outlander races in ravenloft

[Teravala]

How do you guys handle PC's of non standard races in ravenloft? I have currently a Dromite and a skarn in my campaign, and usually I tend to wave this off as them being mistaken as Calibans by the general population. But I am genuinely curious how other people address this. I also never really went with violent reaction to Calibans, but rather more a sense of distrust an uneasiness by people to them, with some exceptions based on region of course.

So like for example with the dromite, they are 3 foot tall bug people, so I usually have most NPC's assume they are a Caliban from one of the smaller races, like halfling, gnome, or dwarf. Since they are less common in the dread realms, it stood to reason that the majority of humans wouldn't know much about their races, especially how Calibans manifest from them.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

I don't allow them. I mainly allowed humans with a few exceptions of basic races (elves, dwarves, kender or halfing). No one has ever played a gnome.

[IanFordam]

I run a very human-centric Ravenloft game. Primarily because of Darkon, you do find occasional dwarves, elves, gnomes, and halflings around. (Yes, even gnomes!) Then again, even when bringing in PCs as outlanders, my players create characters specific to the campaign rather than using pre-existing characters. I feel that if they want to play esoteric races, then maybe Ravenloft isn't the setting I should be using for them.

[Teravala]

That's fair. My group is made of relatively new players, and so they play a pretty casual version of the setting. I would like to run a campaign that is a bit more serious in nature, and maybe I'll broach the topic of setting specific races next time we start a new game up.

[Igor the Henchman]

When playing the 2E/3E version of Ravenloft, I only allow really weird-looking races if I'm planning on giving them some means of disguising their appearance (such as a hat of disguise) very early into the game.

For the 5E version, anything goes.

[Teravala]

I run 3.5, so I am trying to strike a balance between the stringent 2e rules and the anything goes 5e version. Usually when asked if someone can play an atypical race, I respond with "yes, but..."

[IanFordam]

I've been thinking further about this...

For any exotic character races, it may be worth considering how denizens of the domains would categorize them. You already called out the possibility that unusual outlanders might be mistaken for calibans. When I ran Circle of Darkness, I decided that most G'Hennans mistook the dwarf PC for one of the mongrelfolk... I mean, clearly he must be, right? In Nidala, where I've already decided there are small tribes of lizard folk in the far eastern forest, a dragonborn might be mistaken for one of them. Will such confusions lead to immediate acceptance? Of course not, but still, it might help if the locals think they understand how strangers fit into their worldview. Even if they are wrong.

As another approach, perhaps an early encounter in the adventure allows some Ravenloft natives to witness the markedly-not-human PC being heroic. Rumor might spread regarding the cat-person who carried a child from the second story of a burning barn! If nothing else, hostility might be lessened by curiosity.

[Teravala]

I've been thinking further about this...

For any exotic character races, it may be worth considering how denizens of the domains would categorize them. You already called out the possibility that unusual outlanders might be mistaken for calibans. When I ran Circle of Darkness, I decided that most G'Hennans mistook the dwarf PC for one of the mongrelfolk... I mean, clearly he must be, right? In Nidala, where I've already decided there are small tribes of lizard folk in the far eastern forest, a dragonborn might be mistaken for one of them. Will such confusions lead to immediate acceptance? Of course not, but still, it might help if the locals think they understand how strangers fit into their worldview. Even if they are wrong.

As another approach, perhaps an early encounter in the adventure allows some Ravenloft natives to witness the markedly-not-human PC being heroic. Rumor might spread regarding the cat-person who carried a child from the second story of a burning barn! If nothing else, hostility might be lessened by curiosity.

I appreciate the extra thought on the matter, and I agree that misinformation on the part of the NPCs is a relatively elegant solution to gaining a foot in the door so to speak. I definitely try to use their reputation in a community in my interactions as nocs with the group, and have often thought that a propagandist villain henchman from the champions of darkness would make quite an adversary for a party of already unusual looking pcs. Easy to spread word of the monstrous lizard man (dragonborn) when the populace is already inclined to think poorly of them based on appearance. Why bother attacking the party when you can run their name through the mud? I like where your mind went with this, and really think that nin typical races can work in the setting with a bit of flexibility, and within reason.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

In Nidala, where I've already decided there are small tribes of lizard folk in the far eastern forest, a dragonborn might be mistaken for one of them.

A dragonborn will be labelled as a servant of Banemaw and will be swiftly executed, lynched or pay a visit to Elena's dungeons.

That goes for anyone who calls an abomination such as this a friend

Rumor might spread regarding the cat-person who carried a child from the second story of a burning barn! If nothing else, hostility might be lessened by curiosity.

First the cat person will have to have survived a mob. Well there are Outcast Ratings in the game for a reason.

Personally I never saw the point in playing an exotic race, except of PC overpowering, which I am against to. The closest PCs are in reality the better the sock the Players feel when witnessing something supernatural.

[IanFordam]

Personally I never saw the point in playing an exotic race, except of PC overpowering, which I am against to. The closest PCs are in reality the better the sock the Players feel when witnessing something supernatural.

You and I both prefer a humanocentric Ravenloft, Meph, but other people don't. I'm still willing to offer ideas to help them play the sort of game that they enjoy.

[The Dark]

Part of the reason I started working on my own domains was that I wanted places that allowed for more non-human PCs and NPCs. I don't mind the Core being (mostly) human-centric, but want to have options for other types of campaigns in addition to focusing on human characters. It's going off in some other directions as well (it turns out I enjoy coming up with horror pastiches of old literary characters), but "being a good origin for unusual PC races" is still one of the potential reasons for me to create a domain. I also like it because it makes me consider what a non-human could do that's horrific both because of what they are and because it fits horror tropes about humanity (making halflings horrifying is going to be fun).

Going back to canon, there should be some variant races appearing on occasion, given Palik's presence in the MC2, but most nonhuman PC races from canon domains would be PHB races coming from Darkon, rather than Dark Sun races out of Kalidnay (and Domains of Dread mentions there are no kreen in Kalidnay) or Sithican elves. Heck, we have Alanik Ray and Bonnie Lee and Brindletople and Silessa and Tosk as canon nonhumans in various parts of the Core. They're rare and will be viewed with even more suspicion than human strangers, but they're not impossible as part of a party.

[Mistmaster]

In Nidala, where I've already decided there are small tribes of lizard folk in the far eastern forest, a dragonborn might be mistaken for one of them.

A dragonborn will be labelled as a servant of Banemaw and will be swiftly executed, lynched or pay a visit to Elena's dungeons.

That goes for anyone who calls an abomination such as this a friend

Rumor might spread regarding the cat-person who carried a child from the second story of a burning barn! If nothing else, hostility might be lessened by curiosity.

First the cat person will have to have survived a mob. Well there are Outcast Ratings in the game for a reason.

Personally I never saw the point in playing an exotic race, except of PC overpowering, which I am against to. The closest PCs are in reality the better the sock the Players feel when witnessing something supernatural.

Not in my Nidala. At least, not in a City.As in all of the mistworld Cities are more cosmopolite.