I've been thinking a lot and reading up on the Indie Web (aka the Small Web, the Smol Web, the Old, Good Web, etc) — more about that in a future screed. I just registered as a user at IndieWeb.org, and I see that they have a monthly "carnival" in which members write a blog post about a theme. The theme for February 2026, organized by Zachary Kai, is Intersecting Interests. As he says, "The places where your interests collide are where interesting things happen." As it turns out, I have something to say about that.
I really have focused on two themes in my online writing: Roleplay Games and Wemics. I basically have three kinds of screeds, color-coded on my home page — those two, and everything else. As of this post, I have 137 RPG screeds, 121 wemic screeds, and 83 for everything else. (in fairness, lots of those "others" are related to what other people say about gaming culture, and 100+ webcomics star a wemic, so ...) Anyway, in the Venn Diagram of my site, there is a significant intersection, where wemics and RPGs mix. My site started there, to tell the truth. I began with my own wemic characters, then with wemics in D&D, and I branched out from there ... to lion-centaurs in myth and art on one hand, and to other games on the other.
Side note: Some gamers object to the term "race" used in RPGs. Alternatives include "species" or "ancestry." I have thought hard about this, and you can read my cri de coeur on the topic, if you like.
So, let's talk about liontaurs in D&D, Pathfinder, and my own L&L game, then.
First Edition Dungeons & Dragons ("AD&D") — Before I started blogging, I made web pages on my old school site reviewing wemics in official 1E D&D rules. This was back before Wizards of the Coast bought TSR, the first company that made D&D. Back then, TSR was notorious for being way overprotective of its intellectual property. The company was known for sending takedown notices and being hostile to fan content. Here's my review of those first edition rules, the very first time a wemic appeared in a roleplay game. Reading this over, you'll see how careful I was to make sure that this was a review of the rules under fair use, being scrupulous about copyright. I did not even use a high-res scan for my art, because I felt safer limiting myself to a blurry small version.
Second Edition Dungeons & Dragons — The next edition of the rules took a split view of wemics, with one set of rules for playing a wemic as a player character, and another set of rules for wemics as monsters. I wrote my 2E review in the same year (2001), and it shows in the careful way I reviewed the rules and noted copyright issues. That said, I was very happy to see the game actually add official rules for wemics. However, as glad as I was to see official 2E rules, it did not stop me from creating my own darn rules for playing a 2E wemic, featuring bards and priests especially.
Third Edition Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder — Sadly, these d20 games did not offer official rules for playing wemics at all. Wemics appear nowhere in these rules. The best you get are rules for lamia, an evil monster that looks like a wemic. And in Pathfinder, the two-legged Catfolk PC race, ugh. I had to come up with my own darn rules for wemic PCs in 3E and PF! Also worthy of note, if I do say so myself, is a version of playable liontaur rules and a custom liontaur prestige class in this free PDF: Cayzle's Little Splat Book of Prestige & Class.
Don't even talk to me about the misbegotten Fourth Edition of D&D! It failed in so many ways; it had no wemics, and its "lamia" was some strange beetle-swarm thing. Bleck!
Pathfinder Second Edition — I've heard rumors that the 2024 expansion book Howl of the Wild may have rules for variant centaurs. I gotta look into that some day, even if I am not a fan of PF2.0.
Fifth Edition D&D — This version breathed new life into the game, made it accessible to a new audience, and saw fit to include giant people and tieflings and dragonborn. But not wemics, gosh darn it, neither as monsters nor player characters. Sad. So as a matter of actual fact, there have been no official rules published for wemics since the late 1990s. But I actually like 5E, not as much as 3E, but it is playable and has some good points. So if you are hungry to play a 5E wemic, I've got you covered. That screed also links to a survey of 5E wemic rules other people have made around the Internets.
Labyrinths & Liontaurs — And finally, I have to talk about my own rules for liontaurs, built into my indie d20 TTRPG. I named the game after these creatures, and they play a central role in the game. In my own "d20 game done right," I am giving greater weight to race than other games do. Race delivers bonuses to hit points, saves, and skills that other games deliver via class at first level. And in L&L, you continue to gain racial powers as you gain levels. Liontaurs are built deep into my campaign world, and I've put a lot of thought into my rules for playing liontaurs as player characters.
That takes you through a pretty darn comprehensive tour of the intersection of my dual interests, wemics and RPG game rules. Granted, this is only the evolution of wemics in the big, well-known roleplay games. If you have heard of wemics or liontaurs in other rule sets, especially designed for player characters, please let me know.
Wait a sec! Hold on! Correction! In researching this screed, I found out something I did not know! There ARE wemics in an official 3E product, the splat book Monsters of Faerun! Take a look here! That's a topic for a future screed.
I've also heard that the 5E adventure book Tyranny of Dragons may have wemic rules. Another lead to explore.
