OSR: Revised Table of Races + 10 Neural Network Races

In a medieval setting it's hard to get players to care about the petty regional feuds between people from not-Wessex and not-Sussex, but they immediately "get" the local friction between froglings vs flylings. There might be bunch of races but they're all from the same country, effectively. One worldview. In a standard setting they'd all be one race.

Each race has a minor bonus and a minor weakness. They also have a stat they can reroll during character creation and take the higher result. I think it works better than a flat bonus. The bonuses and weaknesses are designed to encourage old-school tactics, weird combinations, clever plans, and interesting differences between otherwise identical characters. I deliberately left the races vague; the players filled out the details as they came up during play.

Bréviaire de Renaud de Bar, MS. 107 (1302-1303),
fol. n.c., Bibliothèque de Codecom, Verdun.

Side Note: In my view, the primary medieval category for reactions is rank, not race or nationality. This starts to change by the mid 14th century as national identities coalesce, but for western Europe before the 14th century, or Italy before the 12th and the rise of the city-state, people were generally sorted people by rank, not origin.

The King of the Dog-Headed People fits into the "King" category first before he fits into the "Dog-Headed People" category. If you meet him, treat him like a king. This goes for nobles of all ranks and sizes. Doesn't matter if they are elves from across the sea, if they throw babies into furnaces, if they wear silly hats. Sort them by your worldview into Kings, Queens, Princes, Lords, Barons, Knights, Bishops, Priests, etc. and react accordingly.

Even if you hate the Welsh, you'll grant them princes and lords. You might be at war with a hated foreign enemy but you're going to treat a hated foreign prince closer to the way you'd treat a local prince than to the way you'd treat a local peasant.

Amazons, Le secret de l'histoire naturelle
France ca. 1480-1485 (BnF, Français 22971, fol. 2r)

Tactics my groups have used:

-making a Slugling a mobile anchor for a rope ladder
-gnomes evading pursuit by turning invisible just around a corner
-giving the hawkling magic night vision goggles

Things we have learned:

-Antlings are detailed in this post. They look like formians, but tidier. They think everyone is female unless told otherwise, and they hate being left alone or being excluded from social groups.

-Spiderlings are basically medieval jewish driders. The rich urban spiderlings weave, lend money, and live in walled districts filled with smaller spiders, web-branches, and nests. Poor rural spiderlings are distrusted by everyone. They have their own religious code, keep strange holidays, and associated mostly with each other. If there's a mob, someone will inevitably suggest burning the local spiderlings.

-Elves are beautiful. They own beauty like mer-folk own the sea. Elves need to Save vs Ugliness. If they see something particularly ugly, badly made, or gruesome they tend to run away, stare, drop whatever they are holding, burst into tears, or go into a murderous rage. Sometimes it's a mix of several options. Elves have several dozen names. Nobody else cares. They have an innate and almost unshakable self-confidence. An elf in the middle of a disaster will smile and assume it will all turn out well; there's simply no way Creation could harm them. An elf will never admit incompetence or failure.

-Sluglings put on genders like other people put on hats. Everyone else pretends not to notice.

-Houndlings look like humans with the faces of bloodhounds. Jowly, docile, snuffling, but obedient. "Fetch" jokes are not treated kindly. They are cheerful thugs.

-Toadlings and Froglings are feuding.

