Maerok
2012-01-23, 01:33 PM
http://i.imgur.com/ulbCt.png
Overview: Your world is dying. Gods have fallen from their thrones to walk the mortal world, leaving humanity to fend without supreme authority. Keepers of the once verdant forests are now plagued with madness and undeath from the stars above. The folk of the mountain have rendered their bodies useless - forever encased in superior machinery while their image lives on in the animated automatons they had buried in antiquity.
The world of Nalal used to be something in the past. You can see it beneath the wastelands - there was something here but no one remembers it. Over countless ages the ruins and sins of those before you have been buried in the sands. What's left has been scavenged to create the walking city machines humanity dwells in to shield them from the fierce lands.
System: PDQ (http://www.atomicsockmonkey.com/freebies/di/pdq-core.pdf), by AtomicSockMonkey (2d6+X)
Notes: This is a compilation of many ideas I've had since the last worldbuilding project I had. It takes parts of The Endless Wastes of Nalal (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48320) DnD 3.5 setting I had worked on four years ago. Why PDQ? I like it, it's simple but effective I don't like to get bogged down in mechanics anymore. If you like it or have ideas, let me know. This is a continual work in progress.
--------------------------------------------------------------
The People of the World:
Each section here contains information about the existence of the different races in Nalal. The destinies of several races are intertwined and reading multiple sections can give you a better picture of any one race.
Humans (http://th03.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2011/315/1/2/human_valkirye_by_butterfrog-d4e7hnr.jpg)
In human history there have been three ages. The Age of Arrival marked the earliest days of humanity but millennia had already passed for the fae and dorven. With their need for leadership and protection the humans told stories of powerful beings that guarded the elements. The belief in these stories empowered the myths into reality. The divinities came and safeguarded their respective people from the hardships of Nalal and the Age of Storms began. When the highest of gods were slain at the apex of the wars between the divided people they were cast back into wandering and the Age of Dust – the present era – came to fold.
But humanity had learned during their divine tutelage and received many gifts. The goddess Naosib the Torchbearer, who slew herself and three others to end the war, left humanity with dorven technology while Ursig Songweaver had long earlier gleaned parts of fae magic for human use. These parting gifts were spread throughout human society in Naosib’s last hope for the survival of all.
As she had hoped, humans adapted. They took dorven powerstone and broke it down into blast powder which could sculpt the land or combat great foes. From the dorven machinations they built walking cities, reinforced with magic and fueled by powerstone, to lift them from the desolate landscape and away from predators. The Age of Dust would prove to be the most dangerous of times but humanity had attained a means to overcome.
Dorf (http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/063/a/6/Bouncer_Automaton_by_CLRCLR.jpg)
Entombed in mechanical bodies and occasionally life-support vats the dorfs developed peerless technological progress at the expense of their physical bodies. Dorven civilization began at the surface of the world and discovered a method for smelting the metal-rich sands of their homeland into useful tools. As they made progress in constructing tools and then cities of the metal their excavations for more resources drove them downward. Dorven cities are massive canyons cut into the ground which are easily identified by the spiraling scaffolds along the sides and mountains of excavated material scattered around it. The surface levels are no longer populated as exploration drove them deeper. The harder substrate, growing pressure, and hazardous conditions drove dorven development toward augmenting their bodies to cope with the new subterranean environments. By the time the other races in the world had become civilized the dorven had been transformed into a mostly mechanized form.
Fae (http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs23/i/2007/363/3/e/Dark_Elf_Pencils_by_vassdeviant.jpg)
The mysterious fae once inhabited the green woodlands of the world. They utilized powerful magic to commune with nature and the stars above in order to attain otherworldly wisdom. It was the stars in particular that spoke to the fae as they had no divinities of their own to watch over them. As the fair people strained their ears skyward the enchanting voices from beyond became fainter with time. In a panic they diverted power through the trees and vines of their lands into a great receiver to hear the messages of the cosmos. For a time the haunting melody of the stars was still dim until it surged forth one night at the peak of the solstice into a deafening shriek. The twisted cacophony assaulted the minds of the fae who had been awaiting a peaceful lullaby from the stars.
