I like to keep player races to a minimum in my games and I usually go 4 according to the classic maxim:

I like to keep player races to a minimum in my games and I usually go 4 according to the classic maxim:

>thicc, sticc, smol, tol

So as the most generic example: dwarf, elf, halfling, human. What 4 races would you use with these categories?

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Elf, Dwarf, Orc, Human.

Halflings serve no purpose

Houyhnhnms, Laputans, Liliputians, Brobdingnagians

Thicc: Gatormen
Sicc: Elemental Humans
Tall: Bugfolk
Smol: Slimepeople

Thicc: Scabmettlers
Sticc: Warcraft High Elf
Smol: Children of the Forest
Tol: Capra Demons

>thicc, sticc, smol, tol

Get out of the gene pool

Thicc: (Pig) Orcs
Sticc: Elves
Smol: Dromites
Tol: Humans

>Thicc
Humans/Elans. Cultural psions, taking the place of elvish mysticism. Going through the rites of becoming an Elan is part of their rites of passage into proper adulthood. Some choose not to go through with it, and are treated as somewhat childish or selfish for opting out early and only seeing about half a century in their lives; those that do this commonly seek other paths to power than psionics, or have some philosophical epiphany that detracts from the appeal of a thousand year+ lifespan. Psychometabolic shaping tends to result in shapely "young" folks and a great deal of vanity around remembering to make sure their bodies are in good condition, facilitating a healthy mind.

>Sticc
Human/Undead. One of the alternatives presented to the above; undeath doesn't call to all, but no small number prefer it out of rebellion against their native culture. Technically part of the same civilization as above, but there's a segregation of sorts that comes from corpses being unseemly to the living.
(Also, y'know, inescapable hunger for flesh, but that's usually handled through agricultural livestock provisions and artificial soul formations for those that need that sort of thing.)

>smol
Adorable sentient spiders. Slight splits at the tips of their forward pair of legs function as arms. While webbing is traditionally present in their architecture, poison-immune abberations and undead monsters made their ambush predation less effective and forced more active hunting or sophisticated traps. They have since retaken the underdark territory, and occasional wanderers reaching the surface have made contact with the humanoid cultures. First contact has been contentious, but eventually between telepathy and hand/leg sign language translation, a somewhat civil relationship has been managed among a handful of spider tribes.
The tribe that took humanoids as their totem animal have been the most amicable, for strange reasons no one on the surface wants to think about too much.

>tol
Treant Barbarians that historically raided the humanoid civilizations for livestock to slaughter or cultivate fertilizers, including ritual executions of prisoners with rapid-growth spells to construct grand arboreal palaces.

Thicc: Capybara
Sticc: Insects
Tall: Birdfolk
Smol: Ratmen

...

goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-platonic-dwarf.html

>What 4 races would you use with these categories?
Southerners, Northerners, Easterners, Westerners.

>Scabmettlers
Had to google this to figure out what it is. Glad I did, I had never heard of these books before and they sound really interesting.
Thanks, user.

Elves, naga, halflings, ents.
No humies, only "forest people" races allowed, make a forest setting.

Thicc: Boar
Sticc: Proboscis monkey
Smol: Tapir
Tol: Walter Mondale

Naga in forests?

Like snakepeople?

>thicc
High Grav Worlders
>sticc
Zero-G Thin Men
>smol
Hive mind nanobot swarm
>tol
Gas giant settlers

In a recent setting I wrote up, I used:
>Thick: Walrus Orcs
>Stick: Seal Goblins
>Tall: Whale Giants
>Small: s̶h̶i̶t̶t̶y̶ ̶o̶u̶t̶l̶a̶n̶d̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶w̶h̶o̶ ̶d̶o̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶g̶e̶t̶ ̶h̶o̶w̶ ̶a̶r̶c̶t̶i̶c̶ ̶s̶u̶r̶v̶i̶v̶a̶l̶ ̶w̶o̶r̶k̶s̶ Humans

Got stick and small backwards. That's what I get for defying the meme diction, I guess.

Snakes inhabit forests, i don't see whats weird about snake people inhabiting forests.

Thicc:ents
Stic:elves
Smol: fairies
Toll:hags

I've always wanted something set in some kind of fairy land, maybe you're humans trapped in a wonderland like place where everything could be a trap laid down by fey critters.

Perdido St Station is, the other two really meander around and end up going fucking nowhere. The end of the Iron Council infuriated me.

