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I have been in the process of generating ideas in my mind to build my own world for quite some time now. I am still uncertain in the direction that I am going to go but I wanted to pose a question to the board members.

One of the bigger changes that I thought about making was a complete role reversal of the races. By that I mean that the "monster" races would actually take the place of the "civilized" races and vice versa. Has anyone done this in their own game in the past and what were your experiences with it? Even if you have not done it in the past - what are you opinions on the idea?

By "monster" races above I am referring to: Ogres, Orcs, Trolls and Kobolds.

By "civilized" races above I am referring to: Humans, Elves, Dwarves and Gnomes.

An interesting question... exactly which direction would the role reversal take first off? Would the traditional "monster" races be the more civilized ones in your world or just the most dominant, ie the ones actually in charge of the major kingdom areas? This could lead to some rather interesting implications of course (Trolls being a refined and dignified race with high moral standards while Elves are basically barbaric savages for example) Or are the "civilized" races still considered your basic standard for the "good guys" in a chaotic world dominated by the classic brutish "evil monsters"? Either way, the idea has merit. I'd say give it a shot one way or the other. Could prove to be a great run.

I might suggest taking a look at "Planet of the Apes" that was the first thing that I thought of when you talked about role reversal

Keep your damned dirty hands off me, Orc!

how is this gonna effect the occ/rcc in your campaign?

I am thinking of creating my own fantasy world and started to work on it abit and the first thing i changed was the elf, dwarf war. this is leaving it open for dwarven mages. to keep balance in the rune weapon department, its a horded secret not just shown to anyone. or all of those who had the knowledge had faded in time. still working that one out.

Basically, the general idea I had was that the "monster" races would be the "good guys" while the "civilized" races would in turn be the "bad guys".

I have not given much thought how it would affect any OCC/RCCs in my games. I would imagine that any of the OCCs would be fine still but that certain restrictions or rules would have to be made for RCCs.

To be honest, RCCs don't come up but maybe once in a blue moon in our group. In fact, I can't even remember the last time someone played an RCC in the past 5 years.

Of course, the recorded history would have to have major changes to it for this all to make sense but I'm okay with that. I guess my biggest concern is whether or not people would see this as an interesting idea and at least want to give it a try or if it just seems like a doomed idea from the start.

Edit: And to specify, the monster races would control the major kingdoms.

So, can you guys see any problems that I may ran into or perhaps some key points that I need to give more thought before I proceed to work on this?

digitalredneck wrote:

Torval wrote:So, can you guys see any problems that I may ran into or perhaps some key points that I need to give more thought before I proceed to work on this?

It sounds like a neat change of pace to me. I'd play, for sure. One question I have is weather or not the monster races would still tend to be evil while the pretty races were still "good" more often than monster races? I think a world filled with evil monster empires and rampant slavery galore, with a few bastions of good left where men and elves still tread free, would be cool as all heck.

edited to add: I would play a evil monster (aberrant) for sure. And as soon as I could I would buy a Gnome, just to have something to kick when my PC is in a foul mood.

To kick around? You have obviously never eaten gnome chops...you'll never want to eat lamb again.

Aaryq wrote:

digitalredneck wrote:

Torval wrote:So, can you guys see any problems that I may ran into or perhaps some key points that I need to give more thought before I proceed to work on this?

It sounds like a neat change of pace to me. I'd play, for sure. One question I have is weather or not the monster races would still tend to be evil while the pretty races were still "good" more often than monster races? I think a world filled with evil monster empires and rampant slavery galore, with a few bastions of good left where men and elves still tread free, would be cool as all heck.

edited to add: I would play a evil monster (aberrant) for sure. And as soon as I could I would buy a Gnome, just to have something to kick when my PC is in a foul mood.

To kick around? You have obviously never eaten gnome chops...you'll never want to eat lamb again.

Mmmmmmmmm... Gnoooommmmmmme....

Well actually, in the orc point of view, they are the good guys. It isnt so much good vs evil. As it is our race trying to survive and control the world as we know it over the other races.
The pilgrims of old America... where they evil? How about when the US decided to expand and push the Native Americans into their resevations? To those of us who are Americans do we view that as evil? I know sure as hell the Native Americans do.
He who rules writes history.

digitalredneck wrote:

Torval wrote:So, can you guys see any problems that I may ran into or perhaps some key points that I need to give more thought before I proceed to work on this?

It sounds like a neat change of pace to me. I'd play, for sure. One question I have is weather or not the monster races would still tend to be evil while the pretty races were still "good" more often than monster races? I think a world filled with evil monster empires and rampant slavery galore, with a few bastions of good left where men and elves still tread free, would be cool as all heck.

edited to add: I would play a evil monster (aberrant) for sure. And as soon as I could I would buy a Gnome, just to have something to kick when my PC is in a foul mood.

My original idea was that the monster races would be "good" more often than the pretty races; however, after reading your post I think I may go with a different direction now.

At the point, I think I will make the monster races control the major kingdoms and leave them just as "evil" as they are in canon or in some cases perhaps even make them more evil. The pretty races will pretty much be in decline and basically struggling as individual races just to survive and continue to exist. I think that if a group of players all started a "pretty" race character in this type of setting then it would already set the mood of them acting heroicly and still allow them to have plenty of problems while doing it.

Thanks for getting the wheels turning in that direction.

I could see a charismatic Orc leader bringing together tribes from the Old Kingdoms and launching a campaign of conquest. Perhaps even able to stage massive revolts of Orc slaves in the Western Empire and Timiro Kingdom.