Symbols Project - Fantasy Races Needed! Talk To Me People!

Terraformer_Author

Aaaaaaahhhh, the golden olden days...I remember living in Texas as a very young 19 year old lad, starry eyed and full of pip and vinegar - yes, those were days of shining promise...

I remember the top shelf of my closet - like an old book shelf in a dusty wizard's keep - crammed with tastey hardbound goodies. You know - they say that in a couple of decades, physical books will be a thing of the past (or very near so) - but no kindle, no e'reader, no computer screen, Ipod app, or multipurpose techy doohicky thingamabob watchamacallit will ever come close to the drum roll accompanied rush of cracking open a good old fashioned hard bound tome. Nothing can compare with that kind of magic, nothing...

I had'em all man...The Player's Manual, The Dungeon Master's Guide, Both volumes of the Monster Manuals, Deities And Demigods, The Greyhawk Boxed Set with the massive fold out map and tastey magazinettes, the red and green boxed D&D sets, with the dice, the booklets, the fold outs, and that delightful little white crayon, and a box of puter figurines.
Oh man - I wish that I still had them, and all the sets of dice I had to...Wow...

Well - unfortunately I DON'T have those icons anymore, and I have to rely on my rusty old memories to recall the contents of those books that I read for hours on end, lying on the couch like a bum in my sock feet eating chocolate chip cookies with them all stacked up next to me on the floor - and drooling over Dave Sutherland's impecably fascinating artwork - and Gygax's meticulous attention to excruciating detail.

Bottom line - I need to know about races that are frequently used in fantasy games to make map symbols for. Here's a list of some that I have already covered:

1, Elves,
2, Drow,
3, Humans,
4, Dwarves,
5, Halflings (Hobbits),
6, Lizard Men,
7, gnolls,
8, Ogres,
9, Trolls
10, Nymphs,
11, Mermaids,
12, Half Elves,
13, Half Drow.

That's about it for right now. SUGGESTIONS PLEASE! Lol

JimP

Different hair styles for various races, to show regional differences. Or something I saw years ago about some small mountain villages in Europe. Their clothing had differences, so a perosn who knew that clothing style difference knew what valley that person came from. One possibility would be a small flower pattern on a coat or shirt. Blue flower, they are from one region, green flower, etc. It could be a syliszed flower.

Or different style hats to show someone is from a different region.

Spear styles, shield styles.

sdavies2720

Winged races: Draconian, and something avian/angelic (Tillas come to mind, but I'm not sure what is in the more popular games).

Terraformer_Author

Draconians? That seems like it was covered in MM2. Very interesting.

Latharion

You can't have a proper collection of D&D races without the infamous Flumf.

Terraformer_Author

AAAAaaaaahhhh....The horrid - infamous FLUMF!!! Glad you reminded me Mr. L.!!! (He said - scratching his head with a general WTF expression on his face), Lol.

VassiV

I've still got quite a few games. I used to enjoy collecting and reading them, even if I didn't play them. From the 2nd edition "Monstrous Compendium" you have:

1. Aarakocra
2. Aerial servant
3. Aartuk
4. Beholder, Beholder-kin
5. Brownie
6. Bugbear
7. Bullywug
8. Centaur
9. Dryad
10. Dwarf, Duergar
11. Elf, Drow
12. Ettin
13. Firenewt
14. Giants
15. Gnoll
16. Gnome, Svirfneblin
17. Goblin
18. Halfling
19. Hobgoblin
20. Imp
21. Invisible stalker
22. Jermlaine
23. Kenku
24. Killmoulis
25. Kobold
26. Korred
27. Kuo-Toa
28. Lamia
29. Leprechaun
30. Lizard Man
31. Locathah
32. Lycanthrope
33. Medusa, Maedar
34. Meazel
35. Men
36. Merman
37. Mind Flayer
38. Minotaur
39. Mongrelman
40. Morkoth
41. Myconid
42. Naga
43. Nereid
44. Nixie
45. Nymph
46. Ogre
47. Orc, Orog, Half-Orc
48. Pixie
49. Rakshasa
50. Sahuagin
51. Satyr
52. Sprite
53. Sylph
54. Tasloi
55. Treant
56. Triton
57. Troglodyte
58. Troll
59. Wemic
60. Yeti
61. Yuan-ti

This is just a quick run through not including the elemetal planes, hells and heavens.

Terraformer_Author

Oh man - I wish that I had the original Monster Manuals. Actual pictures and descriptions. Too bad they don't have PDF files of the old, original tomes (not the 3.5 to 4.0 editions). That would make for some sweet research.

VassiV

I've got the originals and all the basic set. I've been thinking of doing my own rpg for the windows phone so I'm glad I saved them for some ideas. Thats why I bought the CC3 collection. But you're right, the names don't mean much without the pictures as a guide. Maybe you can get them from something like pirate bay. If you ever want to do some stuff for star frontiers you can download the rules legally from starfrontiers.com.

Latharion

Just to jog the memories of those who care, the "Flumf" was probably the most useless, pointless "monster" ever devised. It was a jellyfish like creature, LG in alignment, with no real defenses to speak of. Oh it did float in air though (woohoo!) I think I remember it from the Fiend Folio (first edition AD&D), but I might be wrong on that. It wasn't in the original Monster Manual.

If you want to be a bit adventurous, PDF files of the 1st edition books do exist. I found a set on a newsgroup some time back. I even found some PDFs of the original D&D spiral bound books that predate the hardbound 1st editions. It was nice to have a PDF copy of my hardbound collection for reference.

VassiV

What you could try, for some artwork is to go to "http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Archive.aspx" and click on the "Art Galleries" link.

Jay_NOLA

I used to have the 4 Monster Cards sets TSR did that had colored versions of many of the creatures. I think in one of the old Draagon magazines they had a preview of the cards that showed small reduced art of all of them.

You could look to see if scans or a PDF of them exhists if your looking for more art.

Terraformer_Author

Actually Jay I'm doing the art myself - almost all of it hand drawn, but any reference materials that I can get my hands on would DEFINITELY help.

VassiV

Came across a forgotten realms site that might have some reference material, "http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Beholder", just change the name of the creature at the end to go to its page.

mrobby

Posted By: JimPDifferent hair styles for various races, to show regional differences. Or something I saw years ago about some small mountain villages in Europe. Their clothing had differences, so a person who knew that clothing style difference knew what valley that person came from. One possibility would be a small flower pattern on a coat or shirt. Blue flower, they are from one region, green flower, etc. It could be a stylized flower.

Or different style hats to show someone is from a different region.

Spear styles, shield styles.

Ah glorious! I will never forget that - it kind of marked my childhood and started my collecting phase. I simply loved it and I loved how the Cards were designed. I loved the way those cards made to deliver flowers with their patterns. I loved the green one the most though. And I still have it in a box in my cellar.