Fantasy RPGs are generally dominated by humans, with the majority of nations and areas primarily human. Obviously there is nothing wrong with this, there are even great fantasy settings that lack other sentient humanoid races entirely; sometimes however it is interesting to dive deep into the lore of another species and have a campaign focused on them. In this blog post I will be looking at campaigns limited to one of the more common races in fantasy RPGs. Likely I will later do posts on more exotic races than the elves, dwarves, orcs, halflings and gnomes covered here. As I mentioned briefly in my first blog post, the limitation to a single race can give a campaign a ton of built in flavour from the beginning.
Generally certain races are better at playing specific classes as their racial stat mods and abilities align well to the key areas that make those classes function at their full potential. Dwarves tend to make excellent clerics and warriors, but not so great thieves or mages. Racial specific campaigns offer great chances to play odd race/class combinations as the more statistically advantageous combinations for those classes are not available.
I will start with Dwarves, because it is probably the race that I have thought the most about single race campaigns for. Dwarves tend to be an ancient race in decline, long past the height of their power. Often entire dwarven cities or even realms have fallen into ruin or been seized by ancient foes such as orcs. A dwarven focused campaign is likely to be themed around vengeance and reclaiming lost or even forgotten glory. It could be part of a much larger war, as either the dwarves fight to hold onto what remains, or a crusade to reclaim lost lands from their foes. Or it could require adventuring deep into the wilds to locate a long fallen stronghold that a resurgent dwarven realm wishes to reclaim. Dwarven pride is generally great, and many things would not be trusted to outsiders. I have long considered running a campaign where the demi-god infant of a major dwarven god has been born somewhere and is prophesied to lead a dwarven realm to a new golden age, if only the child survives to maturity. What lengths would their race go to in order to save and protect such a child? A properly run dwarven crusade would be a great campaign to see.
Elves present many options depending on how they are established in the specific setting. Are there only high elves or only wood elves? Do Dark elves exist and if so are they in the underdark? Like dwarves, elves are generally in decline, past their peak. Sometimes they are not even at the point of being able to replace their population. High elves are often keepers of ancient lore and artifacts of great power, protecting or securing such items or lore could easily be an epic campaign. High elves are also often in conflict with their dark kin, a fight they often wish to keep quiet from the world at large. Wood elves on the other hand are generally seen as protectors of the natural world and their interests are often strongly aligned with those of the druids. A dark elf campaign is almost certainly also going to be an evil game of conquest and pillage, though one confined purely to the underdark might have significantly more nuance as their foes are just as evil. Lastly it would be important to determine if half elves would be allowed in a campaign or not, as their presence can significantly change how a purely elven campaign would run.
Orcs seem to easily fit to an evil campaign, but that is probably also the laziest way to go. A setting where all or nearly all orcs are evil can become boring quickly. Which given that is how they are handled in Lord of the Rings, seems like heresy, but what works in a setting for books does not always work in an rpg setting. Orcs can be driven by many motivations, only a small subset of which are inherently evil. Population pressures alone could drive constant orc attempts to raid or conquer new territory. Exploring how an established orc kingdom wages war would certainly be interesting. As a relative upstart race, orc nations tend to lack the arcane knowledge and ancient lore of more established realms, an orc campaign could easily be centered around attempts to secure such in order to even the chances between nations. A collection of orcs would also make interesting mercenaries selling their skills to the highest bidder, many a kingdom would be happy to use orcs to hold back the uncivilized hordes from beyond their borders. Drawing from history could make this more interesting, as the Romans used “barbarians” to secure many of their european borders in the later stages of the western empire, a tactic that did not work terribly well in their favour in the long run. Like an elf campaign, the inclusion of half-orcs would need to be carefully considered.
Now to the shorter races, starting with Halflings. I must admit that I have little experience with playing the smaller races before I dive into this next portion. Halflings rarely control large realms of their own, which is an interesting place to start. Attempts to create an independent or more independent homeland for halflings would be intriguing. Likely no major faction in such a campaign would be evil which would be an interesting change; but an independence campaign may need to take advantage of the threat or perceived threat of evil forces to have a chance of success. Halflings are often known for their love of food or their skill as cooks and chefs, a less serious campaign focused on a halfling catering business would likely be amusing. A travelling group of Halfling entertainers could also be a less serious option.
Lastly we come to Gnomes, often the oddest or most technologically inclined major race. They are also the most common race that was not pulled originally from Lord of the Rings; perhaps that is why they shift so much across various editions, settings and systems. Like Halflings, they often lack lands of their own. A gnome campaign could explore many different ideas depending on the interpretation of gnomes used. It could certainly focus on the introduction of new and experimental technology into the world. Perhaps an extended family business focused on testing and marketing new technologies? In other settings it could explore the gnome connection to other planes or mysterious creatures like the fey.
Hopefully this post has given you some ideas of how you can run campaigns with only one race or several related races. I fully intend to write further ideas for less common fantasy races.
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