Their most powerful magisters reversed the amplification spell to divert the damning madness into the trees themselves which shed their bark, withered, and died under the continued noise. Overnight a third of the fae and their entire homeland had been slain by the madness from the stars. The magisters who had touched the mind behind that vile scream had developed strange abilities. The power of life and death had merged within their souls to produce the necromantic arts. It was proclaimed to be a gift, a reward for surviving the trials of ‘the stars that fade but forever shine’. The populace that had died was brought to a state of unlife and divided the fae civilization into the castes of the Magisters, the undead Twice-Birthed, and the lowly Uninitiated.
Assembled (http://th08.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2012/022/6/6/automaton_sage_by_butterfrog-d4n9dmm.jpg)
When dorven society first dawned its mechanical bodies they desired an idealized power source to fuel them; two ideas were proposed. A new ore, powerstone, had been discovered which produced immense heat and had been used in thermal lances to carve rock and later as an explosive material. This material was being adapted for steam engines to drive the mechanical suits as dorven mages experimented with the nature of the soul. The goal of this second effort was to either transfer a consciousness into the metal hulls or to burn a soul, like a log on a fire, to crudely fuel the machines. Lacking the necromantic power the fae would later attain the dorven never perfected the soul transfer and powerstone became the solution to their needs. This led to building hulking mechanical forms to house the dorven and their powerstone engines while the soul vessels remained behind as replicas of the bodies the dorven would eventually lose.
The soul power project, along with its sacrificed victims, was buried away in the far recesses of the dorven vaults. Forgotten and soon lost these machines shuddered to a meager form of life within their prisons. When an archivist caught wind of the ancient murders and began an investigation the vaults were opened and the assembled escaped from the tunnels to the surface above. Within the vaults they had had time to study from discarded tomes of history and technology handbooks. As a new form of life the assembled set up camps far outside the reach of dorven cities and began to seek a purpose for their existence.
Fallen Divine (http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs7/i/2005/248/a/a/a_knight_by_thetoothless1.jpg)
When humans first walked the land they had little hope in surviving. Even before the wastes grew to encompass the entire world in the Age of Dust the world was cruel and dangerous. The people told stories about their ancestors and the great deeds they had done in the past. Their collective belief deified the figures in these stories into living gods who divided the population by which patron they followed. The arrival of the divine to Nalal marked the beginning of the Age of Storms. As faith dictated power the deities sought to claim more followers from their rivals or to eliminate the mortals to tip the scales. Four major divine factions developed between Methrosii the Lady of Judgment, Ursig Songweaver, Naosib the Lightbearer, and Varcane of Shields. These names are still remembered to this day though the words no longer hold power.
Varcane and Methrosii entered into a war between their ideas on the future of humanity. Their armies fought to a standstill as the other gods and their offspring watched. The two in conflict knew the victor would go on to conquer the rest of the pantheon and few dared to draw their ire until the battle ended. Yet Naosib foresaw the fight lasting until the last man fell and almost half of humanity would be consumed in the flames of war. She used this knowledge to convince Ursig to bind the battlefield in enchanting song so none could bear the weight of a blade in their hands. As both Methrosii and Varcane appeared to chastise the bardic god for his direct intervention he could only defend himself by extending the epic melody to divine ears as well. With the three gods lost in song Naosib ended the divine conflict with a burst of eternal fire that immolated the battlefields of Nalal. All four divinities were consumed and the war, as well as the Age of Storms, came to an end. The Age of Dust had begun as the fallout from the blast settled and the twisted divine energies unleashed solidified into terrible beasts that stalked the spreading wastelands.
Humanity was left without guidance, once more without protection they found the new age to be far worse than the last two. The entire pantheon of divinities collapsed and its innumerable keepers and offspring became bound to mortal form as the source of their birthright shattered. They now walk the land - seeking out a means of returning to Ascension or abandoning their past as they settle into an unfamiliar world. To cope with the ultimate blow to the ego they wear elaborate garb and masks of masterful quality. Few have seen their mortal bodies – considered shameful among the divine – uncovered but it is expected that they are somewhat human in appearance. On their initial exodus into the mortal world the divine were often targeted by bandits and opportunistic rogues as the Relics they carry can fetch a fair price.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Qualities:
A starting character picks 8 Ranks of Strengths (+8, +6/+2, +4/+2/+2, +2/+2/+2/+2) and 1 Rank of Weakness (-2) of Qualities. Any skill without Ranks is treated as normal and can still be accessed.
