Little Brother
2011-10-17, 10:18 PM
Oookay, then: I am working on a world for a new group, and I have some rough ideas, but I wanted the experienced/good people's thoughts on it
Some crunchy data before fluff: Everyone else in my group is used to some weird mix of 3.5/PF, so I'm going along with it. Basically, we steal some of the things handled better in PF, races get the PF abilities and stats, and so on. I have also changed Orcs to be +4 Str -2 Cha, instead of their current set up. The average person is a level 3 character of the relevant NPC class and Fighter is now an NPC class, as is scout. Dwarves can now ride medium animals, so long as the animal has sufficient strength. And, finally, spellcasters are very rare.
Fluffy stuffs: The current world is split up into 4 real territories/kingdoms/powers/whatever you wanna call it: The Elven Republic(until I can come up with a better-sounding name), the Dwarven Horde, the Orc Caliphate, and the Human something-or-other. There are also halflings, who are basically mobsters who control river transit through control of checkpoints and so on, plus the obvious protection rackets.
The Elves are vegan, soviet-style communists who believe that Elves are the best at everything, and others exist purely to serve them. They live in the north, and have absorbed some human/other race tribes/cities/etc into their territories. They have a fair amount of casters, but the vast majority of them are duskblades.
The Dwarves are basically mongols riding wolves/dire wolves. They have the eastern territories. They are basically a GIANT plain. The place is about as large as the rest of the continent they're on, but it's all generally fairly useless, so nobody really cares. Their casters are generally Mystic Rangers.
The Orc Caliphate is in the south, in a deserty-ish area, it is the second largest territory. It is basically the historical caliphate in the height of its power. They possess medicines and some technologies, but have fewer casters than most others, and their casters tend to be adepts.
And, finally, the humans. Humans are very good at killing thing, and humans are bastards. Humans have more people with PC level than other races, and have more casters, but that is partially due to breeding like rabbits.Humans are valued as mercenaries because they can be quite good, and tend to be dirt cheap. The human territory is sort of like Switzerland. They are either peons, or immensely rich bankers. They also have the international court, as if anyone pays attention to it.
Then, there is the flesh cult: They are a group of crazy casters who believe that they are meant to create perfection in physical form. The Caliphate sponsors the majority of them, because these guys would do it either way, and this gives them some control over the cultists, and lets them purge with fire any "Abomination to Creation/Undecided deity(ies)," as well as any creator. In return for the sponsorship, and thus legitimacy, funding, and so on, the Caliphate gets to take stuff like Hydras and Trolls(creations of the Flesh Cult) into war. There are some splinters who don't like the authority they gave the Caliphate, and left. They tend to lay low, for the most part.
In the north-west-ish, I had plans for some sort of gothicy-Transilvania-esque place, but I have no idea what that'd be like.
The backstory: The deity(ies) created the plane and planet. They first created plants, and animals, and breakfast cereal and, then the dragons. The dragons created an empire. They forged awesomy-magicy-stuffs, fought, blah blah blah. The humanoid races were the dragon's attempt at creating, basically, races of specialized slaves. Didn't work too well. Humanoids rebel, and proceed to get crushed, and stay mostly in servitude until the dragons manage to off most of each other in a giant war. The remainder went into their crypt-palaces with their favored servants, the Kobolds(Dragons are Egyptian, BTW), and then, several thousand years later, are basically myth
Later, a giant Evil Empire is crafted, lead by the humans(one of the reasons nobody likes the humans. They're also medieval Europeans, so they are unwashed and otherwise gross), with their "Divine King" trying to resurrect the Dragons by summoning and controlling Beholders(Eye-Tyrants, the most hated enemy of the god(s). I know they don't have that fancy magic, it's fluff, so sue me) to create a powerful spell to resurrect and control the dragons. One *Insert Fire Emblem-style plot here* later, there is a power vacuum that the current forces filled to expand.
The campaigns here are probably going to be about 50/50 political intrigue and killy-death-burn.
Kinda lame and cliched, I know, but I really would like thoughts or advice on how to improve it from the great(ish(mostly):smalltongue: ) minds in the Playground. Thanks for any input/time/anything.
