[3.5] Divisions (A world building thought exercise)

[alchemyprime]

Here was my thought: I was wondering how to make an Alternate universe, or a different sort of society, for my characters to explore and run into a Linear Guild of sorts.

So I thought "How would you do this Alch?"

And my thoughts ran to parallels.


AS TWO COUNTRIES

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My first thought was, for two different cultures, make a list of classes and races each has. For this example, we'll give the countries the names of Ania and Budumdum. Let's make Ania mostly core and Budumdum mostly non-core. There will be a few classes I will make available to either side: the Fighter, the Rogue and the Factotum. Also, each side will have an Artificer variant. Other classes will be divied up as we go, but over all we want... let's say 13 classes and 7 races for each side, including the neutrals for each.

Classes
{table=head]Ania|Either|[b]Budumdum[b]
Artificer, Magic|-|Artificer, Psionic
Bard|Factotum|Warlock
Cleric|-|Divine Mind
Druid|-|Ardent
Duskblade|Fighter|Warblade
Monk|Rogue|Soulknife
Paladin|-|Psychic Warrior
Ranger|-|Swordsage
Sorcerer|-|Wilder
Wizard|-|Psion
[/table]

So the end result is Ania has all the real spellcasters and Budumdum has the psionicists and martial adepts. How do we explain the Warlock though? I say we need to refluff him. Say instead of a person who made a "deal with the devil", we stick with the psionic idea.
Psions explore their minds, I say we keep that.
Wilders use raw emotions for power, a flavor I like.
Warlocks... let's rename them Talents. And Talents are using pure imagination. They don't meditate and don't worry about their minds growing fatigued. They just throw around the power of pure Id. I like this flavor, plus we can use it to make a nice chart.
Super-Ego classes: Ardent, Divine Mind
Ego: Psion, Soulknife, Psychic Warrior
Id: Wilder, Talent.

This flavor works well with me. But the Martial Adepts? I say they are just even more focused Psychic Warriors, channeling their minds in a ki like effect, but instead of it coming from their souls, they gain power from their minds.

Overall, I'm happy with this set up. I wish I was able to incorporate the Binder and the incarnum classes, but I don't think I can with only two countries. If a player wants to play one, I say we just say they are a rarity.

But what of our races?

We want each side to have:
A big race
A small race
A medium race
A misunderstood race
Humans

This is a weird way to look at it, but its how I want it. Now, what to include? Let's see... I want Half-Orcs, but I love the Fluff of Warhammer 40k Orks, so let's make Orcs and Half-Orcs on the side of Badumdum.

Orcs:
Eliminate the Wisdom penalty, increase Int penalty to -4.
Favored Class: Psychic Warrior

Half-Orcs:
Favored Class: Psychic Warrior

For our other big race, I like Lupins (the wolf people that hunt Lycanthropes). This opens Shifters for our Misunderstood race.

I say five races on each side, and five neutral races, including Humans. Our medium races... I want Illumians for Ania and Elans for Badumdum. That works well for me. Ten races and 13 classes for each side.

My Badumdum misunderstood will be the Xeph. Because I never liked them.

Small races, I want to see Ania with Whipser Gnomes (no normal Gnomes), and Badumdum with... let's go with Ghostwise Halflings, and use normal Halflings for the Neutral.

Our fifth race will be our medium race. I say I like Lesser Drow over Elves, so let's use them for our neutral. Let's use Kalashtar for Badumdum and... who's left for Ania? I don't know, but I'm leaning to something fun. Changelings or Warforged? I think Warforged are a bit more fun, so let's use them.

Races
{table=head]Ania|Either|[b]Badumdum[b]
Illumians|Human|Elans
Lupins|Dwarves|Orcs
Shifters|Half-Drow|Xeph
Whisper Gnome|Halfling|Ghostwise Halfling
Warforged|Drow, Lesser|Kalashtar
[/table]

Overall, we have a fun place beginning to get set up. As I write this, I am reminded of Rich's "The World" articles. I miss those.

