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  1. - Top - End - #1
    Orc in the Playground
     
    RangerGuy

    Join Date
    Feb 2016
    Location
    Right Behind You
    Gender
    Male

    Default Trying to get feedback on the nations of a world

    Howdy assorted adventurous people. I am a member of the staff of a LARP that plans to run in the next year or two. We have a lot of the general world lore hammered out but there are some worries by some of our staff that some of the cultures we've created will be underrepresented compared to the others, and we're aiming for roughly balanced starting numbers. So we're trying to gather data on which of them people would choose to play as things stand, in order to see if our fears of bad imbalance are unjustified. I'm going to post a short description of each. The question I have is, If hypothetically, you were to play in our game. Which one do you think you would choose as the origin of the character you'd play?



    The Kingdom of Caelland.
    Named for their first monarch Cael, Caellanders prize strength, loyalty, and community. They tend to pick direct solutions to problems. The kingdom was founded by a legion of troops who survived the near end of the world by leading civilians into a series of caves where they waited for the catastrophe to end before returning to the surface. Centered in a harsh northern climate they are in constant conflict with the dryads, who don't like that the Caellanders cut many trees for firewood to avoid freezing to death, and to clear ground for the raising of crops where possible.



    The Republic of Tivale
    Formed as a loose confederation of city states, the Tivale was founded by separatists who left harsh territory of Caelland, headed south to greener pastures. They Prize Individualism, Mercantilism, and Cunning. Due to their position on the coastal plain, and along the mouth of the world's largest navigable river, the Patricians and Keyholders of the Republic are amongst the most successful and wealthy merchants in the world. They are often in conflict with the beasts to the south, which see their republic as a weak gateway blocking them from Caelland, the Dryads, and a proper battle.



    The Stoneborne
    Built as mindless automata by the dwarves to function as servants, when the dwarves all perished in the near apocalypse the automata were left sitting in pools of liquid magic fuel for hundreds of years. After steeping in this for so long, somehow they have come to life, and now seek to explore the world, to figure out what "being alive" and "sentience" really means



    The Council of Arcfall
    Centered on a university town located at the waterfalls of the Arc River. The Mages of Arcfall prize studiousness, knowledge, and magic. Having sheltered the surrounding area from the near apocalypse magically, the mages took the rule over all of the people of the area as their due, and while more rights have been granted over time, non-mages very much remain second class citizens. The mages devote much of their time to research, primarily oriented on a means of preventing the next apocalypse from happening.



    The Covenant of Valerion
    When the sky rained fire and the end of the world seemed about to begin, an unidentified man begged Valos, the diety of Justice and Order, to save him and his villiage. Valos agreed, on the condition that the village live by his Twelve Charges, and spread them to the rest of the world. By force if necessary. They firmly believe in law and order, as well as in the absolute right of all to be welcome equally under Valos, and despise magic as the corruption of the order of the world and the perceived cause of the apocalypse



    The Mesans/Exiles
    Between Caelland and Arcfall once sat the independent tribes of the Azure Mesa. They worshiped the spirits of the land and the great mound of Arcanite at the center of the Mesa. They prized harmony with the land and seasons, and though not technologically advanced, being barely into the iron age, they raised some of the most bountiful harvests in the world thanks to the fertility of their soil. Caelland needed food, and Arcfall needed Arcanite. And so Caelland told the Mesans that they could join the kingdom, keeping their land and becoming it's breadbasket, or they could "Be Joined" to the kingdom, becoming it's breadbasket. Arcfall declared that they could surrender the Arcanite, or perish.
    Some chose to join Caelland. Some chose to fight both. some chose to flee. The ones that fled, and the ones that became Caellanders survived



    The Disputed Lands
    Caught between the other nations, the Disputed lands have been a backwater, mostly ignored for centuries. Their relatively low population, and proximity to the violent beasts of the south making them the opposite of prime real estate, except for those who seek isolation, danger, or simply have nowhere else to go. The small communities of the Disputed Lands have been recently rocked by the discovery of a vast supply of Arcaneum, liquid magic, below the surface, and now, for the first time, the eyes, armies, and influence of all the major nations, have been turned attentively towards the region. (the game takes place here)
    Last edited by eru001; 2020-05-15 at 12:11 PM.
    Warning, this poster makes frequent use of jokes, snarks, and puns. He is mostly harmless and intends no offense.

  2. - Top - End - #2
    Troll in the Playground
     
    HalflingPirate

    Join Date
    Nov 2011

    Default Re: Trying to get feedback on the nations of a world

    I would think the Stoneborn would be the least interesting of the races, but they seem the least developed as well: this may be a cause and effect relationship.

    I propose the following:

    That because of their origin in a lake of Arcanium, they are immune to weak magic and resistant to strong magic. This only includes magic against which they would be entitled Fort saves, and not the effects of spells which create harmful by-products.
    Thus, an Acid Arrow or Fireball, in creating acid or fire, would still be harmful, but a Magic Missile would be too low level to bother an automaton, and the automaton would be very resistant to Polymorph Other.

    That in order to reproduce or heal, a Stoneborn requires Arcanium. This makes it a prescious commodity to the automata, who view the use of it by other races as wasteful. The primary goal of the automata would be to secure the liquid magic for their own use, co-operating with others only to the extent that it allows them to access and eventually secure the material for their own race.

    That unknown to all save a handfull of dwarven loremasters, the Stoneborn created by the dwarves still retain the command codes by which the dwarves controlled them. Only dwarves, gnomes, and halflings, (and their mixed-blood offspring,) can use these codes which, at the time of their creation, was a complex language used to instruct the mindless machines in their work. Only a few phrases survive and only a very few dwarves even know they exist.
    Second generation and later Stoneborn have fewer or none of these codes and are thus less likely to be controllable.

    Given this, I would play Alchemist 333, an automaton whose mission is to access the new deposit of Arcanium and map its locale for the use of its race in eventually securing the deposit for the exclusive use of automata.

    In addition to this mission, Al has a personal quest to secure enough Arcanium to enable it and its partner Lapidary 1242 to procreate. Currently Lapi resides in their home town waiting for Al's return.

    As are all Stoneborn, Al is physically robust, but it relies on its intellect and its growing menu of magical potion recipes while adventuring.
    Last edited by brian 333; 2020-05-18 at 11:11 AM.

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