Think of the main races in your basic campaign setting. Humans always dominate the world with a wide variety of kingdoms and cultures and ethnicities. Then you've got your dwarves in their mountain holds: a proud, Scottish-accented race of perpetually bearded miners who write in runes and love axes almost as much as they love grudges. Of course you have your elven kingdom too, often tucked away on an island to the west where they are free to be mysterious and haughty. Don't get them started on their evil cousins, the drow, who worship demons and spiders deep in their subterranean kingdoms conveniently located wherever the plot needs them to be. The orcs live in barbarian tribes just on the other side of those mountains at the edge of the map, but they're always coming over to raid the civilized lands. Halflings and gnomes? Oh, they are around somewhere too. I guess they live in little villages inside human kingdoms, where they just sort of hang out, practicing with their slings and talking to badgers. Maybe the gnomes are, like, steampunk inventors or whatever. And the halflings are... well, you read The Hobbit, right?
RPGs these days are getting better at representing real-life human diversity, which is great. Astute worldbuilders make sure to fill their campaign maps with a wide variety of human kingdoms representing any number of ethnicities, cultures, and government types. But what about diversity for the other races? Are there any feudal halfling kingdoms? How about dark-skinned elves? (And I don't mean drow). Are there dwarven merchant republics? Oriental gnomish dynasties?
Sometimes you'll get a bit of an explanation. 'The special thing about humans is how diverse they are! All those other races are just too set in their ways to have a wide range of languages, cultures, and ethnicities.' I call that BS. It's just a way to excuse lazy worldbuilding. I know why it happens: humans are real. We can look to our own history for inspiration when creating the human kingdoms and cultures of our fantasy settings. But elves and dwarves don't exist. Most of the fantasy races are only around because of Tolkien. Nowhere is this more apparent than with halflings, who owe their entire existence to Tolkien. In fact, the basic D&D halfling, with its love of adventure and skill at thievery, is based not so much on the pastoral hobbits of the Shire, but on one hobbit in particular: Bilbo Baggins. When humans can draw on 10,000 years of real history but all the other races are tethered - directly or indirectly - to a handful of books or even a few beloved characters, it's easy to see why the fantasy races get such short shrift.
How do we fix it? To start, throw Tolkien out the window. The man is the father of modern worldbuilding; let's honor him by making our own worlds, not copying his. Start with all of the base races on equal footing. Think about what defining characteristics they would have in your setting. If you just can't find a place for one of the races, toss it out and consider replacing it with an alternate race. When you start filling in your map with cool country ideas, think to yourself, "Does this country need to be human-dominated? Is there another race that fits it better?" Draw on human history and diversity for inspiration not just for your human cultures, but for your dwarves and elves and halflings and gnomes as well.
In the 'India and Southeast-Asia' region of my campaign setting, Chattara is an empire ruled over by a warrior caste of dwarves (an amalgam of the Mughals, the Rajputs, and the Sikhs). Chattar dwarves descended from a race of surface-dwelling dwarves in the hill country to the north. They have bronze skin and black hair, which they keep wrapped in a turban in public. They have an abiding love of wine and poetry. They are skilled with the falchion and the chakram, and they ride into battle on the backs of woolly rhinoceroses.
Chattar dwarves bear little resemblance to Gimli, son of Glóin, but they are distinctive and interesting nonetheless.
For your inspiration, here are a few more ideas for non-human-centric kingdoms and civilizations:
The halfling kingdom of Amall has a reputation for chivalry. They have fought long and hard to keep from being overrun by the 'big folk' and have adapted well to their style of warfare. Amallish castles are built with high walls to repel human attackers. Amallish knights on purebred war-ponies train constantly at tournaments. The elite knights of the Order of the Giant's Skull only earn their spurs when they have fought a giant and lived to tell the tale. Aside from their knights, Amall is renowned for the quality of their gourds and squashes - every Amallish housewife has a well-guarded recipe for pumpkin pie.
The wood elves of Cythnemoria hold insanity to be a gift from the gods. Before making any important decision, they consume a potent hallucinogenic drink to 'bring them closer to the wisdom of the mad ones'. In battle, they paint their bodies with natural dyes and strike with poisoned weapons. Cythnemoria is divided into a dozen chaotic elvish clans. Alliances shift rapidly at the whims of the clan elders who, if not actually insane, manage a fair impression of it.
In the swampy islands of Pindalang, human and gnomish slaves work under the rule of the lizardfolk warrior class known as the Chonggai. Katana-armed Chonggai maintain a tightly structured society that ensures that their slaves can never hope to rise up. The lizardfolk, in turn, carry out the orders of a shadowy cabal of serpentfolk working toward inscrutable goals. The slaves, meanwhile, live lives of toil in rice paddies and copper mines, more afraid of the terrifying monsters that haunt the night than of their scaly overlords.
The Falan are a race of black-skinned gnomes from the coast of Tong. They live most of their lives on their boats, fishing or carrying trade goods down rivers and up coasts to port cities. It is taboo in Falan culture to speak while on land, for fear that evil land spirits will fly into your open mouth and turn your heart away from the water. As such, the Falan have devised a sign language that they use to trade in human markets, and many humans believe the Falan to be mute. The most honored gnomes in Falan culture are believed to be able to call fish to the surface with their songs. These Sea-Callers are forbidden from ever setting foot on land, lest they inadvertently open their mouth and lose their precious gift.
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Just as a reminder, my patreon has switched to a monthly schedule, and there is a whole new set of rewards tiers to choose from. $5+ patrons get a new monster every Monday, $8+ patrons get to vote on the final monster of the month, and $12+ patrons get access to a monthly playtest document full of all the open game content I worked on that month. In January, as a special preview, I made all reward tiers available to every patron. January's monsters were the rustbound skeleton, funayurei, valraven, and the patron-voted strix harpy. January's playtest document added three new monsters (goo bat swarm, ikuchi, and pit mimic), a giant-blooded playable race (the Grenn), and a new spell worthy of a Disney princess (animal servants). Check out my patreon if you like what you see here! I don't mean to beg, but please give me all of your money!
-your perpetually bearded d20 despot
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