Giants versus Ogres versus Trolls

In the dictionary, the words giant, ogre and troll are generally synonymous. A giant is "an imaginary or mythical being of human form but superhuman size." An ogre is "a man-eating giant." A troll is "a mythical, cave-dwelling being depicted in folklore as either a giant or a dwarf, typically having a very ugly appearance." If you did a little deeper you will find a surprisingly diverse mythology of giants all around the world. Greek giants have snakes for legs, trolls live under bridges, and so on.

Fantasy roleplaying, on the other hand, has an extremely narrow view of what giants, ogres and trolls are. Giants only ever look like giant humans and trolls are limited to the variety depicted in a short story by Poul Anderson. Whenever you see a giant that does not fit the prescribed characteristics, they are introduced as a niche race of monster like the two-headed ettin or the three-armed athach (the words ettin and athach are, again, synonyms for giant). We have even had oni (Japanese for ogre) introduced to cover the shape shifting ogre seen in the folktale Puss in Boots.

In fairy tales, ogres are not their own race but any man-eating giants as well as human cannibals. Trolls in Scandinavian folklore are incredibly diverse, including dwarves and giants among their number.

Typhon ©2011 Jorrigun

Rather than dividing them into races based on niche characteristics, I prefer to treat giants as inherently diverse. Whenever a giant has three arms, two heads or a hunger for flesh, then they have these on an individual basis rather than a species basis.

Some tribes of giants may be distinguished by shared features like the six-armed Gegenees or the one-eyed Cyclopes, but other times a feature may occur sporadically such as the cyclops Polyphemus being the son of Poseidon. By the same token a particularly famous giant, such as Typhon or Argus Panoptes, may spawn a tribe of giants in their own image as well as tribes of giants which do not resemble them at all. The typhoeon (ref. Monster Encyclopaedia II: The Dark Bestiary), descended from Typhon, has a snake tail instead of legs, a pair of wings, and dragon heads instead of hands. The humbaba (ref. Pathfinder Bestiary 3), descended from Humbaba the Terrible, is lion-faced and horned. The argusoid (ref. Mazes & Minotaurs), descended from Argus Panoptes, is covered in eyes that sleep in shifts.

I do like the idea from Norse myth that tribes are commonly based around elemental affinities such as the frost giants and fire giants, but even then Norse myth mentions at least one six-headed giant. The Greek giants make an excellent earth giant tribe, since their Greek name gigantes means "earth born."

I think the genie makes perfect sense as a giant, since it is a large-sized human-shaped elemental. 5e does not allow a monster to have multiple types at once, which is a silly restriction that I ignore whenever I find it too confining. Which is often.

Argus Panoptes ©2010 sandara

As I said above, Trolls are particularly diverse in folklore and fairy tales. They may be large, small, ugly, pretty, tailed, horned, live in caves, live under bridges, and so on. This may be represented in the game by making "troll" a subtype or template that may be applied to many different monsters. I myself have entertained the idea of trolling being a mystical disease that afflicts fey, giants and humanoids alike. Alternately, Trudvang Chronicles uses trolls as a catch-all category fulfilling the roles of goblinoids, beastmen, humanoids and similar monsters.

Of course, the strangest feature of mythological giants that is not included in fantasy games is that giants are generally never inconvenienced by their size. Whenever a giant wants to enter a human house, or use human tools, or even marry a human, they are somehow able to ignore the size disparity. It is almost like the myths do not distinguish between physical and social stature!

Informative links:

Giants

• http://aow.triumph.net/dev-journal-the-powers-and-lore-of-giants/
• http://hackslashmaster.blogspot.com/2013/04/on-ecology-of-giant.html
• http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurGiantsAreBigger
• http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurOgresAreHungrier
• http://www.crystalinks.com/giants.html
• http://www.germanicmythology.com/original/cosmology4.html
• http://www.theoi.com/greek-mythology/giants.html
• https://ogresvstrolls.wordpress.com/tag/ogres-giants/

Trolls

• http://humoncomics.com/archive/troll
• http://maximumrockroleplaying.blogspot.com/2011/12/trolls-in-d-broken-sword-by-poul.html
• http://strangemagic.robertsongames.com/2011/03/poul-andersons-troll-in-d.html
• http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/16453010/
• http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AllTrollsAreDifferent
• http://www.elfwood.com/u/andersson2/image/56f3d2e0-23da-11e4-9fb0-6fd3a883da45/troll-monster-vs-troll-warrior
• http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2012/11/16/my-trolls-are-different/
• http://www.tribality.com/2015/01/17/bringing-trolls-sexy-back/
• https://dungeonsandimaginings.wordpress.com/2011/10/04/trolls-throughout-dd-gaming-history/
• https://electricliterature.com/the-trolls-in-our-midst-what-fairytales-can-tell-us-about-online-behavior-97e0e3d02302
• https://forum.rpg.net/archive/index.php/t-770974.html
• https://trudvangfor5e.obsidianportal.com/