[note]It's finally that time. I've gained enough headway in my setting to resume officially posting it once more. It is by no name complete yet, but it is on its way. Most of the pre-thinking has been done, and I feel it's the time to receive some feedback; be it motivational or critical. Be honest, be complete, but be polite. I apologize to anyone who has followed "Three Worlds" since its beginning (writing adventures, running sessions, and the ever present college and work have been keeping me from my joy), but I am going to keep myself on a strict schedule now. Expect weekly updates (and nudge me if I'm late).[/note]
This thread will house the discussion for my setting's races, found HERE (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?24359). Things should get interesting here, as each of the three worlds of my setting have different native races. Terran, the primary setting, houses the more modern races of Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Halflings, and my own version of Goblins, and also the reptilian races of Kobolds, Lizardfolk, Naga, and Draconians. Avalon, the "upper" world, is home to classical races such as Nymphs, Fauns, Centaurs, Minotaurs, and possibly others. Sylphenhest, the "lower" world, is home to non-humans like the Anthros, and more exotic and original races such as the insectoid Hive, the reptilian Grimwreck, the cephalopod-ian Ghostfolk, and many other horrors. Each world strives for a different feel, and I hope their races exemplify that.
I will also be bouncing some preliminary ideas around here, so don't think this thread is only for discussion of what's posted on the main setting. Once things are polished, my site's construction will begin.
I hope you enjoy your stay in the three worlds.
Races of Terran
Terran is a modern fantasy world. Its conflicts are ethical and political, and good and evil are at times blurred into shades of gray. Its races are familiar, and include humans, the most familiar race of all. Terran's races are separated into two categories: the civilized and the monstrous. Don't let this distinction fool you, the monstrous races are still races; they have a defined culture and intelligence. The primary difference is that the civilized races live in large settlements like towns and cities, while the monstrous races appear monstrous.
Civilized Races
Humans
Dwarves
Elves
Goblins
Halflings
Orcs
Monstrous Races
Anthros: Khan (cheetah), Lupinahk (wolf), Mite (rodent), Usaril (bear), Visecrite (bat)
Currently, I'm trying to decide if I want my traditional Reptilian Humanoids (kobolds: lizards; lizardfolk: crocodiles; naga: snakes; draconians: dragons) to exist here, or if I'm going to use them for Sylphenhest (which has no traditional mamalian life).
Races of Avalon
Avalon's races are going to fall into classic notions of fantasy, before it was really called fantasy. I'd like to use many of the half human/half animal creatures (fauns, centaurs, ect.), and of course nymphs. There will be half-nymphs, who originated from Ancients who bred with nymphs; a child of a nymph and an ancient is a nymph if its female, a half-nymph if its male. If a half-nymph mates with an ancient, then the child is half-nymph no matter if its male or female. Thus, when the ancients were destroyed on Avalon, the half-nymphs were left as their own race.
I do need ideas for more races, enough to cover the class archtypes: a warrior race, an adventurous race, a pious race, and a mage race, with half-nymphs as the "generic" race.
Sylphenhestian Races
Sylphenhest's races are all non mamals. The idea here is to create unique races with plausable physiologies, but from different evolutionary lines.
Additionally, there has to be 7 races, one for each of the seven sins, since the seven Devils rule Sylphenhest and each have their own race.
Currently, I have three races, so four more are needed:
Avarice:
Envy: The Ghostfolk; a race evolved from cephilopods. They have no bones, but enough control over their muscle tension to create bone-like structures for support on land. They have emense color changing and texture changing capabilities, and are thus natural shape shifters (they can appear to be any small, medium, or large humanoid, though their weight doesn't ever change, which affects some statistics).
Gluttony:
Lust:
Pride: The Grimwreck; a race evolved from early sylphenhestian dragons (who split off from amphibians), they have leathery skin and bony spines. Through rituals, they can undergo a metamorphosis to enhance certain parts of their anatomy, such as enhancing the size and power of their jaws, the thickness of their skin, the sharpness of their spines, or even their acidic saliva.
Sloth: The Hive; a race evolved from collonial insects. They have a winged larval form which metamorphosises in several steps to the gender casted adults of males, females, and drones. They used to have queens, but the queens were destroyed by the Devil Sloth. Adults retain their wings, but cannot fly (the sound of their wings is maddening to other races).
Wrath:
Aside from these seven races, a "common folk" exists, who evolved from dromeosaurid dinosaurs (if you've ever seen the "Dinosauroid" from paleological thought excersizes, that's what they are). This race lives amongst all of the provinces, but is largely subjigated.
