It's pretty standard on the webs to conflate all the different meanings of "furries." It's a pretty loaded word. It can mean everything from "the people who like animal people" to "scary boogieman coming to ruin your porn game/website" to "hey this fox is literally a fox." Like everything else in the context of this game, it probably means here "whatever the developer wants it to mean." Heck, plenty of folks out there would consider a dragon that walks on two feet and isn't twenty feet tall a furry.
I'm guessing "fantasy" races would be Tolkien or stuff that looks too much like it'd show up in your first D&D random encounter. Kobolds and gnolls are probably out, and no mindflayers (although it'd be a pretty fucked up campaign if your level 1 fighter is fighting a mindflayer). I don't remember if D&D came up with jackalweres or not, but they're probably also out.
Ultimately it's up to whatever the dev wants to include.
Pretty much agreed on everything *nods*
Not sure about Kobolds tho, since they're celtic and germanic lore (the more common description is like they apear in World of Warcraft, with the whole candles-thing. Related to Fey, much like any goblinoid)
Not sure about Minflayers... I think they're also from another myth-lore, but not really sure. In any case, if I recall correctly they're based off from Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos.
And D&D have were-kin for almost anything.
The CG were-bears (again, based off Tolkien's Beorn), the CG were-tigers (and were-panthers), NN were-sharks, and even a sort of lesser race of werewolf-elf (they're like wild elves, that can change into wolf shape, not the usual hybrid), and many more.
The kitsune is a good counterpoint. I had forgotten about them. I guess it might be doable to have a minotaur subtype to cow-morphs, but I would still argue that there's not much mythos to work with compared to the kitsunes.
Well, Kitsunes are Kamis, and like most of them, thay can shapeshift into anything.
I'm a bit rusted on Japanese Myth, but they're not a race, they're a type of troubled spirit (all Kamis are spirits), but they are physical (some legends have characters marrying them, and living happily). Mischievous, but not necessarily evil.
Onis share the same shapechanging abilities, but they're demons, though not in the western sense. Most are troubled souls twisted by/because sins. Unlike most mythos, they can be redeemed with good deeds (to them), and even get turned good (it wasn't unusual to find statues of happy onis on the roads, with sacred inscriptions).
And then you have the Kami "gods", which are sometimes depicted as a single specific character, but others as a "race", like Tengu (a creature-god of winds and storms).
Anyways, Kitsunes are not furries exactly.
They're more like the Rakshashas from Hindu myths (an antropomorph tiger-man, with inverted hands, incredible magical powers, and evil as fuck) or the Chupacabra.
I'm not a fan of werewolf idea at all. It seems silly since animal-people hybrids and transformations are already part of the universe's lore.
It's not the same at all!
The "weresomething" it's... an affliction. It could be removed or not.
The best example (or system to handle) is the one used in D&D (Dungeon & Dragons), in which you basically take a creature, and add the "were" sub-type. Each "were" has specific bonuses.
So, for example, if Ralph (the horse trader guy) gets bitten by a Werewolf, he's a Horse-boy that can change into a lupine form, regardless of original shape (as long it's humanoid). It does matter in terms of stats and general shape: if the character is small and weak, the WW will be smaller and weak than others (but still powerful because the were-affliction adds bonuses). If the humanoid part is missing a limb, the WW would be missing it too (but he'll regenerate new wounds).
Think on it as a special item you're carrying, that lets you change into a specific set of skills/stats.
The same rules/system applies for Vampires, and more regular undeads, for example.
I think for it to count as furry, the character has to be an anthropomorphic form of an animal or a creature resembling one. Basically, it has to look like an animal but walks, talks, and acts like a person. In that regard, I do think that Hydra can get the furry treatment, but Minotaur and the Gorgon sisters (depending on the medium) cannot, since they're basically humans with non-human bits attached. If they don't resemble any animal, like orcs, elves, and slimes, then they're not furries.
Pretty much yeah.
(I was actually thinking exactly on the cow-sister Gorgon!)
The non-bits attached is relative, since furries (if I understand well the fetish-myth) can be lesser, like Nyan who doesn't has a full cat body.
Basically, it's a human-ish shape and behaviour, with a "pure" beast features added, with "pure" meaning a bull not a Minotaur, or a snake not a Lamia/ Gorgon.
Also, they should be able to reproduce, and have offpring with shared (minimal at least) features, so they can be considered a race, and not a particular "event".
Werewolves for example, have human sons, not hybrids.
There's a chinese legend about a golden dog, that was magically changed into human. But the process fails, and he ends up being a full human with a dog's head. He maries a princess, and their sons, while being considered blessed and loved, were humans, but some had dogs tails. That could be considered a Furry (tho inversed in the beginning lol)
