pfm1995
2014-12-27, 04:08 PM
Hey all,
I'm working on my first homebrew world and would appreciate some comments/criticisms from people who have been around the block a few times. (I'm a Pathfinder player, so you'll see a bit of that bias lying around.) Here goes:
Basic Concept: I wanted to create a world that's a bit, well, dystopian. I've been playing a Shadowrun game for a little while now and I wanted to bring some of that sense of pettiness, danger, and selling your body and soul to the highest bidder to Dnd. To that end, a large part of this world focuses on the need to make ugly choices to do more than stare at the southern end of a north-bound plow horse for the rest of your short life.
Basic Cosmology:
I'll start with the cosmology, as, to me, that's one of the largest parts of what makes this world unique. First off: there are no cosmological epitomes of good an evil. No angels, devils, daemons, or anything of the sort. This world is much more about new vs. old and law vs. chaos than it is about good vs. evil. Second big point: No one knows what the afterlife looks like (or even if there is one). Resurrection magic is rare (focus of a campaign rare), the few who have been resurrected can't remember, and Death and his psychopomps aren't talking.
Gods:
The gods of this world are divided up into two broad categories: New and Old Gods. This really only means one thing: all of the new gods were, at some point, mortal. How they became gods is the subject of endless amounts of philosophical debate.
New Gods: The new gods are the gods of mortal life, gods of rebellion, rulership, thievery, or simple survival. However, because they were once mortal, the new gods tend to be more than their respective domains. They are petty, arrogant, and argumentative, just like the mortals who worship them. In game terms, the new gods act exactly the same as the gods of the standard setting; there are no rule changes.
Old Gods: The old gods are the nature spirits of the world. They were before, and will be after. Gods of the sea, the sun, a lake, or even a single tree are all old gods. In game terms, the old gods have some small changes. First off, worship of the old gods requires sacrifice. Anything from a few drops of blood or gold coins to lives, power comes with a price. On the upside, the old gods couldn't care less about alignment. What you do with the power is up to you, as long as you pay for it. Additionally, a cleric of the old gods can provide a larger than necessary sacrifice to increase his caster level. This sacrifice must be offered at the time of casting the spell. (I would love some help balancing this for gameplay.)
I mentioned Death before, and I feel I should describe him a bit. Death is personified, he is the grim reaper and the ferrier of souls. No-one's quite sure where Death falls on the cosmic periodic table; whether Death is an old or a new god is an academic question. Death grants no boons to his worshipers, nor does them any favors. He simply is.
Other Entities:
There are two supernatural races that share the world (or reflections of it) with mortals. These are the fey and the corner-kin.
I love the saying (I think I read it in a Simon Greene novel when I was younger) that the fey took a step to the left of the sun. The fey inhabit a world that is shaped by our own, and they embody that same relationship with mortals. Many organize themselves into great realms, such as the Courts of the Seasons or the Elemental Caliphates. Many more live independent of court politics, instead residing in isolated baronies. For example, the fey lord of a moor which sees near-constant border wars may have dual, opposed personalities and be attended by redcaps and other fey born out of violence and blood. Many tend to be extremely superstitious.
The corner-kin (so called because they live in the corners of the world; and otherwise known as the dwellers in darkness, the sleepers, or 'why it's a bad idea to mine under that hill') are my Lovecraftian horrors. They feed off of secrets kept and live in places no mortal sees twice, or at least the lesser ones do. The elders are entirely unknowable, save that they glide under the skin of the world. They are the purview of the ignorant, the desperate, and the insane.
Magic:
I've already discussed divine magic, so this section will focus on arcane magic.
I wanted to include elements of Faustian bargains in the magic system, and this is what I came up with:
Long ago, when the first mortal walked the earth as a new god, the old gods were indifferent. When mortals began to flock to these new, less bloody religions, the old gods grew concerned. And so they decided in council to punish the mortals for their betrayal. But, for the first time, they had opposition. The old gods of the sea and storms sent gales to wreck ships, and the followers of the new god of shipbuilding and carpentry built better ships. Earthquakes leveled buildings, and masons build better buildings. The power of the old gods was greater, but the old gods had never had to fight and scrape for power like the new gods had. As the war dragged on more and more people died, and it became clear to the new gods that, in order to save the source of their power, something drastic would need to be done. So they planned, and they did what all though impossible. They killed an old god. Not any old god, but the old got of patterns, who's purview was the path of a falling leaf, the scattering of sand, and the other patterns which make up the world. His art became a science, and the first to master them became the wizards. But the god had worshipers, worshipers who found that, despite their god having traveled with Death, power remained. These were the first sorcerers.
