amanodel
2005-07-28, 08:29 AM
The Setonian Empire Campaign Setting - 1st part, the origins of the races (copyright and all the stuff :))
It's a fresh idiotism of mine, comment it please :)
So I have been RPG-ing for quite a long time, mostly DnD and I found out quitea lot flaws in the concept.
Mostly with the races (PC, NPC, monster). Just have a look at the Monsters manual and you'll freak out right there. If i remember right "orcs are always raiding, or planning to raid". Having done one of the most profilic race with this one sentence is kinda lame. Also is the "dimensional gate thing". And since every race has it's own flaws I decided to bring in some fresh air.
-Humans dominate, but they seem to be the weakest race next to the kobolds.
-Elves are sooooo agile and soooo beautiful that they receive +2 to dex. In publications elves are nearly gods compared to humans, but in the rolebooks it only a little dexterity bonus. Also the ****in cliches about elves make them less fun to play.
-Dwarves: they have something to do with stones, underground, ale, and kingdoms. They hate elves and orcs... soooo stereotypic.
-Halflings just dont make much sense: a good-aligned race, with every PC or NPC halfling beeing a thief...
-The problems with the gnomes are the ones which the Giant descripted already. That crazy illusionist-trickster-invetor cliche is anything but good.
-The orcs came from some dimensional gate but there are some ogres from somewhere. Not to mention the goblins, who are sadistic and always hideing. Theres something to do with trolls, but noone knows what they are. Anthro-folk (gnolls, kobolds and the like) have an int score of 10 at least, but they can barely speak and live like rats. And of course this last thread is whole evil. Maraduing orcs and goblins form secret alliances, then humans elves and dwarves beat them up like hell. and then it start again... i feel pity for this concept.
So let's see what can be done. This is the way I created the races. If you like the concept I'll clarify things later.
But first of all: the technical advance of the world. I lower it to a scale of the late roman empire. Dont wanna see airplanes bombing orc villages. Also if i lower the techniques, I bring the races together, not letting the goblins live in **** while the gnomes wander around in some mechano-striders.
And before i forget: No common language. Just simply no. In Europe there were no common laguage, so i dont know why it is necessarly for a fantasy game. Languages will be more country-aligned, not race-aligned. Latin was not a "common language", it was only spoken by the elite.
Human domination: Have you ever played frogotten realms (very human-dominated) ? I bet that the party consisted some elf, a dwarf, a halfling, a kobold, and maybe one human. This is human domination? For a human-dominated party i must erase all other races? Or simply say that the world is not human-dominated. My first task will be the strongest stereotypes, the elves and the dwarves. While i dont wanna erase them completely, i want them to "fall out from their grace" I dont have a clue yet, so i finish them later. For now lets see the "monsters". I want some monsters to be PC classes, that would bring some fresh air to the game. I have a symphaty for orcs and goblinoids, lets use them. Why are they evil? Where did they come from? Forget the dimensional gates and evil wizards and eviler gods. Where did humans came? Evolution or creation? Lets say evolution for now (it also does some with deities, bring them back later). If its evolution theres no need for orcs beeing evil and gnomes beeing good. Every race is neutral. Lets say that from homo erectus did not only spawn homo sapiens. Lets say that a strong collateral side (like the neanderthal one) resulted in orcs. I kinda like that idea. They say that recenty archeologists found some small humanoid skeletons in celebes. Maybe if they dont "die out" they could be the gnomes. So right now i got humans, orcs and gnomes. Thats not enough, lets bring in goblins.
This gives me a weird idea. If we cross goblins with humans we get something around hobgoblins, right? Also the goblin-orc mating would give us something as strong as an orc, but stealthy and goblin-like... guess what? We got bugbears. But it would result in these new crossbreeds grew in number and it wont be good having one bugbear for one goblin, right? A quick idea again. The mule. When we cross two domesticated forms of the wild horse (horse and donkey) it results in a mule every time, but the mule is steril. Lets apply this for our hobgoblins and bugbears. They are barren, unproductive. Maybe they are treated as inferiors for this, maybe they are often slaves. But i got only two crossbreeds yet. I find it interesting, lets look for others. Orc and human give us half-orcs. The half-gnomes are the only remaining ones now. So what we recive by a orc-gnome mating? I dont know yet, but maybe it is strong but small, maybe a bit furry and it can have mental scores between this two. I know it. The dwarves. No more inbred orc-dwarf warring, that sounds good.
