Sharkfolk Thread

What are some ways of using sharkfolk in settings that don't just turn them into aquatic orcs?

Can Sahuagin be improved by replacing them with actual sharkfolk, instead of their canon pseudo-Creature from the Black Lagoon style?

Can an Asiatic culture of bamboo sharkfolk work?

Can Veeky Forums still post sharkgirls?

Differently from orcs, sharkfolk are cultured and civilized. They like nothing more than to come back home after a long day of biting people, make themselves a nice cup of algae tea and read a book. The average shark can bite fluently in over 15 different languages.
Sharks are also very handsome. Their symmetric, aquadynamic build is both elegant and imposing. And we are polite. Differently from orc brutes who only go WAAAGH and attack everything with their clubs as well as their penises, a shark greet you first with a carefully choreographed encircling while presenting the proud and copyrighted shark fin.

communicating through sign language maybe since they can't talk underwater.

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I have kinda-sharkfolk in one of my settings. They are styled after polynesian tribes (incredibly innovative, I know), highly religious and very welcoming to outsiders as long as they respect their customs. They also go through metamorphoses at certain stages of their lives where they acquire aspects that adapt them better to their current environment and they grow slowly, but they never, ever stop growing and don't die of old age.
One of my favorite moments from that campaign was the players meeting with the 500 years old shark giant granny and her numerous grandchildren.

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I shamelessly ripped-off elites/sangheili from the halo franchise as shark-folk for my fantasy setting.

Reason for this because I had a sand-sea filled with sandsharks and sandseals and needed a desert-race that fitted to a sharky-theme at the same time.

So, do sharkfolk only work in coastal/aquatic games, or could you tinker with the formula and portray them as either swamp-folk or as inhabitants of a "sand/silt-sea"?

Heck, bull sharks in real life can swim miles into fresh water, so what about sharkfolk as water-faring raiders & merchants who sail from coast up the interior and back again?

Robo-sharks can operate even on land.

bump

Jesus I remember that manga. It's on the same level as the "It's my hole!" one.

same author

>What are some ways of using sharkfolk in settings that don't just turn them into aquatic orcs?

They are actually intelligent for starters, and they are brutal in a cold and sudden way like real sharks

>Can Sahuagin be improved by replacing them with actual sharkfolk, instead of their canon pseudo-Creature from the Black Lagoon style?

In my settings normal Sahuagin are actually larvae, they become sharkfolk if they live more than 100 years gradually straying from their original murloc appearance, they call this "winning the favor of Sekolah"

>Can an Asiatic culture of bamboo sharkfolk work?

Why not

>Can Veeky Forums still post sharkgirls?

Sharkgirls are sharkfolk sahuagin that have modified their appearance to seduce people like you

>So, do sharkfolk only work in coastal/aquatic games, or could you tinker with the formula and portray them as either swamp-folk or as inhabitants of a "sand/silt-sea"?

They use a kind of diver suit when they go far into land

Watch Street Sharks.

>Liked the picture, not so much the game.
>H3 is still the best.
Give them a society or civilization that they're part of, rather than a tribe.

It feels so right though.

If Shark people never stop growing and don't die from unnatural causes; I have a feeling over population would be a big problem. This would be remedied most easily through exploration or a severe society.

>Exploration
Whenever there is an excess of young in the society, they are grouped up and set off to set up a new colony. Generally, a handful of elder Shark people go with to maintain order and continuity with their old home.

>Severe Society
Everyone and everything needs a purpose. Anyone who is dragging society down; people who don't work, criminals against the common good, etc are exiled into the wilderness of the Mariana Trench.

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The thing to remember is that sharks are still just an offshoot of 'fish' So you can make your sharkfolk adapt to different environments just as like elves do (drow vs wood vs high, etc).

No reason you couldnt have a Swamp Sharkfolk tribe that is perpetually at war with the Saltwater Crocodile-esque Lizardfolk. There is a whole documentary from Shark week a few years ago that basically was Sharks vs Crocodiles, and turns out Bull Sharks instinctively fear crocodiles, and a scent based on crocodile musk proved super effective shark repellent.

>Can an Asiatic culture of bamboo sharkfolk work?
I'm stealing this idea. I want them all wearing jingasa and smoking pipes though if they are above water. The pipes let them breathe.

See if anyone on the WoD threads has a Rokea pdf. They're shifters, but the cultural stuff can be taken wholesale without any changes except breeding

I can't help but remember that there was a SyFy movie called "Swamp Shark" that featured a swamp-dwelling giant shark with some crocodile-esque features.

Though that might be because I found a monstergirl based on that movie's monster...

>So, do sharkfolk only work in coastal/aquatic games, or could you tinker with the formula and portray them as either swamp-folk or as inhabitants of a "sand/silt-sea"?

See

Exploration you say?

the lizard people inm y setting also never stop growing.

As a result tho old members of that race become lethargic as fuck, have to conserve energy all the time and generaly beeing a burden on society.

They are ofthen revered but mostly they just beome lethargic, at some point theres no difference between them beeing alive or dead and eventually they die for one reason or another.

Tho most members of that race die a violent death long before that.

the idea of desert dwelling shark people is great, im stealing this.

Make them nomadic dugong herders in the great seagrass plains of some shallow sea.

Oi!

>What are some ways of using sharkfolk in settings that don't just turn them into aquatic orcs?

How tightly are you coupling their behavior to actual shark behavior? That said, thematically they play well with homaging cultures where sharks are important such as Hawaiian culture, or if playing up the “pack hunter” angle that some species have, make them an aggressive conquesting thalassocracy akin to Sea Romans.

Do note that it’s entirely possible to play sharkfolk in positive lights even as predators even from human experience. The Hawaiians in particular tended to see most sharks as guardians as opposed to menaces.

>Can Sahuagin be improved by replacing them with actual sharkfolk, instead of their pseudo-Creature from the Black Lagoon style?

You could literally just call a sharkfolk a “Sahuagin” and you’d have the exact same niche filled. Anything deeper than a cosmetic reskin would require thinking of what makes the two different.

>Can an Asiatic culture of bamboo sharkfolk work?

No reason why not. There’s plenty of seafaring culture and a history of piracy in East and Southeast Asia to lean on for inspiration. If you wanted to go full weeb you could style them in the vein of Wokou harassing the coasts of sedentary Chinese-themed land empires.

>sharkfolk
Well.. damn.. I thought I wanted to make a dex monk.. boy was I wrong. I need to make a hardhitting shark barbarian.
What sorta racial abilities would they get in DnD 3.x/PF?

Natural bite attack, swim speed, possibly natural armor.

The closest thing in the system (aside from actual fish people) is probably a truedive/longtooth shifter.

No, make a sharkfolk monk.

Monk is objectively the most entertaining class to play, especially with race mixes that make no sense.