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2021-07-23, 02:38 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2009
How stupid is this PC-race rejiggering?
Obligatory "my world, my rules" nonsense out of the way, I need to gauge how unworkable this idea is:
Gnomes are mushroom spawn people who are effectively clonal. Every one of them starts off looking the same and distinguish oneself by adulthood through the act of creation (i.e.: inventions).
Gnomes live underground on a specific island chain.
The surface of the same island chain hosts orcs. Orcs are all biologically female and reproduce via parthenogenesis.
In a confluence of events, the two races met and found that a mature gnome can meld wholly with an orc (think: male and female anglerfish) and in doing so combine into a stronger/smarter harem being. A culture of leaders/prominent figures in Orc society thus formed on the basis of controlling access to Gnomes. A high warlord may get 10 gnomes attached and become so powerful as to sweep all opposition aside, hence controls are culture-wide and enforced globally.
Gnomes consider it a high honor to distinguish themselves enough to allow such a blending of characteristics. Their culture is all about inventing things and then transcending their clonal self.
Orcs see the blending as a status thing as well and voluntarily protect the island chain and their access to a whole race of effective power-ups.
Adventurers (and notable NPCs) may come from two strands:
1) An orc/gnome rejects the standard cultural beliefs and seeks to prove the self is as vital as the blending, setting out to achieve something beyond the islands.
2) A dire event throws a hero of the united people into the broader world.
I have an orc NPC that met a gnome, found love, and couldn't bear to unite. They both ran away and adventured, going so far as to permanently polymorph the gnome into another creature to remove the temptation.
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2021-07-23, 02:50 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2007
- Location
- San Antonio, Texas
- Gender
Re: How stupid is this PC-race rejiggering?
That's a pretty cool and flavorful way of doing it. Gnomes as a fungal infection on orcs? Orcs as parthenogenic? Awesome.
Now, since orcs are listed as female, does that mean they can reproduce with humans (or others)? Or do they just have a female appearance?
ETA: As an addendum... while it is not MY problem, I imagine some people will have objections to calling them "orcs" and "gnomes" because you are changing them so radically. I'd ignore those people; the terms mean what you want them to mean.Last edited by LibraryOgre; 2021-07-23 at 03:30 PM.
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2021-07-23, 10:25 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2021
Re: How stupid is this PC-race rejiggering?
I really like the whole anglerfish comparison. I know I would love to play in this sort of world. I think there should be alot of direct interplay between the races like this.
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2021-07-24, 12:12 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2018
Re: How stupid is this PC-race rejiggering?
Are the combined beings going to be playable? If so, the lore that they're better than either of the base creatures may conflict with the goal of having all race options be balanced.
My Perpetually-Unfinished Homebrew: Tier-3 Class Suite, Homestuck Races for Pathfinder, Homestuck Races for 5e, Psionic Class Redux
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2021-07-26, 01:33 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2021
Re: How stupid is this PC-race rejiggering?
I would generally agree.
On the other hand, I would also ask: is there a specific reason that these races need to be gnomes and orcs? Would you lose anything vital in calling them something else?
I would absolutely ignore the people who take issue "'cause it's different", but I think some people may be genuinely confused, and that is something to consider.
It's your setting, your world, your game. But words mean things, and deviating from those meanings should be done deliberately and carefully.
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2021-07-26, 02:18 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2008
Re: How stupid is this PC-race rejiggering?
The surface of the same island chain hosts orcs. Orcs are all biologically female and reproduce via parthenogenesis.
Gnomes consider it a high honor to distinguish themselves enough to allow such a blending of characteristics.
Adventurers (and notable NPCs) may come from two strands:
1) An orc/gnome rejects the standard cultural beliefs and seeks to prove the self is as vital as the blending, setting out to achieve something beyond the islands.
2) A dire event throws a hero of the united people into the broader world.Last edited by quindraco; 2021-07-26 at 02:23 PM.
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2021-07-26, 05:57 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2010
- Location
- Gobbotopia
- Gender
Re: How stupid is this PC-race rejiggering?
Avy by Thormag
Spoiler
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2021-08-01, 04:05 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2009
Re: How stupid is this PC-race rejiggering?
A lot of good questions and concerns. Having these out there lets me think through the possibilities, so I appreciate every single one.
Are the combined beings going to be playable? If so, the lore that they're better than either of the base creatures may conflict with the goal of having all race options be balanced.
