Kaa'dril

[Illithid00]

Hey all,

I'm working on a new campaign set in a world called Kaa'dril. I've decided I want lizardfolk and kobolds to be player races, and I'm working on stats for a lizardfolk that would be a LA +0 race. Dragons are going to be a major factor, as will be psionics. Psionics will mostly take the place of arcane magic, with arcana being more rare and mysterious than psionics. 7 Great Dragons are the rulers of the two known continents, and have even begun to acquire worshipers and cults devoted to them. Dragons in Kaa'dril can take any alignment, regardless of color. The three ruling gods are Bahamut, Tiamat, and Sardior, god of gem dragons and neutrality. The world is mostly tropical rainforest, though there are deserts, plains, etc. A main defining feature of the world is that the Last Dragon Wars took place a mere 5 years ago, and had gone on for centuries before that. A truce was reached, but war seems to be on the horizon again. I'm open to any ideas or critique. Thanks in advance.

King

[Numinous]

Hello King, and welcome to the CBG.

First things I want to ask are the basics...

What other player races are available in your world besides kobolds and lizardfolk?  What cultures do they have, and differences fromt he books in which they were published, or did you make them yourself?

What was the cause of the Dragon Wars?  what could motivate any populace large enough to support an entire war to continue fighting for centuries?  What effect do you think this would have on the short-lived races, as they would almost certainly be born directly into a world rife with conflict?

Tell me about the Three gods, their churches, and any differences they might have from previously published material by WotC.

I'm sure other Guild members will be by soon to pick up what I missed, but I have one final question for you.  Why are you building this world?  Is it for fun, for your gaming group, for D&D, or because you want the freedom to remake everything the way it should be?

Anyway, good luck with your project here, and I'll be back to check for responses tomorrow.

[Illithid00]

The player races in my campaign include all of those in the Player's Handbook, plus lizardfolk and kobolds. At some time I may allow hobgoblins as a player race too. So far I haven't gotten any cultures really created yet, but I want the elves to be a haughty, snobbish people who look down on the rest of the races. Lizardfolk are on par with humans as the most populace, forward looking race. They have a more primitive culture, but that doesn't stop them from being  a great race. The Great Dragons started their Last Dragon Wars because of their lust for power and more territory. Several new Great Dragons have taken up rulership over the years of war. The nations each fought for their Dragon because they believe that their Dragon is a being worthy of worship. They thought that the Great Dragons were working for one of the Three Dragon Gods.

The Three Dragon Gods aren't the only gods in the world. The rest of the gods in the Player's Handbook are present, but they are considered lesser in status to the Three. Sardior's church has been mostly taken from old Mind's Eye articles from wizards.com. I haven't really developed full church details on these gods yet.

I'm making this world because I love to design things like this. I don't have a group to play DnD with at the moment, but I want to make a world that I can be proud of, that will have some meat behind it, rather than just what I come up with on the spur of the moment. That, and I want to have the freedom to make it the way I envision it.

King

[~Kalin~]

As psionics is playing a major part in your setting are you also allowing the Expanded Psionics handbook races? if not are you planning on adapting the players handbook races?

Is arcane magic looked down upon by those that weild Psionic power? seeing it as primitive compaired to psionics

[Illithid00]

I'm thinking of adding the Expanded Psionics Handbook races. Even if I wasn't going to, what would I do to adapt the standard races? Other than changing favored classes I mean. Arcane magic isn't looked down upon for the most part, it's just not as common.

King

[Kindling]

One question... You mention a couple of times using all of the such-and-such (races at one point and deities at another) from the Player's Handbook. Why? Is it simply because they are in the player's handbook? Or do you really have a significant place in your world for every one of those races and deities?

I know that even in my first concepts of designing a setting I dropped two of the PHB races, and I would personally have a distinct feeling of "wrongness" using anything other than deities of my own design in my worlds.

Also, you ask how you would adapt the standard races for your setting. My advice would be to take a look around at the other settings on the boards and see how some of them have adapted the races to better fit their world-visions, and then see if you fancy doing something similar to fit them better into your world.

