Joe Fulgham

Hoplings Featured Image

Hoplings – A d20 RPG Playable Species/Kin

I’ve been doing a lot of worldbuilding in something that is, let’s call it… “D&D Adjacent” and I fell in love with these adorable little jumping-spider-centaur-thingies I call Hoplings!

Image of the fantasy species called "Hopling" created by @joefulgham
 It is a 4' tall jumping spider with a taller centaur-like torso, holding a spear, wearing a leather belt with a pouch and a big leafy hat

This became a bit of an obsession that lead to Photoshopping the adorable guy you see above, writing up notes for them as a playable species, then turning that into a fully publishable one-sheet for anyone to use. Without any further ado, here it is!

If you’re wondering why I call it a species instead of a race — a race is a subdivision of a species, which isn’t what “fantasy races” are. Plus, the classification system used to define “race” in humans is mostly pseudoscientific nonsense so I’m happy to completely dump the word. If you still use it because it’s comfortable/easy, I get it and I’ll know what you mean when you do. If you want to call this “Hopling – Playable 5E Race”, that’s fine. I won’t.

History
1.0 – Initial release
1.1 – Added hands-free to Climbing, which is an of-course thing (pedipalps aren’t used in climbing) but I worry it could be too strong if you focus on it. DMs have my blessing to punish anyone who tries.
1.2 – Added 13th Age Kin block. It’s honestly my favorite d20 RPG to run but until recently all everyone wanted was 5E. That’s changed for some reason and I’m here for it. Give it a try!
1.3 – Found out 13th Age 2nd Edition will be using “Kin” so I’ve fixed that and tidied up the post name and URL (but put in an automatic redirect from the old URL)