by: Jared Biti
With Easter just passed and all the talk of rabbits and eggs, let us talk about the Harengon race. This is the rabbit-like race that is featured in Dungeons & Dragons 5e. They are creatures of the feywild introduced in the supplement “The Wild Beyond the Witchlight”. What I am going to talk about is how they got brought into a campaign of mine and how I wove them in as a race into my setting.
To begin with, they were introduced because a player, who joined the campaign around level five (the campaign had started at level 1), wanted to play one. I allowed it. He made one that was a ranger. He named him Phep Downship. Yes, pun intended. I felt like he needed some depth, and the party was currently in the foothills of the mountain range bordering the kingdom that the PCs were exploring.
So, with that, I decided, with input from the player, to make his origin village an isolated community up in the mountains. They would be largely separated from the main population of the kingdom. I did this so that the, up to that time, lack of the race in the common place of the kingdom could be explained. I also introduced an NPC Harengon priestess to give some direction and connection for the party to that village. I had some plans for really wrapping up in the Haregon village, but ended up not going that route with the plot.
What I did end up doing was using an “evil scientist” character as the BBEG of this chapter. This Artifiser had a theory that the Haregon were mutations of standard rabbits and so was studying the village and doing experiments on them by adding things to their water supply, which happened to be the only well in the village, to prove his theory. This BBEG was making “abomination” creatures as his minions, and the party had been directed to try to cleanse these from the surrounding area and find their source.
This is where the priestess comes in. She and another agent of a syndicate had been sent to the party at a syndicate safehouse in the foothills to give them this mission as well as take over their escort mission, which the party was in the middle of when they were attacked by the aforementioned abominations. This Agent and Priestess informed the party of what they knew and gave some knowledge so they would have direction on where to search for the source of the abomination. They all, with the new member of the party, the Haregon Ranger, delve deeper into the mountains, finding an old temple to a now unknown deity that is swarming with abominations.
They fight their way into the temple grounds and finally make it into the main building, where the BBEG escapes into a portal. The party finds a statue of a deity they are familiar with from earlier in the campaign. They searched the temple for more clues and find a locked treasure room under the temple with a riddle puzzle. This puzzle, as well as the items and writings in the temple, imply that the Haregon are a race that this deity “uplifted” so that she could have guardians of the hills and forests.
Long way around, what I am getting at is that I chose to weave the Haregon, as a race, into my setting in a unique way without really knowing much about them, except that they were a rabbit race. I had not researched them except for checking the stats and mechanical bits to make sure they were balanced. Through talking with the player about what class and background they wanted to have, I wove together this origin area, the village, and the way the race was actually introduced to the setting. I also created a misinterpreted view of how they came into the setting and how that could create a BBEG, and shapes how the Party and this new player that was playing a member of that race would react to such a view. Thus, driving them to want to hunt the BBEG and to learn the truth about how the race came into this setting. Was the BBEG right? Or was there another source?
Revealing the truth after they have endeavored to defeat the BBEG forced the party to make the decision of what they choose to believe before actually knowing the facts. I did this to help the party want to help their new friend (Phep) defend the idea that his race and people could not be just some “accident,” but an intentional inclusion in the “world” by a higher being or by intentional nature.
I like the idea of including in-depth reasons for races to exist in a setting, especially if they are an odd or unique race that is not easily explained as “always been there” like Humans, Dwarves, or Elves. To give depth to a setting, I see it as an opportunity to dig deeper and add yet another layer, just as important as a mountain range, river, or founding town on the bay.
Obviously, the Haregon are not the only race I have done this with, but with this being the season we are in, it came to mind about how I did this and why. Thank you for reading, and I hope it inspires you all to weave just as much depth into how races of all kinds fit into your settings. Game on!
About the Author
Jared “Martel” B has been GMing and playing in several TTRPG’s since late 2013. Enjoys the challenge of bringing his players worlds and stories straight from his mind in the moment that it happens. He is one of the Founders of RPGCounterpoint, happy husband to an active historian wife, and father to two puppers and a toddler!
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