[Numinous]

Also, you ask how you would adapt the standard races for your setting. My advice would be to take a look around at the other settings on the boards and see how some of them have adapted the races to better fit their world-visions, and then see if you fancy doing something similar to fit them better into your world.

Another thing you might want to consider is making entirely new races, logically applied to your world and the vision you have for it.

[Illithid00]

The only race I'm thinking of dropping at this point is gnomes. I've never been a fan of gnomes, but I'm just not sure if I should drop them or not. I may rename the deities from the Player's Handbook, but they'll have the exact same portfolios. The only other change I might make is minor changes to their worshippers, etc. What I'm doing with the lizardfolk is basically remaking the race to give it a +0 LA and only one racial Hit Die. That way it will be balanced with the other races. Other than that, I think I can make a significant niche for all the other Player's Handbook races. I'm thinking of changing drow from spider-associated to scorpion-associated. That way the dark elves would have a set of rulers, namely the scorpionfolk from the back of Savage Species if I can find the book. I prefer scorpions to spiders anyway. I'm hoping to have a basic map up soon, but I don't know when that'll happen.

King

[Matt Larkin (author)]

If you are not a fan of gnomes, dropping them is a perfectly acceptable answer.  You introduce new races already, so there is not a huge reason you should feel obligated to keep them.  

And then there is the on-going racial diversity wars thread you might want to check out on the subject.

[Wensleydale]

One thing I would say - a war going on constantly for several centuries is going to totally destroy the economy of any place. An anarchy I could understand, but constant war for would have imploded any nations that existed, devastated the population and left it nigh-unrecoverable. I know that so many centuries don't seem all that long in the great scheme, but humans live a century at the most in modern times, and in mediaeval times 50 was considered old, I believe...

[~Kalin~]

I'm thinking of changing drow from spider-associated to scorpion-associated. That way the dark elves would have a set of rulers, namely the scorpionfolk from the back of Savage Species if I can find the book. I prefer scorpions to spiders anyway.

The Dark elves in Eberron worship scorpions instead of spiders and have a few scorpion related spells as well, you might want to check it out

[Illithid00]

As for the economic downside, the Great Dragons didn't really care. Plus, most of the combatants were lizardfolk and kobolds, who have a longer lifespan. Also, the war wasn't completely continuous. It was called the Last Dragon Wars because there were actually several. Two dragon armies would fight, one would win, and then others from different nations would begin fighting; sometimes there were lulls in the fighting for a year or two, but eventually it all started again until the Dragons agreed to a truce.

I've decided to drop gnomes. They simply don't exist in my world. As for the Eberron drow, I don't have access to any Eberron books or I'd check them out.

King

[Jharviss]

If you add kobolds than dropping gnomes will be seemless - kobolds and gnomes can easily fill the same position in any world.  I had to post because I love the name of your world, it just caught me.  The feeling of this world I like, a higher scaled-race ratio and adding psionics will make a strong world.  

Using the Player's Handbook deities sounds fun.  Be careful not to use all of the published deities, for the Greyhawk world the core rules uses has a near infinite amount of deities, to the extent where it's useless and overwhelming.  If you just use the Player's Handbook deities, you're set.  I actually like a lot of them, though some of the more racial ones need some work (tell me that Moradin and Garl Glittergold aren't amazingly boring).  Of course, you'd have to drop Garl Glittergold but keep the kobold god (who's name slips me).  Also, will you create a lizardfolk god?  And what about a psionics god, possibly?

Just curious.

[~Kalin~]

there are two psionic deities in the XPH by the name of Zuoken (ascended human) and ilsensine (illithid God) if you feel like using them, but ive found that the notion of psionic gods just seems a little weird to me

[Illithid00]

I'm going to drop Garl Glittergold and replace him with Kurtulmak, the god of the kobolds. I'm going to rename Semuanya, the god of the lizardfolk, and add him to the world. The most prominent psionic god is Sardior. He's the Ruby Dragon, Lord of the Gem Dragons and creator of psionics. I'm going to stick with the other gods from the Player's Handbook for the most part, except I'm adding Ilsensine. I just have to rename all of the gods to suit Kaa'dril.

King