what constitutes "monster races"

[Axelmania]

The conversion book says most of them don't get super abilities, but "humanoids" are candidates. A lot of the things in the conversions from monsters+animals like Boogie Men are humanoid though. They seem monstrous in the way that a Troll or Ogre would but not necessarily in any supernatural way.

I'm curious why so many of the races are called 'subhuman' too. Subhuman in beauty, culture?

Was thinking it would be cool to roll up some Boogie Men vagabonds with super powers causing the CS trouble but unclear if they can get them.

Were there any later statements about which species in the conversion book can or can't get powers?

[glitterboy2098]

it is a terminology carryover from Palladium fantasy.

the human like races were anything that looked fairly close to human. like elves, dwarves, gnomes, etc.
while the monster races were anything that looked obviously non-human, but was intelligent, like wolfen, Coyles, Kankoran, lizardmen, eandroth, etc.

IIRC there was some blurring around the edges though (trolls, ogres, and giants for example look fairly human like, but were often lumped in as 'monster races'. )

[Axelmania]

That seems strange that there would be fewer of them who were mutants.

I suppose I could understand for Goblin/Hobgoblin/Orc/Kobold due to statements about their cousinship to faeries, the close to magicness could reduce the chances of mutation even if not totally eliminating it like it does for full creatures of magic.

Didn't much make sense for Trolls originally since they weren't described that way, although with them becoming MDC now for some reason in the revised CB it makes a bit more sense.

[glitterboy2098]

i think it boils down mostly to the fact that the "monster races" usually have significant advantages over the near-human races already. they are larger, stronger, tougher, have natural weapons, and/or innate powers already.

while Elves, dwarves, gnomes, etc mainly just have a bit different attributes, and at best maybe some better senses or a longer lifespan. this gets more pronounced in rifts, where many of the monster races get even stronger thanks to MDC conversion of their Psi, strength, and/or bodies. while the near-human races stay pretty much the same.

[flatline]

I agree. It was probably and attempt at game balance. "You want super powers? Okay, but you have to start as a race that doesn't already have obvious advantages over being a regular human."

Of course, some of the things that were "obvious advantages" in fantasy quickly disappear into the noise of Rifts.

--flatline

[Axelmania]

I wonder where Troglodytes fall in this. CEF Earth seems perfect for them.

[J_cobbers]

Somewhere in the subject line of this tread is a great "your mom" joke.

But generally anything that's subjectively more removed from the human base line in either appearance or racial abilities. Easy ones are the races that look like animals of some kind (Troglodytes, Wolven and kin, bearmen). Then the ones that have human features but are giant or more ugly (kobolds, goblins, hobgoblins, trolls ogres and orcs), or that fall in the PFRPG Monsters and Animals book. Non monster races look human but maybe a bit smaller, elves dwarves and gnomes. I guess that my definition would mean Titans are monster races, though notably heroic ones?