Wizards: Wizards represent the only non-martial way for a mortal to claw his way out of the muck without trading his life to foreign powers. Unfortunately, magic is rare, magical schools rarer, and those that do exist charge usurious prices for their knowledge. After all, the only alternative is digging through ancient ruins, and who would be stupid enough to do that without an army at their back? In game terms, the wizard no longer automatically learns spells at any level beyond first. They have to go out and get them the hard way. On the upside, your power is your own, and none can take it from you without also taking your life.
Sorcerers: Sorcerers are the other side of the magical coin. There are two ways to become a sorcerer: you either make a deal with a fey or corner-kin, or you are a direct descendent of one of the clerics of the god of patterns. In game terms, the sorcerer has no mechanical changes. However, he does gain responsibilities which are very difficult to shirk. If the sorcerer made a deal with a fey or corner-kin, he now belongs to that creature. They say jump, he says how high (or from what). They may not interfere at first, but eventually they will expect a return on their investment. Disobeying your master results in the master wanting his power back, and given that your power was given to you he likely has a lot more to spare (i.e. RUN!). If you are born a sorcerer, you are born into an ancient, cult-like family who likely has very strong ideas on what you should and should not be doing. Disobeying the matriarch/patriarch/ruling council results in turning your entire clan against you, along with the centuries of accumulated influence and power they possess.
A note on necromancy and resurrection magic: Resurrection is an extremely powerful spell and, despite it's utility, is extremely rare. Almost every civilization advanced enough to have created a language has outlawed it entirely. The reason for this is the cost. Resurrection is extremely old magic, and the price of bringing someone back from the dead is the life of a close blood relative (anything farther out than a cousin won't work). In contrast, necromancy, while outlawed at least partially in most civilized places, is not inherently evil. Necromancers play a game with Death, cheating him of as much of his due as possible and attempting to return the semblance of lost life to the world. Not inherently evil, but not inherently good either. Most truly powerful necromancy spells have a high cost in human lives (ex. lichdom).
Races:
I've always felt that elves were a bit too similar to fey for me, so I threw them out. For a bit of balance, and because I feel they're overdone, I threw out orcs too. The main races are humans, dwarves, goblins, and ogres. Other natural sapient creatures are extremely rare, with giants being the most common.
Humans: Standard.
Dwarves: I came close to throwing out dwarves too, but when I got to thinking about it I realized they had a very natural place in this world. (Also, I couldn't resist the idea of stringing along players until they realise they're playing through my Dwarf Fortress game.) Dwarven social structure is based on Dwarf Fortress, as is their predisposition to fey moods and group madness. They serve the old god of stone and caves, and they tend to adopt an attitude of 'my race before my city before my clan before me'. Remember that old gods require sacrifices, and more than a few of those fey moods are likely the result of corner-kin influence.
Goblins: The average goblin lifespan is about four years. Any goblin older than five is an elder worth of great respect. This isn't so much a result of old age as it is a result of having a near-racial lack of common sense. (Their actual lifespan is about 15 years, so it's more of a "Ah, what the hell, I don't get that long of a lifespan anyway." syndrome.) They tend to form close-knit communities inside other-races cities and work jobs too dangerous or unpleasant for anyone else. In war they are, at worst, cannon fodder and, at best, beast tamers. They consider horses and cats delicacies. Most goblins worship their own new god (there is only one goblin new god and as a result he is one of the most powerful), those that don't tend towards the old ways.
