Quotes #7 - Race Design

"In SBRPG, race is a combination between a person’s physical makeup (Human, Elf, or Alien Monkey Man), and their cultural background (Midwesterner, Emerald Forest, or Venusian). Thus, a “Emerald Forest Elf” would be a good example of a race.

Physical Makeup
Some races will share a common “physical makeup,” such as a race of Dwarves. One could say Dwarves are short, stocky, and can see well in the dark. If this is how all Dwarves are in your Game World, they will share these physical traits across every Dwarven race design you make.

Even among normal Humans, physical makeup can vary. Let’s make some assumptions. Let’s say hard working farm families breed strong, healthy children; while suburban cul-de-sac dwellers have access to better education, and greater opportunities for socialization. Using these assumptions as a guide, you could give characters coming from a farm family background bonuses to STR and END; while the suburbanites could receive bonuses to KNOW and CHR.

Cultural Background
The second part of a race is a cultural background. Just because all Dwarves share physical traits, doesn’t mean they are all the same. For example, the Humans of Earth are all similar in physical makeup; but they have many different ethnic, cultural, and religious groups. Simi- larly, Dwarves who grew up in desert mining towns would have a different set of background skills than Dwarves who grew up in hillside towns where they farmed potatoes. Even the children of the potato farmers would know something about growing seasons, planting, and caring for the land - just by picking it up from their parents. Where someone grew up is just as important as what they look like."

This is a section from SBRPG's Race Design chapter. Unlike most games, every player designs their own race before play. It wasn't a complicated process, and it served as a part of the world creation process - the races players designed were the ones in the world. If new races were added later, it was subject to group discussion and approval. If the players designed a world with just wolfmen and elves - that was it.

We also took a different tack on what a race 'was.' A race is the combination of physical makeup and background. You see this in some RPGs as the 'alt races' such as dark elves, rock dwarves, sun elves, or any other combination of environment plus physique. Unlike other games, we didn't allow 'vanilla' races, such as someone designing 'just an elf.' You had to pick a culture and background, and viola, that culture and background was added to the game world.

It was a perfect mesh of create and design as you go type of play that led to some very interesting creations. The entire game followed this theory, you make the design systems easy enough to be used by new players, but deep enough to satisfy experts. Everything in the world is designed during the first session of play with the group working together. Then, what is created is what is now in play in the game. It is a 'zen' of play, and I have saw nothing like it since.