A little bump. I have the Human race and the Dwarven race up, including one culture from each. I'll be getting up another race each week, and I'm going to attempt 2 cultures per week.
I like what I see so far; I always approve of assigning some of a races traits to nature and some to nurture more or less every time I see it, and you have made good use of it so far. You are aware that most of the cultural traits in the bullet points are still just question marks, I trust. What kind of traits will be assigned such cultural values? Were you thinking of using 'minor' bonuses, as in the Forgotten Realms?
The level of detail you've got going on here is very impressive. This is my first encounter with the Three Worlds, and I am digging the relationship between the three, and the mythologies you sketch out at the beginning. I have a few questions about the nature of their arrangement (how are Terran/Avalon/Sylphenhest connected, and how do people/things/energies travel between them?), but I'll try to keep comments relevant to the topic you've set out-- races.
I like your system of breaking up racial stats between innate (genetic?) traits and regionally differentiated cultural ones. I'll leave my comment at that, since the system is incomplete (and since I'm pretty bad at evaluating crunchy-stuff!), but I'm pretty intrigued by it.
You have a way with words, and that may or may not be a reason why your writing in the race info section seems so... evenhanded. I feel like you're describing humans and dwarves "from all sides," so that the descriptions make sense from the perspective of members of those races and outsiders alike, and can be interpreted in various ways, depending (I guess!) on whether the person forming those opinions likes that race or not.
You've established a pattern of logical justification-- you frequently give perfectly reasonable causes for why your cultures are the way they are. I like that. I also like all the seemingly inconsequential details (such as dwarven jewelery habits), which are the sort of things that really help me wrap my head around a setting, and get immersed in it. It makes it feel like you're really writing worlds and cultures, rather than falling into the trap many of us are wont to fall into-- writing filler material for tactical wargames.
My one gripe is that I never care much for the "female dwarves have beards" meme, no matter who's using it. But I recognize full well that that's an idiosyncracy of mine, and not a fault in your writing. (If you're going to use it, by all means, use it the way you've got it written up already-- it's a version that is unique and interesting.)
Keep up the good work. I think you may have hooked me on the Three Worlds.
DeeL: thanks, I like the idea myself. To answer your question, the traits that will go to cultural values are going to be worth about 2 feats; you might notice that I've weakened the Dwarf just a smidgen to make up for this extra power, though the extra power helps balance the other races. For example, here is the cultural trait for "Generic Dwarves", which I currently am not sure as to which dwarf to apply it to:
DWARVEN CULTURAL TRAITS
â,¬Â¢ +2 cultural bonus on Appraise and Craft checks.
â,¬Â¢ Weapon Familiarity: +1 cultural bonus on attack rolls with Clubs and Hammers.
â,¬Â¢ Automatic Languages: Dwarven and Trade. Bonus Languages: Giant, Goblin, Orc, Terran, and Regional.
â,¬Â¢ Favored Class: Fighter
Note that Clubs refers to the weapon group clubs (club, quarterstaff, light mace, heavy mace, morning star, sap) and Hammers refers to the weapon group hammers (war hammer, light pick, heavy pick ...). I may change the way I treat weapon groups (currently, similar weapons, but different sized weapons, are grouped together, like longsword, shortsword, and greatsword, but I may start grouping them more by size).
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Thanks Luminous. I've been worried that my way with words was a little stale or clinical, but I've done my best to present the races from an unbiased point of view (since one of the settings, South Krellshah to be precise, has two evil races as player races and a good race as a villian race; I still have to write up the virtues of the evil races).
One other thing I've done is tried to justify the overarching personality of the races based on their mental ability score adjustments: you'll note that "personality" is listed with the race; I believe that an amount of personality will be intrinsic to a race, and a reader will be able to infer other differences based on the society entries for the cultures. Hopefully that was a good assumption.
As I said, I'll try to get 2 new cultures up this week and one new race. What would you all like to see first: Elves, Orcs, Halflings, or Goblins?
Of those four, orcs or goblins. But go with what inspires you most, and I'll read it regardless.
You list three kinds of dwarves, but only talk about deep dwarves. I'm curious about the differences between them. Is it only in where they live, cultural differences, or are there physical distinctions?
There are regional, cultural, and minor physical differences, though I must attest to the minority of the physical differences. Mountain Dwarves, for instance, are about as different from Deep Dwarves as Asians are from Europeans; they are the same race.
