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

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 :)

Comments

  • 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.
  • Winged races: Draconian, and something avian/angelic (Tillas come to mind, but I'm not sure what is in the more popular games).
  • Draconians? That seems like it was covered in MM2. Very interesting.
  • You can't have a proper collection of D&D races without the infamous Flumf. ;)
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 4 months later
  • edited January 2012
    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. :)
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