The devil is in the details – Many Dwarrow, Many Rat-People

Inspired recently by the "devil is in the details" concept developed by Kesher in Fight On!, I decided to start creating these tables of random racial features for my Old Aalia campaign. First up are two d30 tables which describe some of the most common traits of Dwarrow and Rat-People. The concept is that each newly created character of these races should roll for three of these traits.

Many Dwarrow

1. Have only three fingers.
2. Stretch their ear lobes by hanging pebbles from them.
3. Smoke a sweet smelling pipe-weed which is intoxicating to humans.
4. Find humans physically repulsive.
5. Believe that Dwarrow are the rightful possessors of all metals and stones.
6. Have no sense of taste.
7. View avarice as the highest emotion.
8. Can subsist by eating gravel alone.
9. Have thick, slow-oozing blood.
10. Worship Ogremoch, lord of the dark, cold earth, whom they view as the creator of the world.
11. Are driven mad by the sound of music.
12. Follow an ancient creed of 111 rules known as Bag-Hran.
13. Dream of conquering and ruthlessly enslaving other races.
14. Hate and fear water.
15. Eat enormous quantities of bland food, apparently without pleasure.
16. Carve likenesses of themselves in stone.
17. Do not sleep but just go still for precisely 8 hours.
18. Like to mock other races openly.
19. Become obsessed with hoarding a certain type of item.
20. Have a black tongue.
21. Practice the art of counting, internally maintaining an increasing count through their whole lives.
22. Will only sleep on bare stone.
23. Participate in ritualistic orgies.
24. Believe that one who eats a diet of gold will live forever.
25. Feel a kinship with a specific type of stone, determined by the auspices of their birth.
26. Keep a small book in which they write in code.
27. Are covered in warts and lumps, which they are secretly ashamed of.
28. Never sweat and have completely odourless bodies.
29. Are of the opinion that the human conception of the soul is a laughably childish attempt to mask the grim truth of reality.
30. Have extremely long names, and up to 17 secret names reserved for specific rituals.

Many Rat-People

1. Happily eat food which is well past its prime.
2. Are trained in a craft of spiteful pranks to be applied to the arrogant and vain (often involving needles and irritating poisons).
3. Superstitiously carve little animal figurines from bone and wood.
4. Delight in clockwork.
5. Are expert swimmers.
6. Can speak with rats.
7. Excel at poetry and riddles.
8. Abhor the concept of slavery or service.
9. Try to remain neutral in all disputes.
10. Love to keep pets, which they groom and adorn with ribbons.
11. Brew a fish-wine in odd stills made from guts.
12. Practice a unique craft, something between sculpture and smell-art.
13. Find humans' religious and philosophical opinions endlessly funny.
14. Do not view theft as a crime, seeing it rather as a joke to be played on the stupid.
15. View writing as a pointless arrogance of the “tall races”.
16. Believe that their folk descended from the moon.
17. Awake instinctively at dawn.
18. Adorn their tails with rings and bells.
19. Have no concept of marriage.
20. Love dancing to music played on pipes and flutes.
21. Protect their possessions obsessively and elaborately.
22. Cannot keep a secret.
23. Have an acute sense of smell, and make no differentiation between pleasant and foul.
24. Find humans incredibly attractive.
25. Bury valuable items.
26. Have no understanding of the concept of nobility.
27. Shave spiral patterns from their fur.
28. Have a detailed and on-going alternate life in their dreams, in which they are usually slaves.
29. Practice a wide array of fortune-telling techniques.
30. Believe that it is an honour to bestow equal favour and disfavour upon others.