Turning a world on it's head

[Silus]

In a manner of speaking of course.

So I was thinking, what ways could one take your standard campaign world/universe and just flip it upside down? I know I'm not being clear, so here's an example:

Normally: Orcs and Goblins are evil and must be killed on sight.
Flipped: Orcs and Goblins are the majority and the other formerly major races are the evil raiders that must be killed on sight.

So yeah, I'm kinda looking forward to seeing what ya'll come up with.

[Zale]

Elves are lawful evil tyrants hell-bent on expanding their slave-trading cities. They have a harsh caste system that imposes enormous restrictions on everyday life right down to what words one may use. Elves despise the wild. They take a wicked pleasure in ripping the resources from the earth and killing trees that have been alive for hundreds of years.

The only exception to this are the desert-dwelling drow. Despite being known for their ascetic lifestyle and deep compassion for all living things, Drow maintain a respectful distance from their god. The communities of the dark-elves are havens for anyone, regardless of race or religion. They are welcomed with open arms by the friendly Drow.



I think that turns the world on it's head enough.

[Steckie]

The winged dwarves use their floating islands to get around the land.
They work together with several kinds of dragons to redistribute wealth. The dragons provide the wealth, and the dwarves fly around the land giving it to random people.
Dwarves are also known for their very strict diets and prohibition laws.

[ClockShock]

Why not just actually flip it upside down?
Magnetised ceilings and iron boots for everyone!

[Ravens_cry]

The Great Big Expanding Empire actually isn't evil, it actually improves other peoples lots by bringing things like good roads, sanitation, running water, and ending slavery, while lowering taxes and eliminating banditry.
And not only do the trains run on time, there is trains.

[endoperez]

I can only think of Terry Pratchett's "The Nation", which both fits this to a t, and wouldn't help at all. Discworld is a much better at the fantasy-world-turned-upside-down thing. There's stuff like tee-totalling vampires (one drop would be one too many), the city watch hiring everything from zombies to trolls, upholding the law and still staying Good by D&D alignment standards. And lots of specific characters that make fun of some trope or other.


Dark Sun does a lot of this. Cannibal halflings living in the jungles somewhere south, elves being nomads who run through the endless desert, the entire world being one endless desert...


Witcher also does a fine job at turning some preconceptions inside out. Elves are wild beings, fey and alien, being driven away from the ever-expanding civilization. They're hungry, desperate and dying, and thus are forced to raid the humans, which will inevitably cause a retaliation and their extinction. Elves are not happy about that. The big heroes of the setting are mutated freaks shunned by the general populace.


There's also lots to be said for a world that's past its glory days, something like the world of Kelevan in Raymond E. Feist's books. Metal ore has been mined out and gradually lost over the millenia, several humanoid or monster species have disappeared, long-standing empire has stood so long no one can imagine the world without it, etc.

[Kuma Kode]

Elves are lawful evil tyrants hell-bent on expanding their slave-trading cities. They have a harsh caste system that imposes enormous restrictions on everyday life right down to what words one may use. Elves despise the wild. They take a wicked pleasure in ripping the resources from the earth and killing trees that have been alive for hundreds of years.

The only exception to this are the desert-dwelling drow. Despite being known for their ascetic lifestyle and deep compassion for all living things, Drow maintain a respectful distance from their god. The communities of the dark-elves are havens for anyone, regardless of race or religion. They are welcomed with open arms by the friendly Drow.

....

I want to play in this campaign world, now.

The Great Big Expanding Empire actually isn't evil, it actually improves other peoples lots by bringing things like good roads, sanitation, running water, and ending slavery, while lowering taxes and eliminating banditry.
And not only do the trains run on time, there is trains.

You can do this with Necromancy, too. Have the dread necromancer who rules the land spread his undead armies through the countryside to help tend fields and guard cities while its inhabitants sleep. Have the dead come back and spend the time with their families they were denied. Have the daughter finally get a chance to sit and talk with the mother who died giving birth to her.

Suddenly the paladin and cleric of Pelor look like the monsters.

[Ravens_cry]

You can do this with Necromancy, too. Have the dread necromancer who rules the land spread his undead armies through the countryside to help tend fields and guard cities while its inhabitants sleep. Have the dead come back and spend the time with their families they were denied. Have the daughter finally get a chance to sit and talk with the mother who died giving birth to her.

