Tera Nova Lovecraft-Flavored D&D (Discussion Thread)

[khyron1144]

[ooc]Okay, while digging through my 3e-era Dragon box I found the issue containing an article by the title of "The Shadow Over D&D", which basically points out the Lovecraft influence in D&D.

This got me thinking, I like Lovecraft.  I should do a setting that turns up the Lovecraft influence and turns down the Tolkien influence.

This is in the very early stages of development yet.

Once I get more work done, this will be the discusion thread for the as yet untitled setting.
[/ooc]

[khyron1144]

Random game mechanics notes

This is being written for my 1e/2e-hybrid that is the default at the start of all my work.  It can be modified to 3e or BECMI as needed later.


1) Magic is a little less accessible.
A) Most wizards are subject to limitations along the lines of the Scholar Wizard kit from the A Mighty Fortress historical reference.  One of them is that casting times go way up.
B) The Gods have walked the Earth, but most of them are actually more equivalent to demigods with the power of clerics being modified as appropriate.
C) There are a lot fewer magic items laying around.  That is kind of partly a natural consequence of items A&B and partly simply to keep the flavor right.

2) Fewer Nonhuman Races
D) Exactly two elf subraces: one that is mechanically identical to Gray Elves, but referred to as High Elves in my world; alignment tends towards Lawful Neutral.  The other is a veriety of wild elf, referred to variousy as wild, savage, barbaric, and even dark elves; alignment tends towards Chaotic Neutral.
E) One dwarf type.  Mechanically much the same as Duergar, but with a predisposition more towards Lawful Neutral in alignment.
F) Halflings exist.  Mechanics remain unchanged.  Alignment tends towards Chaotic Neutral.  Highly urbanized creatures.
G) Gnomes are all Svirfneblin.  Alignment tends towards Lawful Neutral.
H) No goblinoids/ orcs/ ugly humanoids.
I) Possibly a few scaly races left over from earlier stages of evolution and favored of certain of the demigods.  Prime candidates include Lizardmen, Bullywugs, Grippli, Troglodytes, Kuo-Toa, and Sahuagin.  
J) I am considering some system of Goetia as a way around the limitations on Wizardly magic, this pretty much implies Other Planes, rich in summonables with elaborate hierarchies and variety of factions and functions.
K) It wouldn't be Lovecraftian without Aboleths or Mindflayers.

[khyron1144]

Some random notes regarding fluff for the proposed world

1) The lack of magic has led to greater actual technological progress, aproximately the level to be found in western Europe around the time of Queen Elizabeth.
A) Armored Knights with swords are on the way out, if not already extinct due to rise of gunpowder weapons.
B) Some form of printed book is becoming more available.
C) Civilized nations are discovering previously unknown lands populated by "Savages" at an escalating rate because of innovations in shipping and navigational techniques.
D) Cities are on the rise as is a merchant class.

2) There is an underdark.

[khyron1144]

Some directions I'm thinking of  going in:

1) There is some sort of Hollow Earth/ Under- Underdark.  This will be populated with dinosaurs, extinct mammals, cavemen, apemen (possibly Dakon), and maybe one of the scaley races.  It really doesn't fit with Lovecraft flavor, being more inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard, so I might forget about this or incorporate it into Tera instead.

2) There might be ways around the magical limitations, one particular one I'm considering is allowing Dwarves and Gnomes to take Wizard with the Earth Elementlist specialty without other wizards's problems.


Consider the floor thrown open to comments if anyone has any.

[beejazz]

Well... for peripherals to Lovecraft's work, be sure to check out The King in Yellow and some stuff by Lord Dunsany (Gods of Pegana is the better mythos-builder, the last three stories in Tales of Three Hemisphere are a better read).

Instead of a hollow world, consider a disc world. You dig deep enough and find there is only more sky, and something wonderful or horrible in the empty, infinite air. Or you could go with an ocean beneath the world. Just an infinite placid body of water with a perfectly level ceiling five feet above it, and the occasional stair or chasm leading down. No one has found the bottom of this ocean.

Advanced tech I like. Consider also advancing the politics, but only enough to cause problems. French revolution and all that. Lots of intrigue. Plenty of beheadings. Armored knights are pretty much a thing of the past I think. Gunpowder and the printing press are there. Disease and filth amongst the poor.

Make the planes haphazard and surreal. None of this heaven and hell and elemental planes stuff... more along the lines of Neth (that living plane), dreamscapes, etc. Or strange places inaccessible except by magic.

Race-wise, consider making them homebrews altogether. No particular need to stick with elf, dwarf, and gnome at this point. You could go with a classic changeling... a human kidnapped at birth by fey and returned later in life a strange individual. You could go with an ogre... not the same stats as a DnD ogre, but a recluse as old as the hills and twice as rough. Things like that. Just have some random little people that showed up one day in the sewers and still don't quite know what to make of human beings. Anything really. But if you want to put some space between you and Tolkein, I think you should at least consider nixing elves and dwarves.

[khyron1144]

Advanced tech I like. Consider also advancing the politics, but only enough to cause problems. French revolution and all that. Lots of intrigue. Plenty of beheadings. Armored knights are pretty much a thing of the past I think. Gunpowder and the printing press are there. Disease and filth amongst the poor.

Yeah, I have been thinking about what to do with politics.  The French Revolution is a bit distant in the future from the point I'm thinking about.  This would be more along the lines of just prior to the English Civil War/ Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector of England.  That would mean Parliaments are starting to become real powers to challenge the monarchs in their own countries.

I was also thinking of emphasizing cites and particulary the squalor and crime associated with the poor.

