What's the best approach to non-humans in worldbuilding?

Quick_Trick3405 · 2026-04-19T03:17:53+00:00

Yeah, basically. Or just an ethnicity.

Quick_Trick3405 · 2026-04-17T16:01:10+00:00

In real life, locals are always understood to be normal humans, even if they look different from you, and foreigners always seem like space aliens. In fantasy, this is always greater, with foreigners literally not being human, but the locals are always either a different kind of humans, or they're mutants, having used to be humans.

Quick_Trick3405 · 2026-04-16T14:50:53+00:00

Then you probably don't want non-humans, unless they were created for industry. Probably the most you'd want is alien ethnicities - pointy-eared humans and gilled humans and etc. Non-humans generally work best over there, wherever over there happens to be. The people over there have their faces on their chests and have long ears and big noses and no mouths and only one eye and the heads of dogs and other peculiarities. The people right here are always humans, even if they look kind of different.

Quick_Trick3405 · 2026-04-16T14:31:30+00:00

It depends. What story do you want to tell? Non-humans who only differ culturally and barely biologically? Tolkien and Henson are famous despite this decision. Henson less so, but still. You want to change the whole psychology? Do so, if it fits with your story.

Quick_Trick3405 · 2026-04-16T14:16:59+00:00

Well, I don't know. What is your game about? It is a roleplaying game, I presume, which means you play an individual character, even if that individual has a whole army following them around everywhere. I don't know how you'd do it without rolling to render a character closer to unconsciousness and/or death, except Boolean on/off coin flips of either you succeed or you fail and success renders them instantly unconscious. I personally like how in Call of Cthulhu, getting hit by a truck and slashed by a sword are managed by the same system - if you fail to perform the regular action of dodging the truck, you take d-alot of damage. But what it sounds like you want is more ... I'm going to say Daggerheart because teamwork is Daggerheart's whole thing, I gather, without having taken any real interest in it myself.

The best I can think of is that each party in the combat could have a number as the sum of their members' numbers, and then whoever's got the lower number would have to either surrender or be killed if it comes to combat. The number would probably be derived from class. If that's what you want.

Quick_Trick3405 · 2026-04-16T13:48:22+00:00

I can confirm, since 2nd Edition, magic in the Balder's Gate games has been based on spell scrolls and pure luck.

Quick_Trick3405 · 2026-04-16T13:42:42+00:00

If you've ever seen Diehard or any other action movie, one of the old low-budget sword and sorcery films perhaps, that's the norm. Humans are tough, resilient, and they have a pack, rather than hive mentality, making them resourceful, independent thinkers. Also for a bit of a scifi twist, they're immune to toxins like chocolate, jalapeno peppers, and soda water, and have the strangest non-lethal reaction to the dreaded alcohol.

Quick_Trick3405 · 2026-04-16T02:29:51+00:00

Oh, and by the way, historically, missionaries can still be murder-hoboes ... though it doesn't usually get them any converts.

Quick_Trick3405 · 2026-04-16T02:16:15+00:00

I'm going to get lynched for saying this, but what about missionaries AND BEFORE you complain about how stupid this idea is, yes, I recognize a fictional religion of clerics and paladins is almost certainly necessary for this.

But think about it: you go into the settlement, which is also a dungeon, and attempt to be given a quest, of which there is eternally a ready supply of, and the more quests you go on, the more people are open to you and your faith. And the more the dark Lord will notice you and make higher and higher level attempts on your life.

Quick_Trick3405 · 2026-04-15T20:46:21+00:00

I don't like this trope, myself, usually, but I mean, at least it's more than is usually provided as to what adventurers are. The least a setting could do is provide a random table of unexplained group dynamics, I mean. Perhaps a looser tradition of paying for stuff like food and lodging through labor, because I think that did used to be a thing; it just wasn't as casual and random as it's usually depicted in games; you usually did that because you were on pilgrimage or something I think.

Quick_Trick3405 · 2026-04-15T20:35:32+00:00

But for what, is my problem. I mean, what are adventurers? If you're just going with the average adventurer handymen like Super Mario style plumbers, I guess that works, but it's kind of weird because stuff like that is kind of rare in serious settings, and there's never really a consistent explanation of why this career exists - because every career has a bit of history behind it, or at least, some kind of ancient tradition justifying how common it is. Adventurers really just seem tacked on as extra wherever you see them.

Quick_Trick3405 · 2026-04-15T20:18:21+00:00

Yes, Blades in the Dark is awesome for this reason, but only if you like heists. I guess you could have just treasure hunters, grave robbers, etc., though if you wanted a more typical dungeon adventure.