Suddenly the paladin and cleric of Pelor look like the monsters.

Not exactly monsters, their abilities are more healing the living based then clerics of neutral and other gods, but they do come across as dangerously fanatic and misguided. I have a city state where most of the taxes come from being skeletonized for such services after your death for a certain period, less if you are a citizen, more otherwise, citizenship being an earned thing.
I am not sure if I am going to put it in the same world, but I have Lawful Good Empire that started as I say, and include a network of Teleportation Circles as a means of transporting goods, for a toll, and troops throughout said empire.
It is meant to include some of the best aspects of the Roman and British Empires. Unfortunately, it has weakened morally somewhat since.

[Starwulf]

Elves are lawful evil tyrants hell-bent on expanding their slave-trading cities. They have a harsh caste system that imposes enormous restrictions on everyday life right down to what words one may use. Elves despise the wild. They take a wicked pleasure in ripping the resources from the earth and killing trees that have been alive for hundreds of years.

The only exception to this are the desert-dwelling drow. Despite being known for their ascetic lifestyle and deep compassion for all living things, Drow maintain a respectful distance from their god. The communities of the dark-elves are havens for anyone, regardless of race or religion. They are welcomed with open arms by the friendly Drow.



I think that turns the world on it's head enough.

With the exception of the Drow, this basically sounds like the plot-line for books Meredith Lackey and Andre Norton wrote, a series called the "Half-blood Chronicles" The elves are these evil bastards who make slaves out of all humans(forcing them to wear slave collars that suppress any magical abilities the humans may have), and they(elves) all wield immensely powerful magic(well, most of them. Some of the lowest of them only wield moderate magic). It's really great read!

Edit: I figure I should be the bearer of bad news though, and say that unfortunately they never wrote past book 3, due to Andre Norton dying :-(. Last I had read, Mercedes had notes that Andre had written and was considering finishing the series, but to my knowledge, she never did, which sucks, because it was reaaaallly good.

[Arbane]

This Is As Good As You're Going To Get.

You're old. You were a great hero, but that was many years before, and you're far past your prime. With every year, every battle, your strength wanes and your hands falter. One last great task lies before you. Can you succeed?

[Ravens_cry]

This Is As Good As You're Going To Get.

You're old. You were a great hero, but that was many years before, and you're far past your prime. With every year, every battle, your strength wanes and your hands falter. One last great task lies before you. Can you succeed?

Yahtzee suggested something remarkably similar, though his idea was more for video games.

[Morph Bark]

Elves are lawful evil tyrants hell-bent on expanding their slave-trading cities. They have a harsh caste system that imposes enormous restrictions on everyday life right down to what words one may use. Elves despise the wild. They take a wicked pleasure in ripping the resources from the earth and killing trees that have been alive for hundreds of years.

The only exception to this are the desert-dwelling drow. Despite being known for their ascetic lifestyle and deep compassion for all living things, Drow maintain a respectful distance from their god. The communities of the dark-elves are havens for anyone, regardless of race or religion. They are welcomed with open arms by the friendly Drow.

This is basically one part of my campaign setting. Elves are also the mad crafting scientists. Drow live mostly alongside kobolds in a Las Vegas-like city (though many kobolds still live underground).

The other big part is that there is a ship for everything, pirates are very common and bounty hunting is something between a hobby and a national sport for the human country.

Also, humans actually aren't that common. In fact, the metropolis capital of the human kingdom is populated moreso by partial humans than pure-blooded humans. Furthermore, gnomes are nigh-extinct and goblins are kindly traders.

[supermonkeyjoe]

The Eberron campaign setting has the often repeated phrase:

"where Orcs are the stalwart defenders of nature and the Elves roam across the countryside in murderous hordes"

It's a bit of a generalisation but at the same time is pretty accurate.

[DragonOfUndeath]

....

I want to play in this campaign world, now.

You can do this with Necromancy, too. Have the dread necromancer who rules the land spread his undead armies through the countryside to help tend fields and guard cities while its inhabitants sleep. Have the dead come back and spend the time with their families they were denied. Have the daughter finally get a chance to sit and talk with the mother who died giving birth to her.

Suddenly the paladin and cleric of Pelor look like the monsters.