Ogres and half-ogres: Ogres are big and lumbering, but they're no more stupid than any other intelligent race. I love the Games Workshop idea of an Ogre's power being linked to what and how much he eats, and I tried to combine that with the system set up above. Most ogre churches have a designated vessel of whichever god they're worshiping. If an old god, all sacrifices (even the metal ones) are fed to the vessel (who can usually be identified by the intricate tattoos or leather belts covering his stomach). If they worship a new god (the god of chefs is an ogre and is very popular), they tend to offer homemade dishes to the vessel on feast days. This spills over into ogre culture as well, most Ogre gatherings involve feasts. In cities ogres tend to be heavy laborers or farmers, though more than a few make a living as bodyguards or chefs. In the wilds Ogres tend to form tribes and clans. There are a few Ogre civilizations, ranging from loose coalitions of raiding parties to monks high in the mountains focused on enlightenment through voluntary starvation.
Changelings and The Motherless: Fey children are incredibly rare, yet it happens that a fey finds him or herself longing for the child-rearing experience. They then steal mortal children, leaving a dummy made of sticks in their place, and raid them in the fey realm. All children must grow up, though, and many eventually chose to leave the fey realm to find their fortunes. These are the changelings, exploring our world for the first time. They tend to be wanderers and are often surprised at the fevor with which most mortals go about their lives. In game terms, they are equivalent to aasimar (the azata-blooded variant in particular). The Motherless are their sleeper equivalent. Corner-kin blooded, they are named the Motherless because almost all mortal mothers die in childbirth, and those mothers who are not mortal are never seen outside the family. They are often even more mistrusted than Changelings, and so take precautions to hide their deformities or live in a place they will not be judged for them. In game terms they are equivalent to tieflings.
A note on Sacrifices:
I wanted to elaborate a little bit on where I'm coming from with the sacrifice mechanic. Because all souls go with Death to only-he-knows-where, there is none of the jockeying for mortal souls that most d20 worlds see. Because of this, the value of a mortal life lies in what he does with it. Sacrifices of wealth or items, then, represent the portion of your potential that was necessary to acquire that item, plus the expenditure needed to craft it in the first place. When you sacrifice blood, you are sacrificing (at least symbolically) a portion of your life. Similarly, sacrificing a life is an offering, not only of the person and all the coincidences and work that brought him to this point, but also of all the things he might have one day done. The progression goes kind of like this: gold coins < drops of blood < a masterwork item < a pint of blood < an animal life < a human life.
And that's it. Let me know what you think, be cruel to be kind.
I'm working on my first homebrew world and would appreciate some comments/criticisms from people who have been around the block a few times. (I'm a Pathfinder player, so you'll see a bit of that bias lying around.) Here goes:
Basic Concept: I wanted to create a world that's a bit, well, dystopian. I've been playing a Shadowrun game for a little while now and I wanted to bring some of that sense of pettiness, danger, and selling your body and soul to the highest bidder to Dnd. To that end, a large part of this world focuses on the need to make ugly choices to do more than stare at the southern end of a north-bound plow horse for the rest of your short life.
Basic Cosmology:
I'll start with the cosmology, as, to me, that's one of the largest parts of what makes this world unique. First off: there are no cosmological epitomes of good an evil. No angels, devils, daemons, or anything of the sort. This world is much more about new vs. old and law vs. chaos than it is about good vs. evil. Second big point: No one knows what the afterlife looks like (or even if there is one). Resurrection magic is rare (focus of a campaign rare), the few who have been resurrected can't remember, and Death and his psychopomps aren't talking.
Gods:
The gods of this world are divided up into two broad categories: New and Old Gods. This really only means one thing: all of the new gods were, at some point, mortal. How they became gods is the subject of endless amounts of philosophical debate.
New Gods: The new gods are the gods of mortal life, gods of rebellion, rulership, thievery, or simple survival. However, because they were once mortal, the new gods tend to be more than their respective domains. They are petty, arrogant, and argumentative, just like the mortals who worship them. In game terms, the new gods act exactly the same as the gods of the standard setting; there are no rule changes.
Old Gods: The old gods are the nature spirits of the world. They were before, and will be after. Gods of the sea, the sun, a lake, or even a single tree are all old gods. In game terms, the old gods have some small changes. First off, worship of the old gods requires sacrifice. Anything from a few drops of blood or gold coins to lives, power comes with a price. On the upside, the old gods couldn't care less about alignment. What you do with the power is up to you, as long as you pay for it. Additionally, a cleric of the old gods can provide a larger than necessary sacrifice to increase his caster level. This sacrifice must be offered at the time of casting the spell. (I would love some help balancing this for gameplay.)