Some crunchy data before fluff: Everyone else in my group is used to some weird mix of 3.5/PF, so I'm going along with it. Basically, we steal some of the things handled better in PF, races get the PF abilities and stats, and so on. I have also changed Orcs to be +4 Str -2 Cha, instead of their current set up. The average person is a level 3 character of the relevant NPC class and Fighter is now an NPC class, as is scout. Dwarves can now ride medium animals, so long as the animal has sufficient strength. And, finally, spellcasters are very rare.
Fluffy stuffs: The current world is split up into 4 real territories/kingdoms/powers/whatever you wanna call it: The Elven Republic(until I can come up with a better-sounding name), the Dwarven Horde, the Orc Caliphate, and the Human something-or-other. There are also halflings, who are basically mobsters who control river transit through control of checkpoints and so on, plus the obvious protection rackets.
The Elves are vegan, soviet-style communists who believe that Elves are the best at everything, and others exist purely to serve them. They live in the north, and have absorbed some human/other race tribes/cities/etc into their territories. They have a fair amount of casters, but the vast majority of them are duskblades.
The Dwarves are basically mongols riding wolves/dire wolves. They have the eastern territories. They are basically a GIANT plain. The place is about as large as the rest of the continent they're on, but it's all generally fairly useless, so nobody really cares. Their casters are generally Mystic Rangers.
The Orc Caliphate is in the south, in a deserty-ish area, it is the second largest territory. It is basically the historical caliphate in the height of its power. They possess medicines and some technologies, but have fewer casters than most others, and their casters tend to be adepts.
And, finally, the humans. Humans are very good at killing thing, and humans are bastards. Humans have more people with PC level than other races, and have more casters, but that is partially due to breeding like rabbits.Humans are valued as mercenaries because they can be quite good, and tend to be dirt cheap. The human territory is sort of like Switzerland. They are either peons, or immensely rich bankers. They also have the international court, as if anyone pays attention to it.
Then, there is the flesh cult: They are a group of crazy casters who believe that they are meant to create perfection in physical form. The Caliphate sponsors the majority of them, because these guys would do it either way, and this gives them some control over the cultists, and lets them purge with fire any "Abomination to Creation/Undecided deity(ies)," as well as any creator. In return for the sponsorship, and thus legitimacy, funding, and so on, the Caliphate gets to take stuff like Hydras and Trolls(creations of the Flesh Cult) into war. There are some splinters who don't like the authority they gave the Caliphate, and left. They tend to lay low, for the most part.
In the north-west-ish, I had plans for some sort of gothicy-Transilvania-esque place, but I have no idea what that'd be like.
The backstory: The deity(ies) created the plane and planet. They first created plants, and animals, and breakfast cereal and, then the dragons. The dragons created an empire. They forged awesomy-magicy-stuffs, fought, blah blah blah. The humanoid races were the dragon's attempt at creating, basically, races of specialized slaves. Didn't work too well. Humanoids rebel, and proceed to get crushed, and stay mostly in servitude until the dragons manage to off most of each other in a giant war. The remainder went into their crypt-palaces with their favored servants, the Kobolds(Dragons are Egyptian, BTW), and then, several thousand years later, are basically myth
Later, a giant Evil Empire is crafted, lead by the humans(one of the reasons nobody likes the humans. They're also medieval Europeans, so they are unwashed and otherwise gross), with their "Divine King" trying to resurrect the Dragons by summoning and controlling Beholders(Eye-Tyrants, the most hated enemy of the god(s). I know they don't have that fancy magic, it's fluff, so sue me) to create a powerful spell to resurrect and control the dragons. One *Insert Fire Emblem-style plot here* later, there is a power vacuum that the current forces filled to expand.
The campaigns here are probably going to be about 50/50 political intrigue and killy-death-burn.
Kinda lame and cliched, I know, but I really would like thoughts or advice on how to improve it from the great(ish(mostly):smalltongue: ) minds in the Playground. Thanks for any input/time/anything.