I cheat for now. As i said i dont want to eradicate elves completely. I just want to strip elves from their pride. Lets make them crossbreeds. Mongrels. What pairings remain? The gnome-human and the gnome-goblin. I think the gnome-human would do. Height between this two, and if we say that our gnomes more like the forest gnomes than the rock gnomes, than it sounds exactly right.
I just realized that the hobgoblins and bugbears have a +1 level adjustment. I tought of altering the races, but its not necessarely. Remember, they cannot breed, so theres no risk that they will take over the world.
The goblin-gnome crossing remains only. That gave me a hard time. I could erase it saying that is genetically not possible, but that will ruin the fun. Lets think openly. It will be something small, tricky, stealthy, intelligent, dexterous and maybe has some goblin cruelty in it. Intelligent, stealthy, dexterous, cruel. And not so tall. Think of "normal" dnd. Which race has a description like this? The drows. Okay its hard to imagine, i know. But lets take away the magics and matriarchy from the dark elves. Maybe we can twist their features a bit. I have a picture in my mind of a dark- plain-skinned, white- thick-haired (genetics are capable of everything you know, maybe they are a strange kind of albino -> that would explain the red eyes) small figure. Just forget that in other worlds they are a subtype of elves. Also without inbred magic they will lose some of their potential. Maybe gnomes can have their Dancing lights & co. while the drow keep their darkness and faerie fire. But no spell resitance. A quick thought: both goblins and gnomes have -2 STR so its likely the drow will have -2 also. These changes will take them a level adjustment level from them, so they became +1 LA. I just noticed that every half-goblin have +1 LA. Maybe the goblin blood has something to do with it :)
So finally we have four main races: The humans, the orcs, the goblins and the gnomes. They sould be the dominant races. The six cross-breed races are the hobgoblins, the bugbears, the drows, the elves, the dwarves and the half-orcs (hey this sucks.. we have 3 half-orc races, i should find a name from them later). They are much more fewer in numbers than the dominant races.
It's a fresh idiotism of mine, comment it please :)
So I have been RPG-ing for quite a long time, mostly DnD and I found out quitea lot flaws in the concept.
Mostly with the races (PC, NPC, monster). Just have a look at the Monsters manual and you'll freak out right there. If i remember right "orcs are always raiding, or planning to raid". Having done one of the most profilic race with this one sentence is kinda lame. Also is the "dimensional gate thing". And since every race has it's own flaws I decided to bring in some fresh air.
-Humans dominate, but they seem to be the weakest race next to the kobolds.
-Elves are sooooo agile and soooo beautiful that they receive +2 to dex. In publications elves are nearly gods compared to humans, but in the rolebooks it only a little dexterity bonus. Also the ****in cliches about elves make them less fun to play.
-Dwarves: they have something to do with stones, underground, ale, and kingdoms. They hate elves and orcs... soooo stereotypic.
-Halflings just dont make much sense: a good-aligned race, with every PC or NPC halfling beeing a thief...
-The problems with the gnomes are the ones which the Giant descripted already. That crazy illusionist-trickster-invetor cliche is anything but good.
-The orcs came from some dimensional gate but there are some ogres from somewhere. Not to mention the goblins, who are sadistic and always hideing. Theres something to do with trolls, but noone knows what they are. Anthro-folk (gnolls, kobolds and the like) have an int score of 10 at least, but they can barely speak and live like rats. And of course this last thread is whole evil. Maraduing orcs and goblins form secret alliances, then humans elves and dwarves beat them up like hell. and then it start again... i feel pity for this concept.
So let's see what can be done. This is the way I created the races. If you like the concept I'll clarify things later.
But first of all: the technical advance of the world. I lower it to a scale of the late roman empire. Dont wanna see airplanes bombing orc villages. Also if i lower the techniques, I bring the races together, not letting the goblins live in **** while the gnomes wander around in some mechano-striders.
And before i forget: No common language. Just simply no. In Europe there were no common laguage, so i dont know why it is necessarly for a fantasy game. Languages will be more country-aligned, not race-aligned. Latin was not a "common language", it was only spoken by the elite.
