Let's talk about what these people feel like.
We'll start with the most stereotypical views, what outsiders think of each species. Afterwards, we'll look at variations, and how to adapt them for your own campaign.
Humans
Humans are the most like adventurers. They're rowdy, bold, and hungry: hungry for knowledge and money and power. They're noisy, with barking dogs and a fearsome battle cry. Humans come to town and there's gonna be a brawl or a party, or maybe a mix of both.
For an outsider's perspective on humans, think pirates and nomads and outlaws, roving teams of deadly hunters, ragged fearsome bands carving out their survival in the post-apocalyptic wilderness.
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| a wedding haka |
(Read about the people of the Ashen Council, or how to roll up your own human town.)
Giants
Giants are fur-trapping mountain men, pensive loners. They're quiet and brooding, wandering the land fishing and watching the stars, remembering the stories passed down from their grandmothers' grandmothers.
Giants would rather leave you alone. But if you harm a giant, they will never forget, and they will bring vengeance down upon you, and their descendants will tell the tale for generations.
For a giant, think of an old prospector, a ranger in the woods, a self-reliant hobo riding the rails with stories to tell and a keen glint in their eye.
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| a Mongolian herder |
(Read about their great annual gatherings, or how they trade the stars.)
Colonials
Colonials are a bit like you and me, something like modern day people. They're city folk, a product of a civilized world. Colonials are suited for comfortable houses full of manufactured goods, social organizations with books full of rules, and mixed drinks with too many ingredients.
Take away their coffee and their indoor plumbing and they're pretty much lost. The end of the world has been especially hard on the colonials. They're not really the wilderness survival type.
But despite all their weaknesses in this dark age, colonials are rich. In their few remaining cities, the remnant of empire has amazing gadgets and powerful weapons, libraries full of knowledge and vaults full of artifacts of the old world.
Imagine law-abiding clergymen and diligent chemists, by-the-book naval officers and studious accountants, ordinary folk who distressingly find themselves carrying a gun these days.
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| Aurangzeb, Mughal emperor |
(Read about colonial alchemy, or the last remnant of their empire.)
Goblins
Goblins are the backwoods clan you don't want to stumble across. Get on their good side and they're known for their hospitality. They'll feed you some kind of meat and give you weird stuff to smoke and ask all manner of nosy questions about what your kind of people do for fun and how shoes are supposed to work and why you're not married yet.
But most folks are not on their good side. Goblins are the reason you don't go too far into the woods. They're sharp teeth and haunting calls. They're not afraid of outsiders; they lure them in just to get a fresh meal. They've got strange medicines and hexes and hoodoo.
Goblins are curious about the world, yet they're sure they know how it really all works. They're eager for news even though they're sure it's all some conspiracy they're glad to be avoiding by staying at home.
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| porch sitting |
(Read what goblins think of writing, or how they ambush prey.)
Now that you know what's typical, it's time to make some changes for your own setting. For each of these species, you could choose two attributes from the table below.
- They're overly _____, almost absurdly so.
- They're not really as _____ as people say.
| Traits (d8) | humans | elves | giants | goblins |
| 1 | brave | polite | vengeful | suspicious |
| 2 | noisy | legalistic | quiet | curious |
| 3 | aggressive | eloquent | observant | fond of complaining in solidarity |
| 4 | boastful | ritualistic | pensive | good at reading people |
| 5 | adventurous | arrogant | practical | loyal |
| 6 | heroic | scheming | dour | skittish |
| 7 | celebratory | secretive | fond of appealing to history | proudly unrefined |
| 8 | casually violent | meticulous | pedantic | excitable |
| typical traits | |
| Humans are overly... | |
| Humans aren't all that... | |
| Elves are overly... | |
| Elves aren't all that... | |
| Giants are overly... | |
| Giants aren't all that... | |
| Goblins are overly... | |
| Goblins aren't all that... | |
Player-characters are the protagonists of a roleplaying game, so if anyone's going to be an unusual example of their species, it's probably them. You could use the traits above as a guideline, but don't let them be a straitjacket. Feel free to portray your character (PC or NPC) however you like.
(Edit: This post originally used the term "elves" to refer to what I'm calling "colonials". The name never really fit well.)