I mentioned Death before, and I feel I should describe him a bit. Death is personified, he is the grim reaper and the ferrier of souls. No-one's quite sure where Death falls on the cosmic periodic table; whether Death is an old or a new god is an academic question. Death grants no boons to his worshipers, nor does them any favors. He simply is.
Other Entities:
There are two supernatural races that share the world (or reflections of it) with mortals. These are the fey and the corner-kin.
I love the saying (I think I read it in a Simon Greene novel when I was younger) that the fey took a step to the left of the sun. The fey inhabit a world that is shaped by our own, and they embody that same relationship with mortals. Many organize themselves into great realms, such as the Courts of the Seasons or the Elemental Caliphates. Many more live independent of court politics, instead residing in isolated baronies. For example, the fey lord of a moor which sees near-constant border wars may have dual, opposed personalities and be attended by redcaps and other fey born out of violence and blood. Many tend to be extremely superstitious.
The corner-kin (so called because they live in the corners of the world; and otherwise known as the dwellers in darkness, the sleepers, or 'why it's a bad idea to mine under that hill') are my Lovecraftian horrors. They feed off of secrets kept and live in places no mortal sees twice, or at least the lesser ones do. The elders are entirely unknowable, save that they glide under the skin of the world. They are the purview of the ignorant, the desperate, and the insane.
Magic:
I've already discussed divine magic, so this section will focus on arcane magic.
I wanted to include elements of Faustian bargains in the magic system, and this is what I came up with:
Long ago, when the first mortal walked the earth as a new god, the old gods were indifferent. When mortals began to flock to these new, less bloody religions, the old gods grew concerned. And so they decided in council to punish the mortals for their betrayal. But, for the first time, they had opposition. The old gods of the sea and storms sent gales to wreck ships, and the followers of the new god of shipbuilding and carpentry built better ships. Earthquakes leveled buildings, and masons build better buildings. The power of the old gods was greater, but the old gods had never had to fight and scrape for power like the new gods had. As the war dragged on more and more people died, and it became clear to the new gods that, in order to save the source of their power, something drastic would need to be done. So they planned, and they did what all though impossible. They killed an old god. Not any old god, but the old got of patterns, who's purview was the path of a falling leaf, the scattering of sand, and the other patterns which make up the world. His art became a science, and the first to master them became the wizards. But the god had worshipers, worshipers who found that, despite their god having traveled with Death, power remained. These were the first sorcerers.
Wizards: Wizards represent the only non-martial way for a mortal to claw his way out of the muck without trading his life to foreign powers. Unfortunately, magic is rare, magical schools rarer, and those that do exist charge usurious prices for their knowledge. After all, the only alternative is digging through ancient ruins, and who would be stupid enough to do that without an army at their back? In game terms, the wizard no longer automatically learns spells at any level beyond first. They have to go out and get them the hard way. On the upside, your power is your own, and none can take it from you without also taking your life.
Sorcerers: Sorcerers are the other side of the magical coin. There are two ways to become a sorcerer: you either make a deal with a fey or corner-kin, or you are a direct descendent of one of the clerics of the god of patterns. In game terms, the sorcerer has no mechanical changes. However, he does gain responsibilities which are very difficult to shirk. If the sorcerer made a deal with a fey or corner-kin, he now belongs to that creature. They say jump, he says how high (or from what). They may not interfere at first, but eventually they will expect a return on their investment. Disobeying your master results in the master wanting his power back, and given that your power was given to you he likely has a lot more to spare (i.e. RUN!). If you are born a sorcerer, you are born into an ancient, cult-like family who likely has very strong ideas on what you should and should not be doing. Disobeying the matriarch/patriarch/ruling council results in turning your entire clan against you, along with the centuries of accumulated influence and power they possess.
A note on necromancy and resurrection magic: Resurrection is an extremely powerful spell and, despite it's utility, is extremely rare. Almost every civilization advanced enough to have created a language has outlawed it entirely. The reason for this is the cost. Resurrection is extremely old magic, and the price of bringing someone back from the dead is the life of a close blood relative (anything farther out than a cousin won't work). In contrast, necromancy, while outlawed at least partially in most civilized places, is not inherently evil. Necromancers play a game with Death, cheating him of as much of his due as possible and attempting to return the semblance of lost life to the world. Not inherently evil, but not inherently good either. Most truly powerful necromancy spells have a high cost in human lives (ex. lichdom).