No, just clarifying you meant snake nagas and not fish nagas.

Thicc: gnomes
sticc: sylphs
smol: undines
tol: salamanders

Homebrew element-based races.

>thicc
Water, +2 Int/+1 Wis
>sticc
Air, +2 Dex/+1 Int
>smol
Earth, +2 Wis/+1 Cha
>tol
Fire, +2 Cha/+1 Dex

The trouble with using the Paracelsus elementals is that D&D fantasy has given pretty clear definition to gnomes and salamanders, to the extent that you stand a real risk of confusing people if you try to change them.

Dwarf/Elf/Human is a given, but the fourth is up in the air. Halflings were always just boring gnomes in my mind, but Orcs have become something of a stable in the groups I play with.

no u

....I thought he was using Monster Girl Encyclopedia races at first.

>Tol
Human
>Smol
Goblin
>Thicc
Oni
>Sticc
Elf

Is it Asian-themed?

Tortle, Tabaxi, Goblin, Lizardman

It's not, I just like Onis and their aesthetic, it's my favorite "big" race

All dat effortposting.

Feywild games are neat.

>thicc, sticc, smol, tol
Muls, Thi-Kreen, Halflings, Humans.

My autism gets triggered when I see a setting with more than like, 3 intelligent bipedal races that all developed independently of each other, so I prefer my settings to only have 2 or 3 races max, but I encourage players to differentiate characters by ethnic/regional characteristics.

For instance my last campaign had only three races: Humans, Elves, and Half-Elves. The Elves and Humans evolved separately on two continents separated by an enormous ocean. The Elves had a rigid caste system, about about 700 years ago the fair-skinned Royals accidentally opened a gate to hell and were forced to flee to the Human continent, and after a couple centuries of conflict carved out a niche for themselves in the strange new world. Gradually, inter-breeding with humans would turn nearly all of these refugees into Half-Elves, though most would deny the label and being able to prove a direct lineage to a noble family is a significant part of Elfin social hierarchy now. In truth, virtually no pure Royal Elves still exist, and those who do are mostly inbred morons.

About 200 years before the campaign, the first expedition is made to reclaim the old continent, after a deal is struck between the Human kingdoms and several prominent Elfin families that the Humans would be allowed to settle the land on the condition that they helped the Elves close the gate to Hell. What no one realized was that not quite all the Elves from the old kingdom perished when the gate was opened: the lowest caste of Elves, the Pariahs, fought off the demonic hordes as they retreated to the mountains and canyons. Long-reviled for their shamanistic religion, those same practices have now proven exceptionally useful at fighting demons, and in the centuries since the Royals abandoned the land, the Pariahs have retaken much of the ruined kingdom, and instated a new, theocratic order whose rule would be draconian, if not for the fact that they are literally on top of Hell. They don't like outsiders.

Thicc: Golems
Sticc: Dryads
Smol: Dragons (Dog sized, think Discworld swamp dragons)
Tol: Seraphim

>My autism gets triggered when I see a setting with more than like, 3 intelligent bipedal races that all developed independently of each other
I solved this one for myself by having some of them originally native to different planes, migrating at various historical points to the campaign setting via the planar equivalents to the Bering land bridge.

Fun fact; there actually are D&D Sylphs, but they haven't been around since AD&D.

Go for:

>human
>human
>human
>human

Weren't there like seven hominid races with similar tech level living at once on earth?

thicc: Dwarf
sticc: Thri-keen
smol: Kobold
tol: Human
I don't really like the regular fantasy races, save for dwarves and that's only because their particular stereotype can be played straight or subverted and still be very interesting. The Kobolds and Thri-keen are examples of intelligences (Cold blooded, insectoid) that are entirely alien to our own, providing unique roleplay opportunities for my players who want to play outside of a human mindset.
Also because I'm a massive xenophile

Gnoll,Mongrelfolk,Kenku,Human

I mean, given the number of splats 3.X had, I wouldn't be surprised if you can dig out sylph and undine there, too. But their interpretations haven't stuck as firmly as gnome and salamander.

Thicc - Humans
Sticc - Elves
Smol - Goblins
Tol - Orcs
Fuck dwarves.

>Fuck dwarves

Many have tried.

>not thicc elves
>not sticc ents

>My characters name is Himli Beardaxe! "ALE AND ME AXE LADDIE XDDD!!!"
Dwarves a shit