Sreth, the Twisted World

Seraph · October 24, 2006, 12:14:58 AM

Quote from: snakefing
Quote from: Defenestrating Lunatic
*The primary religion in Sreth is based around a monotheistic religion. The entire faith is set up where God (name in the works), that focuses on the fact that this world is punishment for the sins of the past, though the nature of these sins is left unclear. *Most scocities primary source of meat are large, reptilian cattle called bivons, which eat very little and drink very little, but provide a large amount of meat. Much bandit activity revolves around theft of bivons, who are usually branded with their owners sign. *Most communities are ruled by Ã¢,¬Å"BaronsÃ¢,¬Â, who are usually just wealthy landowners who control most of the bivons in the area. Barons are usually corrupt and decadant individuals who surround themselves with elite bodyguards. Some communities have more traditional rulers.
My main question here is, are these things really that uniform across all of the world? Seems like in a decaying situation like this, I'd expect all kinds of variant social structures, odd cults, and strange heresies. Anyway, for me that would seem to heighten the effect.

I would suggest keep the monotheism as the main world religion, but sprinkle cults with numerous beliefs about the world. This keeps the craziness factor, while allowing for a feeling of upcoming judgement day at the hands of God.

NEW: How about some fluff on Lunacy and/or Rot? Maybe Rot. Haven't heard much about that yet.

Xathan · October 24, 2006, 01:21:09 PM

@snakefing: The Chruch is the remnant of the faith that existed prior to the Twisting. Each regions version of the church varies greatly, and they all proclaim the other factors of the faith to be heritics when they interact. Also, the church is far from the only faith, just the largest.

@SH: I'll get on the fluff for those soon. :)

Endless_Helix · October 24, 2006, 04:46:11 PM

Honestly, I'm interested in what the twisting was, what caused it, and it's byproduct, the ravenous. What exactly are the ravenous? Are they worked off of the drow or are they something new?

Raelifin · October 26, 2006, 11:59:28 AM

Quote from: Endless_HelixHonestly, I'm interested in what the twisting was, what caused it, and it's byproduct, the ravenous. What exactly are the ravenous? Are they worked off of the drow or are they something new?

It seems to me that twisting is a byproduct of the lunar catastrophe that doomed the world. In my mind, the Ravenous look like elven vampires, but with an old gods feel.
----------------------------

This setting is very interesting for me because you draw heavily from a multitude of sources, throwing together a mash of cultures, ideas and elements, and somehow it works. Lovecraft meets John Sturges meets Bruce Lee meets Gygax. Absolutely crazy. I must admit that I have utter confidence that you can make a good setting, but I'm worried that one or more of these themes (Horror, Western, Martial, Fantasy) will end up being paved over at a later date. As a random suggestion, perhaps spread your topics across themes to hold consistency would be a good idea. For example, if you were to write a paragraph on the Ravenous, you could do the sentences depicting their madness (horror), then how they used to be elves (fantasy), their impact on society (western) and their fighting style (martial ?).

I find it hard to keep all four in my head at once to visualize the setting. Western martial arts I can do. ProPoc fantasy I can do. Fantasy western is fine. But when you want me to visualize a ProPoc martial arts western... uhg, head spin. Just letting you know my reaction.

Thanuir · October 26, 2006, 01:11:34 PM

[blockquote=Archbishop of Cabbage]I am going to be proving a means for purifiers to fall. However, keep in mind there is no concrete alignment system in Sreth. A purifier could be a ruthless killer who slaughters anyone who even associates with a lunacy infested being, a benevolent protector of the weak who kills anyone he deems a danger, regardless of the presence of lunacy, or a cold inquisitor who will not heisitate to torture to extract information on creatures of madness. All three of those would make great antagonists, and would also still retain full use of their purifier abilities.