Races:
I've always felt that elves were a bit too similar to fey for me, so I threw them out. For a bit of balance, and because I feel they're overdone, I threw out orcs too. The main races are humans, dwarves, goblins, and ogres. Other natural sapient creatures are extremely rare, with giants being the most common.
Humans: Standard.
Dwarves: I came close to throwing out dwarves too, but when I got to thinking about it I realized they had a very natural place in this world. (Also, I couldn't resist the idea of stringing along players until they realise they're playing through my Dwarf Fortress game.) Dwarven social structure is based on Dwarf Fortress, as is their predisposition to fey moods and group madness. They serve the old god of stone and caves, and they tend to adopt an attitude of 'my race before my city before my clan before me'. Remember that old gods require sacrifices, and more than a few of those fey moods are likely the result of corner-kin influence.
Goblins: The average goblin lifespan is about four years. Any goblin older than five is an elder worth of great respect. This isn't so much a result of old age as it is a result of having a near-racial lack of common sense. (Their actual lifespan is about 15 years, so it's more of a "Ah, what the hell, I don't get that long of a lifespan anyway." syndrome.) They tend to form close-knit communities inside other-races cities and work jobs too dangerous or unpleasant for anyone else. In war they are, at worst, cannon fodder and, at best, beast tamers. They consider horses and cats delicacies. Most goblins worship their own new god (there is only one goblin new god and as a result he is one of the most powerful), those that don't tend towards the old ways.
Ogres and half-ogres: Ogres are big and lumbering, but they're no more stupid than any other intelligent race. I love the Games Workshop idea of an Ogre's power being linked to what and how much he eats, and I tried to combine that with the system set up above. Most ogre churches have a designated vessel of whichever god they're worshiping. If an old god, all sacrifices (even the metal ones) are fed to the vessel (who can usually be identified by the intricate tattoos or leather belts covering his stomach). If they worship a new god (the god of chefs is an ogre and is very popular), they tend to offer homemade dishes to the vessel on feast days. This spills over into ogre culture as well, most Ogre gatherings involve feasts. In cities ogres tend to be heavy laborers or farmers, though more than a few make a living as bodyguards or chefs. In the wilds Ogres tend to form tribes and clans. There are a few Ogre civilizations, ranging from loose coalitions of raiding parties to monks high in the mountains focused on enlightenment through voluntary starvation.
Changelings and The Motherless: Fey children are incredibly rare, yet it happens that a fey finds him or herself longing for the child-rearing experience. They then steal mortal children, leaving a dummy made of sticks in their place, and raid them in the fey realm. All children must grow up, though, and many eventually chose to leave the fey realm to find their fortunes. These are the changelings, exploring our world for the first time. They tend to be wanderers and are often surprised at the fevor with which most mortals go about their lives. In game terms, they are equivalent to aasimar (the azata-blooded variant in particular). The Motherless are their sleeper equivalent. Corner-kin blooded, they are named the Motherless because almost all mortal mothers die in childbirth, and those mothers who are not mortal are never seen outside the family. They are often even more mistrusted than Changelings, and so take precautions to hide their deformities or live in a place they will not be judged for them. In game terms they are equivalent to tieflings.
A note on Sacrifices:
I wanted to elaborate a little bit on where I'm coming from with the sacrifice mechanic. Because all souls go with Death to only-he-knows-where, there is none of the jockeying for mortal souls that most d20 worlds see. Because of this, the value of a mortal life lies in what he does with it. Sacrifices of wealth or items, then, represent the portion of your potential that was necessary to acquire that item, plus the expenditure needed to craft it in the first place. When you sacrifice blood, you are sacrificing (at least symbolically) a portion of your life. Similarly, sacrificing a life is an offering, not only of the person and all the coincidences and work that brought him to this point, but also of all the things he might have one day done. The progression goes kind of like this: gold coins < drops of blood < a masterwork item < a pint of blood < an animal life < a human life.
And that's it. Let me know what you think, be cruel to be kind.