Unlike the standard PDQ game, the Qualities must be selected from the following five lists. However, characters with access to Unique Qualities may pick one of the five lists and add one arbitrary Quality of their choice to it.
Physical: Archery, Athletic, Attractive, Brawn, Graceful, Gunplay, Stealth, Swordfighting, Tough.
Mental: Conviction, Focus, Insanity, Lore, Navigation, Perceptive, Sanity, Sleight of Hand, Tactics.
Social: Alliance (pick one race), Aristocracy, Ceremony, Charming, Deceitful, Intimidating, Intuition, Linguistics, Well-Informed.
Professional: Artist, Bard, Doctor, Explorer, Engineer, Machine Walker Pilot, Sailing, Survivalist.
Other: Dorven Lavamancy, Druidic Rituals, Fae Necromancy, Luck, Prophecy, Style.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Racial Abilities:
Human
Talented: Humans can take an extra two +2 Qualities. These may be unique Qualities if desired.
Fae
Systemic Madness:
Dorven
Atrophied Form: Dorven cannot use physical or professional Qualities directly. Any of those Quality checks fail unless performed through their Mechanical Body.
Mechanical Body: All physical qualities a dorf uses is performed by the mechanical body. This body has +2 Brawn and +2 Tough as a bonus, and may be improved by investing the dorf's own Quality ranks. Whenever damage is dealt to the Dorf the body's physical Qualities are lost first. When all of the physical Qualities have been depleted the mechanical body is too damaged to function; an Expert Engineer check will repair one lost rank per day and restore movement but only once the body has been fully restored will physical and professional Qualities be available. Mechanical bodies do not recover lost ranks without the Engineer check.
Assembled
Workhorse: As mechanical beings the assembled were designed with immense strength intended to be wielded by their creators. They may carry up to eight items and an extra large item.
Fallen Divine
Sacred Raiment: Fallen Divine carry a personal Relic which can only be used by that particular divine. This may be used in addition to another Relic for a total of two Relics at one time.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Equipment:
Each character may have up to six items at one time. Large items count as two items toward this limit and only a single large item may be carried at one time. Only one Relic may be used per encounter.
Fallen Divine may use two Relics at one time if one is their personal Relic.
Assembled can carry eight items, up to two of them being large.
Overview: Your world is dying. Gods have fallen from their thrones to walk the mortal world, leaving humanity to fend without supreme authority. Keepers of the once verdant forests are now plagued with madness and undeath from the stars above. The folk of the mountain have rendered their bodies useless - forever encased in superior machinery while their image lives on in the animated automatons they had buried in antiquity.
The world of Nalal used to be something in the past. You can see it beneath the wastelands - there was something here but no one remembers it. Over countless ages the ruins and sins of those before you have been buried in the sands. What's left has been scavenged to create the walking city machines humanity dwells in to shield them from the fierce lands.
System: PDQ (http://www.atomicsockmonkey.com/freebies/di/pdq-core.pdf), by AtomicSockMonkey (2d6+X)
Notes: This is a compilation of many ideas I've had since the last worldbuilding project I had. It takes parts of The Endless Wastes of Nalal (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48320) DnD 3.5 setting I had worked on four years ago. Why PDQ? I like it, it's simple but effective I don't like to get bogged down in mechanics anymore. If you like it or have ideas, let me know. This is a continual work in progress.
--------------------------------------------------------------
The People of the World:
Each section here contains information about the existence of the different races in Nalal. The destinies of several races are intertwined and reading multiple sections can give you a better picture of any one race.
Humans (http://th03.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2011/315/1/2/human_valkirye_by_butterfrog-d4e7hnr.jpg)
In human history there have been three ages. The Age of Arrival marked the earliest days of humanity but millennia had already passed for the fae and dorven. With their need for leadership and protection the humans told stories of powerful beings that guarded the elements. The belief in these stories empowered the myths into reality. The divinities came and safeguarded their respective people from the hardships of Nalal and the Age of Storms began. When the highest of gods were slain at the apex of the wars between the divided people they were cast back into wandering and the Age of Dust – the present era – came to fold.
But humanity had learned during their divine tutelage and received many gifts. The goddess Naosib the Torchbearer, who slew herself and three others to end the war, left humanity with dorven technology while Ursig Songweaver had long earlier gleaned parts of fae magic for human use. These parting gifts were spread throughout human society in Naosib’s last hope for the survival of all.