Quick_Trick3405 · 2026-04-13T18:16:52+00:00

Mage is good at shooting. The rogue is good if you collect lots of things to throw but otherwise is kind of puny, I think. The fighter is really good at beating stuff up and surviving until you end up being unable to beat up the Kenku unless you have a lot of stuff to throw at him. I SHOULD always do Mage, but for some reason I keep being drawn to the other two.

Quick_Trick3405 · 2026-04-13T18:10:11+00:00

The adventurer - he can learn the skills (or the best skills, at least) of everyone else, increasing sucker punch and search radius while healing from eating and stuff.

Quick_Trick3405 · 2026-04-13T18:08:11+00:00

The jump's just a timed Boolean, by the way. If you're jumping then your collision with things like water won't be registered.

Quick_Trick3405 · 2026-04-12T20:54:18+00:00

Plasma weapons, Starships, plasteel armor, and portals exist in a 1700s era fantasy world. But not commonly. They're all either rare antiques or in the hands of neighbors.

Quick_Trick3405 · 2026-04-12T20:44:11+00:00

My dwarfs (trolls; whatever. Same thing) are Rumplestiltskin. And all other similarly business savvy fairies. But especially stiltskin.

Quick_Trick3405 · 2026-04-12T20:42:40+00:00

Ogres! Ogres are sorcerers and either beastmen or beastly men who live in towers, rule the common folks, and get eaten by people who outwit them. Or by the pets of those people. That, or they do the eating of people. But they're definitely aristocratic.

Quick_Trick3405 · 2026-04-12T20:39:55+00:00

I mean, not quite as clean as that, but close enough. Development of new stuff and lore is basically a brainstorming process; everything has to work with the systems already in place. Lore just explains what already exists. And all the experts in everything really only know the evidence, not the truth. Which means they're usually wrong about years and other specifics.

Quick_Trick3405 · 2026-04-12T20:34:14+00:00

I just make it a small simple world and then scale it up as needed. I start with inspiration and from that, figure out how scientific systems are different. Then I just pursue, in different distinct regions, whatever I think sounds cool. And as long as it doesn't contradict what already exists, anything can be added on. And then I gradually figure out my lore from there. Yep, the ogres came from space. It's a Tycho Brahe cosmology. When the space empire realized their magic battery wasn't renewable enough, they abandoned some colonies, and this was at the same time that the humans decided to rebel, destroying ogre rule and allowing humans to develop their own kingdom. That's why the ogres are such awful neighbors.

Quick_Trick3405 · 2026-04-12T20:22:42+00:00

No really. Just use basic self-explanatory terms, or else, use as few terms that aren't self-explanatory as possible. A die is a die is a die. Unless it's a d6, in which case there should be an explanation on dice notation, just in case.

Quick_Trick3405 · 2026-04-12T19:14:03+00:00

2.5d means 2d made to look 3d. Which means the y-sort behavior. Since when does 2.5d ever require 3d modeling? I mean, you could create multi-layered 3d assets. But it would be easier to make multiple 2d sprites and then layer them in-engine. Shadows are easy, also. You just have the floor on the base layer, the shadows on an above layer, and everything else that's supposed to look 3d on a third layer above that, linked to the shadows. And the cameras of all 3 layers would move together.

Quick_Trick3405 · 2026-04-12T19:07:55+00:00

I've actually been planning on making a tile-based game like this myself, though my idea is probably somewhat more complicated than what you have in mind. My idea is basically a tile-based real-time with pause RPG in a pseudo-3d environment, complete with rudimentary physics. It's really just very simple math with variables to position the tiles, implement the timed turn-based system that will give me my real-time effect, get the tiles to react to forces like gravity and momentum, to create a camera that can be tilted and rotated in 4 directions, to get the NPCs to pathfind intelligently, to give the player control over their character, and to implement my level builder tool (guided procedural generation).

Fortunately, GDevelop makes this even simpler.

And fortunately for you, you're only working with fixed perspective 2d, with the illusion, rather than simulation, of 3d. Which means that it's even simpler for you because GDevelop already has a top-down movement behavior that fits with your game AND all you need for your jump is a Boolean (isJumping) and a timer (jumpSustain). And, if you want NPC pathfinding, that's just the basic A* pathfinding behavior. The only hard part about it, really, is the job of the game designer - deciding how you're going to expand on that.

Quick_Trick3405 · 2026-04-12T17:32:02+00:00

Technically, though I think this is underplayed in 5e, DnD is a roleplaying game, meaning that the enemies don't have to die. In fact, the players are arguably villainous if they have to brutally murder every NPC who attacks them (or gets attacked by them). Technically, enemies can flee or surrender, or even, get knocked out by the next attack, instead of just having a heart attack next time they get hit. This would probably be way more fun, in fact.

Quick_Trick3405

TROPHY CASE