Thursday, August 13, 2020

Weird Revisited: D&D Races as UFOlogy Aliens

The original version of this post appeared in August of 2018...

 

I bought these Japanese alien figurines about four years ago. Looking at them yesterday, I though they might make good new skins for for D&D races.

Elves = Gray
They're both fan favorites with all the mystique.

Gnomes = Hopskinville Goblin
Magical little pranksters.

Halflings = "Apache" Alien
Their both child-like and cutesy, I guess. Not so sure about this one. (I actually don't know what alien this is supposed the represent. It looks like a Neonate, but the name "Apache" is odd.)

Goliath = Voronezh Alien
Giants!

Dwarf = Frog Alien
Let's break the Dwarf/Beard connection once and for all. I suppose the Roswell Alien as pictured would be an alternate. Though I and other have statted up frogling races for 5e.

Tiefling = "Triglia" Alien
He's demonic looking!

4 comments:

Konsumterra said...

my goblins are pretty much tau ceti alien goblins based on 70s kids ufo books
traveller 2300 kinda has them with goblin like castes like bugbears

Trey said...

Which species from Traveller 2300 were you thinking of?

James Mishler said...

The sci fi TV series Defiant kind if did something like this, I thought it worked quite well.

http://adventuresingaming2.blogspot.com/2013/04/defiance-more-thoughts-on-votan.html

You could also use Star Wars aliens...

Kaminoans are elves
Ugnaughts are dwarves
Yodas are gnomes
Ewoks are halflings
Trandoshans are dragonborn
Zabraks are tieflings

Jawas are goblins
Tusken Raiders are hobgoblins
Gammoreans are orcs

Dick McGee said...

FWIW, the "Apache" thing may be a reference to beliefs that the Native American tribes of the same name had contact with aliens in pre-Colonial days. It's a recurring "thing" in UFO-believer circles, or at least it was in the 70s when I was last paying close attention to that subculture. Might look like some of the cave art images that seem to be the main source of the idea, although I'm not really seeing it myself.