Human domination: Have you ever played frogotten realms (very human-dominated) ? I bet that the party consisted some elf, a dwarf, a halfling, a kobold, and maybe one human. This is human domination? For a human-dominated party i must erase all other races? Or simply say that the world is not human-dominated. My first task will be the strongest stereotypes, the elves and the dwarves. While i dont wanna erase them completely, i want them to "fall out from their grace" I dont have a clue yet, so i finish them later. For now lets see the "monsters". I want some monsters to be PC classes, that would bring some fresh air to the game. I have a symphaty for orcs and goblinoids, lets use them. Why are they evil? Where did they come from? Forget the dimensional gates and evil wizards and eviler gods. Where did humans came? Evolution or creation? Lets say evolution for now (it also does some with deities, bring them back later). If its evolution theres no need for orcs beeing evil and gnomes beeing good. Every race is neutral. Lets say that from homo erectus did not only spawn homo sapiens. Lets say that a strong collateral side (like the neanderthal one) resulted in orcs. I kinda like that idea. They say that recenty archeologists found some small humanoid skeletons in celebes. Maybe if they dont "die out" they could be the gnomes. So right now i got humans, orcs and gnomes. Thats not enough, lets bring in goblins.
This gives me a weird idea. If we cross goblins with humans we get something around hobgoblins, right? Also the goblin-orc mating would give us something as strong as an orc, but stealthy and goblin-like... guess what? We got bugbears. But it would result in these new crossbreeds grew in number and it wont be good having one bugbear for one goblin, right? A quick idea again. The mule. When we cross two domesticated forms of the wild horse (horse and donkey) it results in a mule every time, but the mule is steril. Lets apply this for our hobgoblins and bugbears. They are barren, unproductive. Maybe they are treated as inferiors for this, maybe they are often slaves. But i got only two crossbreeds yet. I find it interesting, lets look for others. Orc and human give us half-orcs. The half-gnomes are the only remaining ones now. So what we recive by a orc-gnome mating? I dont know yet, but maybe it is strong but small, maybe a bit furry and it can have mental scores between this two. I know it. The dwarves. No more inbred orc-dwarf warring, that sounds good.
I cheat for now. As i said i dont want to eradicate elves completely. I just want to strip elves from their pride. Lets make them crossbreeds. Mongrels. What pairings remain? The gnome-human and the gnome-goblin. I think the gnome-human would do. Height between this two, and if we say that our gnomes more like the forest gnomes than the rock gnomes, than it sounds exactly right.
I just realized that the hobgoblins and bugbears have a +1 level adjustment. I tought of altering the races, but its not necessarely. Remember, they cannot breed, so theres no risk that they will take over the world.
The goblin-gnome crossing remains only. That gave me a hard time. I could erase it saying that is genetically not possible, but that will ruin the fun. Lets think openly. It will be something small, tricky, stealthy, intelligent, dexterous and maybe has some goblin cruelty in it. Intelligent, stealthy, dexterous, cruel. And not so tall. Think of "normal" dnd. Which race has a description like this? The drows. Okay its hard to imagine, i know. But lets take away the magics and matriarchy from the dark elves. Maybe we can twist their features a bit. I have a picture in my mind of a dark- plain-skinned, white- thick-haired (genetics are capable of everything you know, maybe they are a strange kind of albino -> that would explain the red eyes) small figure. Just forget that in other worlds they are a subtype of elves. Also without inbred magic they will lose some of their potential. Maybe gnomes can have their Dancing lights & co. while the drow keep their darkness and faerie fire. But no spell resitance. A quick thought: both goblins and gnomes have -2 STR so its likely the drow will have -2 also. These changes will take them a level adjustment level from them, so they became +1 LA. I just noticed that every half-goblin have +1 LA. Maybe the goblin blood has something to do with it :)
So finally we have four main races: The humans, the orcs, the goblins and the gnomes. They sould be the dominant races. The six cross-breed races are the hobgoblins, the bugbears, the drows, the elves, the dwarves and the half-orcs (hey this sucks.. we have 3 half-orc races, i should find a name from them later). They are much more fewer in numbers than the dominant races.