I'll have more cultures up soon, but I might be able to put up little blurbs about each culture tonight.
Do you find that posting the place of birth and the cultural traits together with the races info makes you races pages to long?
With the dwarves, im not sure if its a good or bad idea to have stone cutting as a racial trait, i would lean more towards cultural myself as i see it as a skill that the dwarves learn from an early age. I guess its just the nature vs nurture argument.
P.S. Well ive just noticed alot of ideas that are similar to my campaign setting, and seeing as though you posted yours first i would like to apologize in advance if you think i may be blatently stealing your ideas although most of what i have isnt posted in the setting yet.
Heh, my race/culture system will be OGL, so steal away. I'm not sure what you mean by the "place of birth" and the cultural traits together ... I think that knowing about the culture you're choosing is necessary before you can make a choice.
Stonecunning ended up being a racial trait primarily because my dwarves were created by the God of Earth, and thus have a native sense for stone.
I posted the Goblin race and the Sea Goblin culture. I'll try to get the orcs and elves up in the coming weeks, and I'll make it so you have one player race from each continent as cultures first.
Oo, like your take on the goblins. Then again, it has scant company - goblins have to be one of the most overlooked races in terms of social analysis. They are the most likely to get the 'evil cannonfodder' treatment; even Eberron's detailing is no big shakes. You have taken a nicely original and well-considered approach, and I thank you.
Thanks. My philosophy on race design is that no races should be cannonfodder. Even in the regions where a race is considered a "bad guy" race (and each race gets its time in the sun to be a bad guy), they still will have a developed culture. I use animals and little monsters as cannon fodder.
Quote from: XeviatHeh, my race/culture system will be OGL, so steal away. I'm not sure what you mean by the "place of birth" and the cultural traits together ... I think that knowing about the culture you're choosing is necessary before you can make a choice.
Stonecunning ended up being a racial trait primarily because my dwarves were created by the God of Earth, and thus have a native sense for stone.
Its not just the culture system, ive been thinking about how to incorperate having five legendary swords in my world then i came across your races and noticed you already have the same thing.
In regards it the place of birth thing, i was refering to the varying places from which you can choose your cultural traits from, as having alot of places considerably increases the length of information that a player has to read for each race, it might me a little overwhelming for an inexperienced player, and i was wondering if it would not be easier to have a seperate chapter after races where you could detail your various cultures, it will not decrease the information but i might make it might make it easier to follow.
It just a thought ive been having, i suppose there are many pros and cons about formatting depending on what you prefer. im kinda stuck on how to format cultural traits for my own campaign so im on the look out for different ways to format them.
EDIT: I finally got my second blue world, which brings up the question, whats a Red-eared Slider?
Now that you put it that way, I might want to not introduce cultures too quickly. Either I can use a "generic" racial culture in the Race chapter, and introduce cultures in the geography chapter, or I can just not discuss the option of choosing different cultures until the geography chapter.
Either way, the goblins are up, and I'll probably get the Orcs and the Elves up soon (as they're almost written, all I have to do is write one culture for each to introduce them). I'm shooting to get the orcs and elves up this week, and the halflings soon after, so I can move on to finishing up the other cultures.
PS: I updated posts above which overview the ideas behind the races for each setting. Take a look at the Avalon and Sylphenhest entries.
Quote from: XeviatCurrently, I'm trying to decide if I want my traditional Reptilian Humanoids (kobolds: lizards; lizardfolk: crocodiles; naga: snakes; draconians: dragons) to exist here, or if I'm going to use them for Sylphenhest (which has no traditional mammalian life).
Popping in real quick to suggest that since you do have three worlds, I think it would really be much more effective to leave the reptilian critters out of Terran. Just my opinion.
Oh, and I love Avalon, I'll check back another day soon and give you some suggestions for it. for now, I recommend tapping the might of Wikipedia for greek mythological creatures, as that's the flavor I get from what was in his thread, at least...
I'm slowly building my cast for Avalon, and I've once again rewelcomed the Anthros back onto Terran. Thanks for all the replies everyone.
Oh, and by the way, I put up the Elves yesterday, and I'll get the Orcs up tonight or tomorrow night. Check them out.
Posted the Orcs. Halflings should come soon, then I'll finish up the other 4 player demihuman cultures (the other of the dwarf, elf, goblin, and orc cultures I skipped) before getting started on the humans (the hard ones).
Anyone else reading this?