Mike McCarthy

Roll	Race	Reroll	Bonus	Weakness
1-15	Human	Choice	Start with 1 extra random item	-4 to resist being mutated or transformed
16-20	Elf	CHA	Eat half as many rations	Save vs Ugliness or shun it
21	Gnome	INT	Can become invisible if you close eyes, hold breath, don't move	-2 to DEX for Move
22	Spiderling	DEX	Can secrete 30' of rope per day	Cannot see more than 30'
23	Magpieling	DEX	Always knows the approximate value of mundane items	Must Save or pick up shiny objects
24	Eelling	INT	Take half damage while grappling	Cannot see anything nearer than 1'
25	Antling	CON	+2 to STR for Inventory Slots	Save vs Fear when alone
26	Hedgehogling	WIS	+2 Defense	Cannot wear armour on chest or limbs
27	Deerling	CHA	Antlers (as a club)	When afraid, will run instead of freezing
28	Slothling	STR	Cannot be Frightened	Always Surprised
29	Mouseling	WIS	Can very convincingly play dead	-2 to Strength for Inventory Slots
30	Boarling	CON	Tusks (as a dagger)	Constant snuffling. -2 to DEX for Stealth
31	Hawkling	INT	Can see detail at a great distance	Must eat uncooked food
32	Houndling	CHA	Can track a creature by smell	Save vs Commands
33	Beetleling	STR	+1 Defense, half fall damage	Cannot wear armour on chest or limbs
34	Fishling	CON	Can hold breath for 5 minutes	Drink twice as much water as usual
35	Swanling	DEX	Can shout and sing incredibly well	Cursed. -2 to Save.
36	Owlling	WIS	Can rotate head 180 degrees	Cough up disgusting pellets after every meal
37	Slugling	STR	Cannot be pushed in combat	Salt is deadly to you
38	Flyling	DEX	Can eat rotten food as rations	Will never notice details unless they move
39	Rabbitling	DEX	Jump twice as high	When afraid, will freeze instead of running
40	Gooseling	CON	Prehensile neck, can fit through small spaces	When afraid, Save or attack enemy
41	Ravenling	CHA	Can eat rotten food as rations	Must Save or pick up shiny objects
42	Weaselling	STR	Can crawl through narrow spaces	Must eat uncooked food
43	Frogling	CHA	Prehensile tongue (as a whip)	Drink twice as much water as usual
44	Toadling	STR	Jump twice as high	Contagious warts
45	Ratling	INT	Can crawl through narrow spaces	Save vs Fear when alone
46	Goatling	DEX	No Move penalties for broken or hilly terrain	Pervasive, unique stink
47	Foxling	WIS	Half time taken to forage	Cannot tell the direct, blunt truth
48	Wormling	INT	Can shrink or grow from your base height by 25% as an Action	-2 to STR for Inventory Slots
49	Flealing	STR	Can drink blood as rations	Cannot wear armour on chest or limbs
50	Batling	WIS	Can roll Wis to "hear" walls and major fixtures in the dark.	Will never notice details unless they move

Mauro Belfiore
Croissantling?

10 Neural Network Races

Here are 10 races generated by Janelle Shane's neural network (and voted on by you).

I probably wouldn't roll on this table in under normal circumstances, but maybe if the player's last character died in a spectacular and horrible way I'd allow it.

Roll	Race	Reroll	Bonus	Weakness
1	Catkolin	DEX	Take 1/2 fall damage.	Save or disobey any direct commands or orders
2	Copper Knight	CON	+6 Defense	Cannot wear armour. Must eat 100cp as rations
3	Elf (Warper)	WIS	Take 1 damage to teleport 10' in a random direction	Start with -2 HP. Save vs Ugliness or shun it
4	Fetchling	DEX	Can appear as a copy of a person looking at them	Save vs Fear against bright lights
5	Necropolion	WIS	Immune to disease and weather effects.	Save vs Fear against holy symbols.
6	Orcane	INT	Take 2 damage to reroll 1 MD on a damage-dealing spell	-2 to Save
7	Poreborn	STR	Can drink blood as rations	-2 to Strength for Inventory Slots
8	Short Dwarf	CON	Reduce all incoming physical damage by 1	2' high. All armour must be custom built
9	Tireling	STR	Produce 1 cubic foot of rags per day	Double damage from fire.
10	Wordzing	CHA	Can read all languages	Save or read aloud any text you see.

1. Catkolin

There are very few "catlings" Around Here. Maybe there are some in Foreign Parts, where they war with dog-headed kobolds and live in the shadow of the Sphinx. Yet, in some regions, you can find solitary Catkolins. Their fur is dark and drinks the light. Their eyes are large and yellow. They would make excellent assassins if it wasn't for their habitual disobedience, laziness, and pettiness. They are disgusted by work, contemptuous of rank, and easily bribed by luxuries, vanities, and trinkets. Seen at night, it is easy to imagine why villagers mistake them for demons and drive them away with arrows and torches.

