Level Up (A5E) Building a Setting: How do Narrators and writers handle ancestries not covered by A5E heritages?

[Chaltab]

How do Narrators and those writing Homewbrew/3PP settings usually handle stuations where the Heritage and Culture options in the game currently don't cover major ancestries that exist in the lore? There are some surprising omissions such as goliaths, firbolgs, hobgolins and serpentfolk.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

i mean, you have a few options.

sometimes you can get away with reskinning a currently existing heritage/culture. zevites and their cultures in place of gith(yanki or zerai, depending on the culture) is probably the best example of this, since zevites seem basically made for exactly that purpose. i don't really think there's any official heritage that would make a good stand in for the ones you mentioned, though.

the a5e 3pp scene is extensive enough that you can probably find some equivalent for most heritages/cultures you might want to use. MOAR complete, for instance, has half-giants (which can serve as goliaths) and hobgoblins (as a type of goblinoid). even if you can't specifically find what you're looking for, homebrew and hacking has a good resource to help guide heritage/culture creation.

you could use an o5e race/species if you really can't find anything good, but i'd avoid it if you can, especially since ASIs are supposed to be given by background and cultures take the place of subraces mechanically. if you do end up using an o5e race/species, you'll probably want to buck a5e cultures and backgrounds as well and just give that character an o5e background.

 

[Chaltab]

i mean, you have a few options.

I know what the options are. I'm more interested in how other people, especially writers of homebrew settings, handle this.

 

[xiphumor]

Step 1. Consult my massive spreadsheet of every option in the game from any publisher.

Step 2. If I can’t find it there, design my own.

Also, all of the specific options you cited are covered by the 3PP community, including Serpent-folk as of just a few weeks ago.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

I know what the options are. I'm more interested in how other people, especially writers of homebrew settings, handle this.

ah, then i misunderstood. i thought you were asking for advice. my bad.

i do think my answer does still explain what i'd prioritize, mostly - first trying to reskin an existing heritage/culture, then try to find a new one, then make one (preferably with guidance), and lastly (if absolutely necessary) pull from o5e. the only real addendum i'd make to that is that, if i'm writing a setting, i'd probably just...not include a heritage/culture that doesn't have some sort of equivalent (1pp or 3pp) already. if i really want such a thing, for whatever reason, i'd make my own.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I have converted many heritages sourced from other products to Level Up. For others, I use 3pp. Whatever best models what I want.

 

[Distracted DM]

Chances are if it's not in LU it's not a normal option in my setting anyway- but otherwise I'd homebrew something up based off of similar things I see in LU.

 

[Faolyn]

I picked "other" because it's all of the above, really. I made most of a new heritage for my current game--I just haven't done the paragon gift yet. Another one I picked out of a 3pp... although technically it's also homebrew because it was the 3pp that I wrote. The third one was just planetouched renamed, and the fourth is sorta reskinned humans because I said that due to extremely frequent interbreeding with the other three, they can basically pick any heritage's gift (even for heritages that aren't in the game) and still be considered human.

 

[Corinnguard]

I agree with W'rkncacnter about reskinning a currently existing heritage/culture in order to come up with a heritage not covered by Level Up. In MoAR: Complete, the authors showed how to reskin their Harpy and their Merfolk heritages in order to come up with some new heritages.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I agree with W'rkncacnter about reskinning a currently existing heritage/culture in order to come up with a heritage not covered by Level Up. In MoAR: Complete, the authors showed how to reskin their Harpy and their Merfolk heritages in order to come up with some new heritages.

I've never been a fan of reskinning personally. If I want something different from what's offered, I find a different version or I make the changes myself.