AS TWO REALITIES

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This is where it gets fun. Now, we don't need neutrals: everything is different here.

So what does this mean? It means I want parallels but with no middle ground. So let's make a parallel to the Core World. We'll call it the AU.

RACES
Yes I'm working the other way now. Live with it.

I want the other races to have NOTHING to do with the main races except to act as an eerie mirror. So humans will not be normal now.
also, I want to show off races that have fun appearances, make this feel like its not Kansas anymore. So, I will not be using any races from above.

So, to mirror humans, I chose the Diablous from Dragon Compendium. This is mostly to freak out my players. The race looks like demons.
For the Dwarves and Gnomes, I picked another related race combo: The Skarn and Rilkan from Magic of Incarnum. I like how they look and act, and instead of getting along, they hate each other, making the gnomes and dwarves a bit more uneasy.
For the elves, I originally chose the Thri-Kreen, trying to go for a bit of Body Horror, but I decided the Dvati is so much better: let's take the arrogant elf and turn them into a dependent being.
The half-elves I replaced with the Skulk, the mutated cast offs of human society.
Half-Orcs, I had no idea. I tried to think of any odd looking races. Thankfully I remembered the Nezumi of Oriental Adventures, using the giant rats.
Halflings were last, and I picked the quick Dusklings as their parllel.

{table=head]Core|AU
Humans|Diabolus
Dwarves|Skarn
Elves|Thri-Kreen Dvati
Gnomes|Rilkan
Half-Elves|Skulk
Half-Orcs|Nezumi
Halflings|Duskling
[/table]

So, now that races are done, let's look at the classes.

Barbarian is unique, so I can't find a parallel. Let's come back to him later.
Bard is a fun class, being a Jack of All Trades. So is the Spelltheif. I think I found a match. But I prefer the Savant, so let's use him.
Clerics are religious leaders. Incarnates are philosophical leaders. I like replacing him with Incarnate.
Druid and Totemist. NEXT!
Fighter. Hm... what to do about you? You're iconic! How can I change you? I should just leave you, but I'm on a roll. So... how about I mess with you? Make you into something odd? Different? I'd say CW Samurai, but that's just cruel, so let's go with OA Samurai.
Mr. Monk, I'm sorry, but you're getting kicked to the curb. We need some one new, shiny, impressive. This is Mr. Ninja. He's not that great, but he'll be better than you. You have an hour to clean out your desk.
Paladin and Knight is obvious, but let's move from "Shining Light" to "Mysterious Darkness." I'm replacing Paladin with Binder. Cue ominous laughter.
Ranger, ranger, ranger... hm... you're a toughie. I think I'll go with Marshal. Along that train of thought, let's make Barbarian into Dragon Shaman too.
Rogue, hey, buddy! I like you too much, but we gotta replace you with Spelltheif for now. You understand, ambush feats and all. You guys got a lot in common.
Sorcerer... I'd say Dragonfire Adept. Nice parallel, both draconic, but now you step on the toes of Dragon Shaman, not wizard.
And Wizard, faithful wizard, replacing you with Wu Jen is too easy. I'm too tempted to use Archivist. Shugenja is nice.
Perhaps I'll count Artificer and Factotum too. Replace Factotum with Shugenja and Artificer with Archivist.
And our Duskblade friend? Dread Necromancer.

So we have...
{table=head]Core+|AU
Artificer|Archivist
Barbarian|Dragon Shaman
Bard|Savant
Cleric|Incarnate
Druid|Totemist
Duskblade|Dread Necromancer
Factotum|Shugenja (Yeah, bad choice, but I wanted him in)
Fighter|Samurai
Monk|Ninja
Paladin|Binder
Ranger|Marshal
Rogue|Spelltheif
Sorcerer|Dragonfire Adept
Wizard|Wu Jen
[/table]

Well, that was fun.

So that was just a train of thought I wanted to ride. Any thoughts? Anyone want to try your hand at it? Wanna say where you'd go differently?