2. Copper Knight

In the hills, where ancient stone roads are still visible beneath the scrub, you can sometimes find Copper Knights. Their villages are always found near rivers. Despite appearances they are living things. Cut them open and, so traveler say, you will find a sort of crab or worm inside. They spin armour like a shell. They are proud warriors, fiercely independent, and they live where no one else will, so their settlements are rarely disturbed. They trade olives, wine, and apricots for copper and silk. Their armour is elaborate and strong. It weighs nothing to them. They fight with a duelist's grace and tact; a maimed opponent will be spared. They grow in different shapes; some with protected shoulders, some with spiked arms, some with slab-faced helms and hammer fists. 

3. Elf (Warper)

Elves are difficult to make. Sometimes things go wrong. Intensely magical, Warper Elves are jittery, unstable creatures. They have a manic and haunted look. Something seems to swim beneath the skin, half-real, half visible, dragging them through life at an uncomfortable pace. They can flicker in and out of existence, potentially avoiding damage or injury, but often flinging themselves into danger, into the path of allies, or off cliffs. 

4. Fetchling

In their true form, or if seen in mirrors or through leaded glass, Fetchlings are small, stick-thin humanoids with horse-skull faces. They live on a few rocky and treeless islands surrounded by stormy seas. Unnervingly, to mortal eyes, they appear as shimmering duplicates, spectral copies of the viewer. Their appearance is usually enough to send superstitious sailors screaming back to their boates. Despite church propaganda, relatively few Fetchlings become necromancers, and those that do rarely raise embodied undead.

5. Necropolion

Immortality at a price. The bog-witches know how to make them. Carve out the heart, pack herbs and dried worms into the cavity, stitch up the body, throw the heart into the bog. The victim rises, cured of any diseases. They will live forever. Not dead and not undead, but detached. Life's joys are muted. Life's sorrows fall heavily. 

6. Orcane

Orcs live in the north, where the snow never melts. If you spend a few months in a major city, you may meet someone who has met someone who seen them. They are remote. They do not fear the cold. They live in the sea and on the land. They have fought many wars.

Orcanes are their spies or agents or missionaries. No one is sure, not even the Orcane. Human sailors, shipwrecked, dredged, fed, healed. Branded on the back of the skull by orc-marks. Memories washed away by cold seawater.The orcs see through their eyes, hear their thoughts. Orcanes make powerful casters. They can draw on the strength of their distant patrons. 

7. Poreborn

The living blood. Someone falls sick, lies in bed, screams, sweats, and dies. A poreborn emerges with foggy memories of their host. They are apologetic. They did not mean any harm. They look like a person made of congealed blood. It's less horrible then you think; more like a statue made of wet stone. They are not strong. Most are killed immediately. Perhaps, in Foreign Parts, they are worshiped. They have a heart, a brain, skin, eyes. One type of cell rewritten to serve as many. 

8. Short Dwarf

Just another kind of dwarf, I suppose? Who can say. Creation is a vast place. Two foot tall but as broad and as heavy as a normal person. Compressed, like a squashed fruit. Wide mouth, drooping nose, wrinkled eyes, waddling gait. Helmet like a dinner plate. Some people joke that they were all crushed in a terrible mining accident. They talk with helium munchkin voices, but they are deadly serious, sober, and intelligent. They are used to fighting things much larger than them and crawling for miles through soaking mud-filled tunnels. You don't scare them. 

9. Tirelings
From "Attirelings". A heap of filthy cloth with bare human feet. Little eyes peer from beneath the hood. They come from far away and settle in cities. To most, they are just another variety of beggar, but this is their chosen mode of life. Beneath the cloth they are like stick insects. They love fabric. They love its texture, its softness, its weave. They lay their slow-maturing eggs in it and scatter them through the world. Inside the cloth shell, dozens of arms weave and unweave, miraculously producing rags from almost anything. 

10. Wordzing
Linguist-slaves from Foreign Parts. Humans, but pale and long-haired, with worn peg-like teeth. Their eyes have been replaced with enchanted opals. They see all languages and obsessively read text. Worth their weight in gold to some; a dangerous liability to others, for ciphers and codes unravel beneath their gaze. They are notorious for blurting out secrets. Some escape from their captors to find a life of their own. Some, reading orders for a revolt, an execution, or a trap, flee before the axe falls. And some find hints of treasure and power in ancient text, raise funds, and vanish into parts unknown.