*Cough* Burning Hate *cough*

What about if all the Good Gods simply have great PR?
Evil Gods are really Good but their 2nd-in-command are traitors and make sure that everything they do comes off the worst way possible.

[hamishspence]

Faerun's done elves as corrupt, leaning toward LE, and enslaving- the ancient Sun Elven empire around the time of the Crown Wars.

Dragonlance has also done elves as slaveowning and somewhat tyrannical.

Eberron's done "goblins (and many other monsters) aren't considered "kill-on-sight"- as has been mentioned.

And in Mercedes Lackey's Mage Storms trilogy in the Heralds of Valdemar setting, the expanding Empire is mostly only evil at the top- and tends to bring great benefits to those it conquers.

[Das Platyvark]

Elves live in the jungles, terrified of magic and the advanced weapons of civilization(such as bows, swords, etc.), and exist in tiny tribes ignorant of the outside world.
Orcs are mystics and wizards, known for their wisdom.

[Mastikator]

The prime material plane is the last stop before oblivion. Mortals are the dying souls of once powerful outsiders that perished and are circling the drain.
There is nothing after death for mortals.

[Randel]

The clouds are solid and people live there in cities made of carefully sculpted cloud-stuff. They stay indoors during the day because the sun is bright and oppresive and only come out at night when its nice and cool and the stars light up everything.

The land below is full of monsters and creatures and magic herbs that people in the cloud cities can't get normally. Adventurers descend to the earth using either winged creatures or by using rainbows that act as roads to the ground.

Right now, the goblins and orcs are being oppressed by haughty elves and xenophobic humans (the dwarves aren't so much oppresive as they are greedy monsters who believe that they own all the metal and gems in the world and that nobody else should wield the magic of gems or the power of steel). As part of the alliance between the sky people and the orc tribes, you have to attack human cities and trade routes to help your allies.

Also, the humans have been building extensive underground bunkers with the help of the dwarves. Intelligence suggests that the humans and dwarves plan to activate a dormant Supervolcanoe that will wipe out massive amounts of surface life and poison the clouds, thereby allowing the humans to retake the surface for themselves after they leave the bunkers.

Your mission is to locate these bunkers, break inside, gather any intel you can regarding the humans plans and prevent them from wiping out the monster races.

Oh, and the sky people are harpies. Just in case it wasn't obvious.

So orcs, goblins, and harpies must unite to keep humans and dwarves from destroying the world. The kobolds might help but they have little love for surface dwellers, will they help you defeat the dwarven menace or will they try to seize the supervolcanoe weapon for themselves?

[Fhaolan]

*cough* My homebrew campaign world:

Elves are actually humans who have undergone a massive multi-generation eugenics program. The Elvish Empire was dedicated to controlling Nature rather than working within it, and had an extensive slavery program which created the Gnolls, Minotaurs, Satyrs, etc. When the empire fell, the dark-skinned desert-dwelling elves became the most kind and reasonable of all the elves, actively trying to prevent the rise of a second Elvish Empire.

Their major enemy were Ogres who were the protectors of the lesser races. The Ogres built amazing feats of engineering in an effort to stave off the rapacious elves and their expansionistic empire. They were laid low by a magical disease created by the elves which caused severe mutations, leading to trolls, cyclops, and ettin variants.

In the modern age, Orcs are artisans of gold and steel who have retained some the skills taught to them by the ogres. They are highly individualistic, and prone to extreme emotions (including rage, but also love). They are ruled by clan chiefs who are chosen by contest, which includes tests of strength, endurance, wisdom, and skill.

Gnomes, halflings, and goblins are all blended together into one race. They are clever, nimble, and close to their primitive roots. Found by a Gnoll explorer on a remote island filled with bizarre animals including elephant-giraffe hybrids and giant fanged cats, they were brought back as the only people who could train and handle those animals. From there they escaped and have been slowly spreading through the known world.

[navar100]

The prime material plane is the last stop before oblivion. Mortals are the dying souls of once powerful outsiders that perished and are circling the drain.
There is nothing after death for mortals.

Becoming undead is their true salvation. It is the only means to avoid oblivion. Vecna discovered this. That's the True Secret. He's really a nice guy. He was framed by Jozan Kas, cleric of Pelor.

Undead spawning isn't a curse; it's the means of saving souls.