Does anyone know any RPGs where one can play as a mermaid or merman?
In the old World of Darkness games by White Wolf, they came out with a book called Blood-Dimmed Tides, which included Merfolk characters for the Changeling: the Dreaming setting. The old World of Darkness also had weresharks called Rokea and the more monstrous Murdhuacha and an interesting take on Selkies.
Forgotten Realms had a product called Sea of Fallen Stars, where you could play as a merman/mermaid, triton, shalarin, locathah, or sea elf.
Necessary Evil has an Atlantean race, including a side column on "throwbacks" with fish tails instead of legs.
"Monster" from Alderac Entertainment has rules for Merfolk characters.
"Into the Blue" by Lee Hamock does provide an undersea setting, as does Stormwrack, but I don't think either of them provide merfolk characters, and neither does Mythic Races (though it does have a few amphious or marine species, none of them are recognizably merfolk). Savage Species, however, does provide rules (and a pretty decent sample character) for merfolk.
Pathfinder does allow merfolk characters as well, though they only mention that briefly.
Dragon Magazine (and the Dragon Magazine Archive discs) had a great article about numerous seagoing player character races several years ago (I can't access my copy of the archive discs since I got a mac computer, but I'll try and dig out the article title and issue), including merfolk and arabian mermaids known as Pahari, who are able to shift shapes between human, mermaid, and large tropical fish.
GURPS Fantasy Folk, GURPS Faerie, Everlasting: The Book of the Fantastical (under the Faeries section), Castle Falkenstein (briefly, under the Faerie section, and with lots of limitations from being unable to walk), Exalted (particularly "Graceful Wicked Masks," though the Lunars and Sea Folk are a close approximation as well), the Changing Breeds book for the new World of Darkness setting, and the Changeling: the Lost rulebooks do allow for characters who act like and resemble mermaids, even if they fall under a different name or are considered a species (or role) of fairy creature. You can probably make a similar character in Grimm (via the pinacle of the "Normal Kid" ability to fit into the Grimm Lands as a character or creature), Dreaming Cities, or Deliria, and though only vaguely mermaid-like, the Pixie-Nixies discussed in Hackmaster: the Adventurer's Guide to Pixie-Fairies are pretty cool. Savage Suzerain's The Great Below describes water-elemental beings, though they're usually shown with legs.
A Faery's Tale shows you how to make a mermaid character, but doesn't really provide any background for them.
Warrior, Rogue, and Mage has a supplement detailing merpeople as playable characters.
Cerulean Seas, a campaign setting for Pathfinder, does provide numerous aquatic species, including several different species of merfolk.
Blue Rose: The Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy provides a player race of "Sea Folk" who have legs, but also have webbed fingers and long finlike feat, fins on their arms and legs and heads, a certain androgynous appearance and an alliance with intelligent dolphins (whom you can also play).
Extremely flexible systems like Mutants & Masterminds, True20, Godsend Agenda, and the like easily allow for merfolk characters, but don't provide much flavor for them.
As far as electronic games go, I think that Perfect World is the only MMORPG where one can play as a mermaid or merman, though there was some talk of another game that got scrapped, and early plans for Istaria/Horizons included details about a playable fish-tailed species known as Lamurians (their humanoid upper bodies were somewhat fishlike as well, however, and like many things about Horizons, the Lamurians were cut from the plans from the game when it became apparent that they weren't going to get any financing or backing, resulting in a seriously disappointing game even without the presence of the lamurians... though the dragon characters, and later the satyrs and winged dryads, were fun). Certainly Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II both had extensive levels of Atlantica, with the main characters allied with Ariel and transformed into merfolk of sorts (I have no idea what you call a duck/octopus hybrid or a dog/sea turtle cross). The old nintendo and super nintendo and sega genesis little mermaid games were pretty fun (and in one you could play as Ariel or King Triton), though it has been ages since I played them.
I can't think of any other games like that, but if you guys have any suggestions, by all means, let me know.
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lol I dont even know where I hosted it now though been a while now
Originally Posted by malinghi
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