A purifier falls not when he commits and evil act, but rather when he or she is infected by lunacy, which can happen, and their will be a PrC or even a alternate base class they can delve into once so corrupted.[/blockquote]This is what I was thinking about; not exactly alignments:
They are shining beacons of sanity and purity. Yet for all their careers they must struggle when fighting the corruption. Their [whatever] holds that corruption away. But once they give up, face that one mockery of humanity they can't stand; they lose their [whatever], and all the corruption it held at bay comes in. Hard.

Replace [whatever] with the relevant in-settingforce that keeps purifiers relatively safe, if there is any (like their willpower, divine patrons, etc.).[blockquote=Archbishop of Cabbage]I will be developing the moon as an adventure location, but the landscape is going to be a mess of Lovecraftian proportions, with non-Euclidian geometry, alien structures and creatures, and other horrible beings.[/blockquote]How will you deal with non-Euclidian geometry and the othet cool stuff? From personal experience, it is hard to GM stuff that is too alien, so any tips to this effect would be cool (and probably extremely useful as sidebars in the adventure location in question).

Raelifin · October 27, 2006, 01:57:16 PM

So I understand that the races section is "out of date" and that all remaining elves are Ravenous, but are there still dwarves etc? A quick yes or no would do much to settle my curiosity.

Xathan · October 29, 2006, 01:17:36 AM

@Thanuir: I'm still working on mechanics for non Euclidean geometry, and I'll definitely share that once I have it done.

@Raelifin: Short answer? No. Long answer? Dwarves, like elves, did exist in the settings past, and I am working on some equally horrible fate for them. I want to include Elves and Dwarves the way I am because the familiarity most players have with them makes the changes all the more horrific. For races, I'm not sure. I'm probably going to make my races fill different roles in the setting: one race will play up the cowboy aspect, one will embody the madness aspect, one will show the despair, etc. Not sure how yet, but they are in the works.

Seraph · October 29, 2006, 03:40:19 AM

This occurred to me as I was skimming over Sreth again: what with the removal of the elves (as a current race) what about Half-elves? Do they still exist, as proud descendents of what the elves used to be? Are they now half-ravenous--combining the powers of the mad vampiric elfish creatures with human blood? Or ar you removing them completely? having them be half-ravenous could make for a race of "Blade" type characters, with all their strengths, none of their weaknesses, which could be interesting, albeit probably overpowered without a level-adjustment.

Xathan · October 29, 2006, 03:47:14 AM

The half-ravenous idea is actually really interesting, though not as a Blade thing. Rather, it's more that they have some of the strenghts of the ravenous, but they must also constantly struggle against the madness that threatens to consume them at all times. I'll play with that idea, it would give me a race to embody the slow, corrupting effect of madness on the world.

Matt Larkin (author) · November 01, 2006, 04:17:50 PM

Sreth Review

Tones
Obviously any roleplaying setting has to have some focus on action, though I think you mean to indicate combat-type action here? I love dark settings, so your focus on despair and madness appeals to me. There is something profound about a certain sense of hopelessness and tragedy. In a sense, you make things more tragic by making the calamity man-made.

Themes
I always approve of no alignmnet. Blur those lines!

QuoteThe Gods are Distant And unknowable. Various religions espouse various ideas, but no one knows the full truth of it. Arguments are made that the power of Clerics comes from a pure, untainted source of magic instead of the gods, and a healthy number of people donÃ¢,¬,,¢t give a damn if there are gods or God or not.

Crime and Punishment The greatest punishment on Sreth is exile from your city state, which forces you to a life of banditry to survive, and either way virtually guarantees an early death, whether by monster, humanoid, or the environment.[/quote]Lunatics[/b]: Wonderful idea. As to your later mechanics, they seem workable, but it's hard to know without seeing them in play. As to replacing the arcane with psionics, I'm kind of ambivalent. I think dark magic will feel more like the setting you want, and psionics will feel a little more dark sci fi.

Martial Arts Interesting. At least it offers a good choice for ToB stuff.