Race-wise, consider making them homebrews altogether. No particular need to stick with elf, dwarf, and gnome at this point. You could go with a classic changeling... a human kidnapped at birth by fey and returned later in life a strange individual. You could go with an ogre... not the same stats as a DnD ogre, but a recluse as old as the hills and twice as rough. Things like that. Just have some random little people that showed up one day in the sewers and still don't quite know what to make of human beings. Anything really. But if you want to put some space between you and Tolkein, I think you should at least consider nixing elves and dwarves.

Thank you, you've given me much food for thought here.

[khyron1144]

First order of business:
The Proposed New Camaign has a working title:
Tera Nova
This reflects both the fact that my old world was named Tera and it sounds cool for a campaign that is at least partly an Age of Exploration thing.

Second, I've started looking at races again.
Here are my plans so far:
Grey Elves and Sylvan Elves, renamed Ancient Ones and Greenmen, respectivey.  Some minor changes to both on the mechanical side, for instance, neither race can detect secret doors, or at least, not any better than any other race.

An original creation called the Pongo.  Humanoid Orangutans with potential to be real bruisers in combat.

[beejazz]

Ape-men for the win, man. I'm surprised you don't see them more often in fantasy RPGs.

Out of curiosity, have you read any of Lovecraft's dreamscape stuff? It's less 1920s New England and more of a nice trippy fantasy crossover. Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath and what have you. I think it would be great fodder for something like this.

[khyron1144]

Ape-men for the win, man. I'm surprised you don't see them more often in fantasy RPGs.

Out of curiosity, have you read any of Lovecraft's dreamscape stuff? It's less 1920s New England and more of a nice trippy fantasy crossover. Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath and what have you. I think it would be great fodder for something like this.

Yes, I'm somewhat familiar with at least a few of those stories. I have the oversized paperback, The Dream Cycle of H. P. Lovecraft Dreams of Terror and Death, but I'm not all the way through it yet.  I did dig through my bookshelves to bring it to the surface, so I can start reading it again.

[khyron1144]

I have some ideas for the geography of this setting at least for a starting point.
Basically ten countries:

1) Britannia, an island nation with a strong female monarch, starting to become a serious Empire on the rise.

2) Erin, a client-state of Britannia's Empire.

3) Lemuria, a recently discovered jungle island.  Rich in primitive primates, like lemurs, and ruled by diminutive lemur-men.

4) Gaul, a long-time rival, and occasional enemy, of Britannia.

5) Iberia, the major current enemy of Britannia.

6) Wallachia, once it was a minor principality in the east surrounded by hostile foreign powers, but it has spread by conquest, right up to Iberia and Gaul's doorstep.

7) Khem, a desert nation full of crumbling monuments.  Once the great power in the world, but now on the decline.

8] Not really a single country yet, but the collection of city-states on a southerly peninsula (and surrounding islands), that I am currently calling Genua and other city-states.

9) Pongo Land, a jungle island ruled by the Pongo, humanoid orangutans.

10) Ulthar, a jungle island home to the tiger-men know as the Felis.

I know the names are a) unoriginal
and
b) anachronistic relative to each other, but I'm okay with that.

Right now, if I were to start designing adventures, I would figure play starts in Britannia, probably in or around the capital, Londinium, and spreads out from there.

[beejazz]

Firstly, maps? I'd like to see some of this.

Secondly, there are jungles and deserts, which are definitely sweet, but is there no frozen land at the bottom of the earth? Everything bad happens in Antarctica.

Thirdly, I'd consider mixing up the names a little further.

Fourthly, I want to play a lemur rogue.

On now to the specifics.

Erin is an America analog? Is it on another continent?

Lemuria is cool as hell. Not much detail yet, but there's plenty of time to think of stuff.

Khem could be cool, but... is it uninhabited? What's going on with the people there?

Oh, and with all the ocean-faring, how about piracy?

I like your stuff so far but it's hard to judge without certain specifics.

[khyron1144]

Firstly, maps? I'd like to see some of this.

Secondly, there are jungles and deserts, which are definitely sweet, but is there no frozen land at the bottom of the earth? Everything bad happens in Antarctica.

Erin is an America analog? Is it on another continent?

Khem could be cool, but... is it uninhabited? What's going on with the people there?

Oh, and with all the ocean-faring, how about piracy?

I like your stuff so far but it's hard to judge without certain specifics.

Right now, my map is hand drawn on a hex sheet, and I don't have the means to scan and upload it.

Antartica is out there someplace, maybe, but it's not known to anybody yet.  I pretty much figure the start is somewhere about equivalent to our world's year AD 1530 in terms of technology and geographic knowledge available to "civilized" European peoples.  Antartica was discovered somewhere in 1800s AD.  I'd be willing to allow PCs to discover it, if that is the direction the players would want to go.

Erin is an Ireland analog, so the island next door to Britannia basically.

Yes there are still people in Khem.  The people rob tombs and help foreigners rob tombs and beg foreigners for money.  It's basically supposed to be an Egypt analog.

There is definitely piracy, especially privateers working for  one side against the other in the Britannia and Iberia conflict.

I'm still working out a lot of the specifics myself.  Basically everything I post here, is something that might or might not go into the final version.

[khyron1144]

I started looking at some of my Call of Cthulhu RPG books to get some ideas, for possible elements to incorporate into this setting.

The divisions into Great Old Ones, Elder Gods, and Outer Gods looks right for some of my ideas for this world.  There's a lot of Great Old Ones who, would correspond aproximately to demigods.  Then the much smaller number of Elder Gods and Outer Gods would be fighting it out over the lesser god, intermediate god, and greater god slots available.

Maybe Nyarlathotep is the only greater god in this setting.

In 2e demigods granted up to 5th level spells.  Lesser deities granted up to 6th level spells.  Only intermediate and greater gods grant 7th level spells.