On the other hand, I would also ask: is there a specific reason that these races need to be gnomes and orcs? Would you lose anything vital in calling them something else?
I would absolutely ignore the people who take issue "'cause it's different", but I think some people may be genuinely confused, and that is something to consider.
It's your setting, your world, your game. But words mean things, and deviating from those meanings should be done deliberately and carefully.
I wanted races and origins to have some external causes and reasons for existing, beyond "a god who look like a dwarf made dwarves in his image." My dwarves are largely an Arctic species, short and compact to preserve body heat, darkvision that helps hunt during the arctic night, possessed of an innate resistance to cold, given a cultural proficiency in survival, typically white-haired, etc. It felt like it made sense to me.
Elves are svelte monkeys who live (mostly) in treetops of a jungle environment and benefit from their grace and light weight to maneuver without touching the ground. I have a Pallid Elf PC who grew up in a sun-deprived section of said jungle that had tree density effectively block light, explaining some characteristics.
Once I got humans, elves, and dwarves onto the field, thoughtlessly added halflings without giving them a qualifier, and then cut off PC races there at game start. I'm expanding the world as the players discover and travel, so I have a chance to explain "this is a new race and here's why it is like it is" gradually in-game. Hopefully it's less shocking that way.
Wouldn't the latter be radically more powerful than the former, assuming your meld mechanics exist and are the upgrade you've protrayed them as?
Couple that with the island chain's long-standing anti-magic effect, means that at game start the Gnomes have made leaps and bounds technologically and are possessed of firearms on the level of Fire Lance, bringing a major shift in power in favor of their race. Only at the start. My PCs are currently en route to that island chain to figure out who is making and distributing firearms to their local part of the world, throwing all manner of politics into turmoil.
If they're sophonts, you need a lot more work to build a culture built around a death cult where the highest honor involves killing yourself.
Thinking out loud, there's a limited supply of gnomes available for melds, which means it's a controlled supply. It may be seen as an honor, and treated as such by the orcs above as well, but even so not every single gnome who distinguishes themselves is going to volunteer for the process. Perhaps it's an age-thing: once a gnome has produced all the inventions one can in a lifetime, and is facing the end of existence, an honor granted to the greats is to extend their life via the meld and bring their genius onward to the above-lands. Less a death and more an extension/rebirth.
You lose me here. Just to clarify, are you saying the orcs are clearly female and are using parthenogenesis as a fall-back (i.e. it's a setting mystery where the males are), or are clearly parthenogenic, and non-orcs are idiots who refer to orcs as female based on a shallow understanding of their body structure? I'm asking if orcs are chickens and the absence of roosters is a setting mystery, or if orcs are amoebas and only a moron thinks of them as having genders.
That said, there are half-orcs out there in the world, meaning they are capable of your "default" biological reproduction if the choice is available. The half-orcs are rare where the PCs started out, meaning very few ever travelled that way. For people less familiar with the race, an Orc may well be "powerfully-built person" with the assumed gender of male. They'd be wrong, but that's assumptions for you.
I enjoy the ability to branch out beyond typical D&D gender norms, too, but that's just a side benefit. One that my LGBTQ players will appreciate.
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2021-08-01, 04:18 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2009
Re: How stupid is this PC-race rejiggering?
As an aside, I'll eventually introduce dragons back in the world and establish a lifecycle that's very close to a eusocial society, ala naked mole rats or insects.
A single fertilized dragon egg will shed spores that will produce reptilian kobolds. They will work based mostly on instinct to establish the correct environment to hatch the egg. Upon hatching, the dragon inside will consume the kobolds (who willingly stand there and get eaten) as early sustenance and grow.
Depending on the environment created, the dragon adapts en-ovum to be a fire-adapted type, water-adapted type, etc.
Unfertilized eggs laid by a dragon are laid in hatches and produce dragonborn. These are sophonts who, in the presence of a dragon, receive a mental/pheromonal override and act directly in service to said dragon. If the dragon ever abandons the area, the dragonborn recover their sophont nature and act of their own accord (establishing small-scale hierarchies and cultures).
I've got an early encounter planned where the players will start encountering small fire elementals as a result of an egg-hatching process opening a portal to a fire-spewing dimension burns down the forest they're travelling through. Inspired by California wildfires of recent past!