QuoteIn the city state of Skoumi, every citizen is trained in these martial arts, spending their entire lives serving in the army. Slaves known as Shono-akim, or Ã¢,¬Å"Not Yet People,Ã¢,¬Â do most of the tasks that run the society, from the lower levels of the bureaucracy to tilling the fields, and compromise 7/8th of the population. The citizens of Skoumi believe that the slaves, if they work hard enough, will be reincarnated as a citizen, and that by enslaving them they do the Shono-akim a favor. For the slaves part, they have a pretty good life despite their lack of freedom, and when everyone who has power over you has fighting abilities beyond your comprehension, slave revolts tend to be as short lived as they are rare.

* IÃ¢,¬,,¢m going to be removing elves entirely. However, elves did exist, before the Twisting. When the twisting happened the elves, who were tied closely to the moon, weÃ¢,¬,,¢re horribly affected, becoming the Ravenous: twisted, depraved creatures with a cannibalistic culture. Few, but immensely powerful, the Ravenous can decimate a poorly defended community in a matter of days.
[/quote]
* Lunacy rules: the basic rules are draw from the SRD taint. Every time an arcane caster casts a spell, he must make a will save against DC 15+spell level or gain a point of dementia, and every time a divine caster casts a spell he must make a fort save or gain a point of rot. Lunatics, casters us use lunacy, donÃ¢,¬,,¢t gain lunacy for their spells, but instead have a dementia score equal to Ã,Â½ their HD + their charisma mod, if any. (Dementals instead have a rot score equal to Ã,Â½ their HD + their con mod, if any.) There are spells such as Ã¢,¬Å"Detect LunacyÃ¢,¬Â and such which donÃ¢,¬,,¢t tell you much about the characters morals but do tell you something about what they do/have done. (other things, such as encountering certain creatures and areas, will also increase your dementia or rot score.) The paladin will be replaced by the purifier, who will have a Ã¢,¬Å"smite lunacyÃ¢,¬Â ability.
[/quote]
* Another thought I had for magic was make it so that Arcane and Divine magic incurred rot, and psionics incurred lunacy. This would mean putting psionics in the setting, and IÃ¢,¬,,¢m not sure on that yet.
* A third thought I had on magic was completely removing arcane magic and putting in divine and psionics. This would be the most radical change, but the idea souds interesting. Thoughts?
[/quote]
* The primary religion in Sreth is based around a monotheistic religion. The entire faith is set up where God (name in the works), that focuses on the fact that this world is punishment for the sins of the past, though the nature of these sins is left unclear.
[/quote]
* IÃ¢,¬,,¢m going to be cutting out the details of why the apocalypse happened, and replacing it with multiple theories on why, but no concrete proof.
[/quote]
* Most scocities primary source of meat are large, reptilian cattle called bivons, which eat very little and drink very little, but provide a large amount of meat. Much bandit activity revolves around theft of bivons, who are usually branded with their owners sign.
[/quote]
* Most communities are ruled by Ã¢,¬Å"BaronsÃ¢,¬Â, who are usually just wealthy landowners who control most of the bivons in the area. Barons are usually corrupt and decadant individuals who surround themselves with elite bodyguards. Some communities have more traditional rulers.
[/quote]Overall[/b]
Very interesting. Like I said, I like dark and twisted. Keep up the good work.

Epic Meepo · November 02, 2006, 01:24:57 AM

Quote from: Phoenix Knight"Baron" will always bring up the image of medieval lords of Baronies.

I would have to make the opposite recommendation regarding the Barons; I think the term "baron" should continue to be used. People in the Wild West talked about cattle barons and land barons all of the time, and that's the first thing I think of when I hear the word.

Matt Larkin (author) · November 02, 2006, 12:59:20 PM

Quote from: Epic Meepo
Quote from: Phoenix Knight"Baron" will always bring up the image of medieval lords of Baronies.
Interesting. I had not considered it. I guess it's because I never was that interested in classic wild west, as much as the middle ages. I guess I could go either way in that case.

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Sreth, the Twisted World

Seraph

Xathan

Endless_Helix

Raelifin

Thanuir

Raelifin

Xathan

Seraph

Xathan

Matt Larkin (author)

Epic Meepo

Matt Larkin (author)