, and for Giants even a minor confrontation could end in the destruction of towns.

No like actual salamanders, the kind that live in swamps. The big ones from Japan

Why shouldn't there be?

MY NIGGA

Please don't forget to give your races interesting cultures!

One of my favorite fantasy races are satyrs. It's just cool to have goat people around

Kinda, they just gosh darn hate chaos, and feel everyone should be in the exact place that they were left by their creators.

Avatar proves his pictures point, the protagonist is a human who gets the strange stuff explained to him.

Shrek and monsters inc are childrens' movies, but even they use humans as relatable characters to one degree or another

There's plenty in D&D they just don't get much exposure.

My current campaign has no elves and shit beyond the starting characters.

Races include

>Thri Kreen
>Kenku
>Tendu ( from the sci fi book the colour of distance )
>myconids
>Yuan ti
>Sahaguain
>Koa Toa
>Aarockra
>Eventual mind flayers
>Quaggoths

Has been interesting.

>No like actual salamanders, the kind that live in swamps. The big ones from Japan
Maybe pick a different amphibian, to avoid confusion? How about a newt?

I have a setting with this and recursion. Though I think too much about it to make it playable.

>>rainbowniggers

In my GMs homebrew setting, people with dissabilities were considered a diffrent race.
For instance, I was playing a down syndrome wizard (downies were especially good at magic), comig from a city founded by down syndrome people. We also had a midget thief.