As she had hoped, humans adapted. They took dorven powerstone and broke it down into blast powder which could sculpt the land or combat great foes. From the dorven machinations they built walking cities, reinforced with magic and fueled by powerstone, to lift them from the desolate landscape and away from predators. The Age of Dust would prove to be the most dangerous of times but humanity had attained a means to overcome.
Dorf (http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/063/a/6/Bouncer_Automaton_by_CLRCLR.jpg)
Entombed in mechanical bodies and occasionally life-support vats the dorfs developed peerless technological progress at the expense of their physical bodies. Dorven civilization began at the surface of the world and discovered a method for smelting the metal-rich sands of their homeland into useful tools. As they made progress in constructing tools and then cities of the metal their excavations for more resources drove them downward. Dorven cities are massive canyons cut into the ground which are easily identified by the spiraling scaffolds along the sides and mountains of excavated material scattered around it. The surface levels are no longer populated as exploration drove them deeper. The harder substrate, growing pressure, and hazardous conditions drove dorven development toward augmenting their bodies to cope with the new subterranean environments. By the time the other races in the world had become civilized the dorven had been transformed into a mostly mechanized form.
Fae (http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs23/i/2007/363/3/e/Dark_Elf_Pencils_by_vassdeviant.jpg)
The mysterious fae once inhabited the green woodlands of the world. They utilized powerful magic to commune with nature and the stars above in order to attain otherworldly wisdom. It was the stars in particular that spoke to the fae as they had no divinities of their own to watch over them. As the fair people strained their ears skyward the enchanting voices from beyond became fainter with time. In a panic they diverted power through the trees and vines of their lands into a great receiver to hear the messages of the cosmos. For a time the haunting melody of the stars was still dim until it surged forth one night at the peak of the solstice into a deafening shriek. The twisted cacophony assaulted the minds of the fae who had been awaiting a peaceful lullaby from the stars.
Their most powerful magisters reversed the amplification spell to divert the damning madness into the trees themselves which shed their bark, withered, and died under the continued noise. Overnight a third of the fae and their entire homeland had been slain by the madness from the stars. The magisters who had touched the mind behind that vile scream had developed strange abilities. The power of life and death had merged within their souls to produce the necromantic arts. It was proclaimed to be a gift, a reward for surviving the trials of ‘the stars that fade but forever shine’. The populace that had died was brought to a state of unlife and divided the fae civilization into the castes of the Magisters, the undead Twice-Birthed, and the lowly Uninitiated.
Assembled (http://th08.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2012/022/6/6/automaton_sage_by_butterfrog-d4n9dmm.jpg)
When dorven society first dawned its mechanical bodies they desired an idealized power source to fuel them; two ideas were proposed. A new ore, powerstone, had been discovered which produced immense heat and had been used in thermal lances to carve rock and later as an explosive material. This material was being adapted for steam engines to drive the mechanical suits as dorven mages experimented with the nature of the soul. The goal of this second effort was to either transfer a consciousness into the metal hulls or to burn a soul, like a log on a fire, to crudely fuel the machines. Lacking the necromantic power the fae would later attain the dorven never perfected the soul transfer and powerstone became the solution to their needs. This led to building hulking mechanical forms to house the dorven and their powerstone engines while the soul vessels remained behind as replicas of the bodies the dorven would eventually lose.
The soul power project, along with its sacrificed victims, was buried away in the far recesses of the dorven vaults. Forgotten and soon lost these machines shuddered to a meager form of life within their prisons. When an archivist caught wind of the ancient murders and began an investigation the vaults were opened and the assembled escaped from the tunnels to the surface above. Within the vaults they had had time to study from discarded tomes of history and technology handbooks. As a new form of life the assembled set up camps far outside the reach of dorven cities and began to seek a purpose for their existence.
Fallen Divine (http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs7/i/2005/248/a/a/a_knight_by_thetoothless1.jpg)
When humans first walked the land they had little hope in surviving. Even before the wastes grew to encompass the entire world in the Age of Dust the world was cruel and dangerous. The people told stories about their ancestors and the great deeds they had done in the past. Their collective belief deified the figures in these stories into living gods who divided the population by which patron they followed. The arrival of the divine to Nalal marked the beginning of the Age of Storms. As faith dictated power the deities sought to claim more followers from their rivals or to eliminate the mortals to tip the scales. Four major divine factions developed between Methrosii the Lady of Judgment, Ursig Songweaver, Naosib the Lightbearer, and Varcane of Shields. These names are still remembered to this day though the words no longer hold power.
