Christina Stiles Presents: Races Revised - Cackle of the Gnolls

Welcome to Races Revised - Cackle of the Gnolls, the latest Christina Stiles Presents offering from Super Genius Games! Many races have received short shrift over the years, while elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, half-elves, and half-orcs have hogged the player spotlight. Well no more! Races Revised are meant to inspire you to consider what’s interesting about an alternate race; whether it be traditionally evil or a non-player-character race, that’s no reason for you or campaign to ignore it in your gaming experience.

This PDF presents an expanded look at an old-school favorite: Gnolls, an opportunistic race of humanoids who prefer to scavenge rather than actively hunt, happily reaping the rewards of others’ hard work. Much like the hyenas they resemble, gnolls prefer to wait for others to complete a task, and then sweep in to benefit from the others’ labor. While they are physically powerful, gnolls are also lazy and cowardly, avoiding entering melee with other creatures, unless they have some advantage over their foes. To many civilizations, gnolls are notorious slavers or despicable killers, and settlements neighboring gnoll territories have numerous tales of such gnoll exploits.

Cackle of the Gnolls includes the following sections:

• General Description: which includes a physical description, information on their society, relations with other encountered races, their alignment and religion, reasons they might go adventuring, and possible names for male or female characters.
• Racial Traits: A sidebar containing standard type, size, vision, speed, and other common traits follows its general description. With the Game Master’s permission, players may exchange standard racial traits for any of the alternate racial traits included herein.
• Alternate Racial Traits: This section provides optional rules for making your character unique by exchanging out standard racial traits for others, or accepting a penalty to acquire another ability.
• Racial Subtypes: Different subtypes for the race are presented in this section, and it lists optional traits for each of the subraces.
• Favored Class Options: This option allows the character to have an optional reward for level attainment besides a hit point or a skill point. Characters gain the chosen reward on a level-by-level basis.
• Racial Archetypes: This section presents at least two new archetypes for the expanded race.
• New Racial Rules: This line presents various new rules for things like equipment, feats, magic items, spells. Other races may often purchase the race-based items on the open market, though, in the case of alchemical substances, they may have different effects on other races. Only members of the race may choose the listed feats. Although the magic items and spells in this section are used exclusively by members of the race, others could feasibly utilize them—each must be considered on a case-by-case basis in your campaign.

About the Author

Mike Welham proved in 2012 he was a Superstar writer of RPG material, winning the title in a contest from a major RPG publisher. We’re thrilled to have him writing for Super Genius Games, and expect to see his name on an ever-increasing number of products!