Varcane and Methrosii entered into a war between their ideas on the future of humanity. Their armies fought to a standstill as the other gods and their offspring watched. The two in conflict knew the victor would go on to conquer the rest of the pantheon and few dared to draw their ire until the battle ended. Yet Naosib foresaw the fight lasting until the last man fell and almost half of humanity would be consumed in the flames of war. She used this knowledge to convince Ursig to bind the battlefield in enchanting song so none could bear the weight of a blade in their hands. As both Methrosii and Varcane appeared to chastise the bardic god for his direct intervention he could only defend himself by extending the epic melody to divine ears as well. With the three gods lost in song Naosib ended the divine conflict with a burst of eternal fire that immolated the battlefields of Nalal. All four divinities were consumed and the war, as well as the Age of Storms, came to an end. The Age of Dust had begun as the fallout from the blast settled and the twisted divine energies unleashed solidified into terrible beasts that stalked the spreading wastelands.
Humanity was left without guidance, once more without protection they found the new age to be far worse than the last two. The entire pantheon of divinities collapsed and its innumerable keepers and offspring became bound to mortal form as the source of their birthright shattered. They now walk the land - seeking out a means of returning to Ascension or abandoning their past as they settle into an unfamiliar world. To cope with the ultimate blow to the ego they wear elaborate garb and masks of masterful quality. Few have seen their mortal bodies – considered shameful among the divine – uncovered but it is expected that they are somewhat human in appearance. On their initial exodus into the mortal world the divine were often targeted by bandits and opportunistic rogues as the Relics they carry can fetch a fair price.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Qualities:
A starting character picks 8 Ranks of Strengths (+8, +6/+2, +4/+2/+2, +2/+2/+2/+2) and 1 Rank of Weakness (-2) of Qualities. Any skill without Ranks is treated as normal and can still be accessed.
Unlike the standard PDQ game, the Qualities must be selected from the following five lists. However, characters with access to Unique Qualities may pick one of the five lists and add one arbitrary Quality of their choice to it.
Physical: Archery, Athletic, Attractive, Brawn, Graceful, Gunplay, Stealth, Swordfighting, Tough.
Mental: Conviction, Focus, Insanity, Lore, Navigation, Perceptive, Sanity, Sleight of Hand, Tactics.
Social: Alliance (pick one race), Aristocracy, Ceremony, Charming, Deceitful, Intimidating, Intuition, Linguistics, Well-Informed.
Professional: Artist, Bard, Doctor, Explorer, Engineer, Machine Walker Pilot, Sailing, Survivalist.
Other: Dorven Lavamancy, Druidic Rituals, Fae Necromancy, Luck, Prophecy, Style.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Racial Abilities:
Human
Talented: Humans can take an extra two +2 Qualities. These may be unique Qualities if desired.
Fae
Systemic Madness:
Dorven
Atrophied Form: Dorven cannot use physical or professional Qualities directly. Any of those Quality checks fail unless performed through their Mechanical Body.
Mechanical Body: All physical qualities a dorf uses is performed by the mechanical body. This body has +2 Brawn and +2 Tough as a bonus, and may be improved by investing the dorf's own Quality ranks. Whenever damage is dealt to the Dorf the body's physical Qualities are lost first. When all of the physical Qualities have been depleted the mechanical body is too damaged to function; an Expert Engineer check will repair one lost rank per day and restore movement but only once the body has been fully restored will physical and professional Qualities be available. Mechanical bodies do not recover lost ranks without the Engineer check.
Assembled
Workhorse: As mechanical beings the assembled were designed with immense strength intended to be wielded by their creators. They may carry up to eight items and an extra large item.
Fallen Divine
Sacred Raiment: Fallen Divine carry a personal Relic which can only be used by that particular divine. This may be used in addition to another Relic for a total of two Relics at one time.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Equipment:
Each character may have up to six items at one time. Large items count as two items toward this limit and only a single large item may be carried at one time. Only one Relic may be used per encounter.
Fallen Divine may use two Relics at one time if one is their personal Relic.
Assembled can carry eight items, up to two of them being large.