Unless there's significant rules cruft that makes it unfeasible, I'm might just house rule the 4e alignment system into something that's a little more recognizable to me. I might ressurect the 9-point system, but at the moment I'm leaning towards replacing "good" with "chaotic good," "evil," with "lawful evil," and leaving it at that.
I could leave in plain "good" and "evil," but the shades of distinction aren't absolutely necessary, and if I leave them out I can maintain the law/chaos axis as the one that's actually important, something I've wanted to implement for a while.
Cosmologically, that is. In such a system, mortals -- meaning the PCs -- think of evil/good as the important axis, and think lawful good and chaotic good have more in common with each other than lawful good and evil. But the gods might think differently, seeing themselves and the devils on one side of a great struggle with elementals and demons.
Such a set up would run the risk of putting too much setting emphasis on things the PCs aren't involved in and don't care about. On the other hand, it would let me have religious wars between two good churches. (Chaotic good gods are renegades from the standard divine set up? Or chaotic good mortals worship something else entirely?) Not sure whether that would be a good thing, but it could be interesting.
Something to play with. I need to see the 4e deity set up, and decide whether I want to use it, to really be sure what I'm going to do. I might not even use gods at all.
Showing posts with label the nameless setting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the nameless setting. Show all posts
Monday, June 02, 2008
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Everyone Rides Dinosaurs
Or rather, everyone cool rides dinosaurs. This was one of the best things about Eberron, the dinosaur riding, but they did not, in my opinion, take it far enough.
No. In my setting, the halflings aren't the only ones with access to the dinosaur awesome. Everyone cool rides dinosaurs. The players ride dinosaurs, important NPCs like kings and bartenders ride dinosaurs, major villains in spiky black armor ride dinosaurs. Even plenty of people who are not cool ride dinosaurs. Like bards.
No one rides horses. (Even bards.) They might ride things that are significantly stupider than dinosaurs, but they don't ride horses.
A lot of the different knightly orders have running arguments about which dinosaurs are best. This has evolved into bi-yearly contests in the civilized realms, jousting and that sort of thing, where you're on teams depending on what sort of dinosaur you ride. When two riders of different sorts of dinosaurs meet, they have a tendency to engage in an impromptu dinosaur-measuring contest.
Non-dinosaur riders tend to think this is sort of stupid, but they tend to think that everything relating to dinosaurs is sort of stupid. That's the problem with dinosaurs: they're sort of stupid. You can train them, and some of them are less stupid than others, but there are some definite limits to their intellectual capacity.
No. In my setting, the halflings aren't the only ones with access to the dinosaur awesome. Everyone cool rides dinosaurs. The players ride dinosaurs, important NPCs like kings and bartenders ride dinosaurs, major villains in spiky black armor ride dinosaurs. Even plenty of people who are not cool ride dinosaurs. Like bards.
No one rides horses. (Even bards.) They might ride things that are significantly stupider than dinosaurs, but they don't ride horses.
A lot of the different knightly orders have running arguments about which dinosaurs are best. This has evolved into bi-yearly contests in the civilized realms, jousting and that sort of thing, where you're on teams depending on what sort of dinosaur you ride. When two riders of different sorts of dinosaurs meet, they have a tendency to engage in an impromptu dinosaur-measuring contest.
Non-dinosaur riders tend to think this is sort of stupid, but they tend to think that everything relating to dinosaurs is sort of stupid. That's the problem with dinosaurs: they're sort of stupid. You can train them, and some of them are less stupid than others, but there are some definite limits to their intellectual capacity.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Metal Steampunk Vikings
Yes. This is what my next campaign needs to be. Metal. Steampunk. Vikings.
Loud, horned hat dudes wandering around in a Conan-esque Lost World, fighting robots and finding rayguns.
Weird, clanking, brass and springs constructs rampaging around in the wilderness. Mysterious machines from dimensions beyond time. Mad scientists demanding tribute along with the necromancers and dragons and mad god-kings.
Dinosaurs.
Loud, horned hat dudes wandering around in a Conan-esque Lost World, fighting robots and finding rayguns.
Weird, clanking, brass and springs constructs rampaging around in the wilderness. Mysterious machines from dimensions beyond time. Mad scientists demanding tribute along with the necromancers and dragons and mad god-kings.
Dinosaurs.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Wizards Are Weird
Wizards are very odd kleptomaniacs. Even if this is 4e, and 4e wizards don't need material components to cast spells (off the top of my head, I don't know) they'll still have the ability to produce any number of odd, valueless, seemingly useless objects at the drop of a pointy hat.
Warlocks can't do this. Sorcerers might be able to. Mostly, though, it's something wizards do, because they're weird.
They're not born with power. They want it, but they don't have the sense to do the easy thing and cut a deal with some extradimensional being. (Clerics, I'm looking at you, too.) Whether from principles, morals, or fear, they work for their power.
But then, they're not usual in that, either. They're not like fighters, or rogues; not practice and discipline and skill. They spend all their time reading books. And thinking. And tinkering with the fundamentals of the universe.
All without wearing pants.
Warlocks can't do this. Sorcerers might be able to. Mostly, though, it's something wizards do, because they're weird.
They're not born with power. They want it, but they don't have the sense to do the easy thing and cut a deal with some extradimensional being. (Clerics, I'm looking at you, too.) Whether from principles, morals, or fear, they work for their power.
But then, they're not usual in that, either. They're not like fighters, or rogues; not practice and discipline and skill. They spend all their time reading books. And thinking. And tinkering with the fundamentals of the universe.
All without wearing pants.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Eladrin Are Ruled by Undead
Mostly by not-entirely-evil lich/mummies of their ancient kings. They still have living kings, but they tend to be not quite as important as the dead ones, because after a king dies he sticks around as an undead, and keeps all his followers and wealth. So mostly the living king gets used as a pawn by the more powerful houses of the dead.
Elves tend to have slightly more normal ruling systems, (often little or none at all) but there are also an unusual number of elven vampires and death knights running around, enslaving elves and mortals and building little fiefdoms. Elves also have an unfortunate tendency to come back as ghosts. It's just something that they do.
I'm not as completely sure about the elves as I am about the other races so far, but some one's ruled by undead. And since I don't know what else I might do with elves, it might as well be them.
This also sort of assumes 4e, but if I might end up using this for a setting that doesn't have eladrin. If so, I'll just stick it all together and say some elves are ruled by undead kings, and some are ruled by vampires.
As a further note, this is not entirely stolen from Eberron. Some of it is also stolen from the Incan empire, who mummified their kings and kept them around as rulers of political parties. Part of the reason they lost their war against the Spanish was they were already in the middle of a civil war between two mummies. (Not kidding, read 1491.)
Elves tend to have slightly more normal ruling systems, (often little or none at all) but there are also an unusual number of elven vampires and death knights running around, enslaving elves and mortals and building little fiefdoms. Elves also have an unfortunate tendency to come back as ghosts. It's just something that they do.
I'm not as completely sure about the elves as I am about the other races so far, but some one's ruled by undead. And since I don't know what else I might do with elves, it might as well be them.
This also sort of assumes 4e, but if I might end up using this for a setting that doesn't have eladrin. If so, I'll just stick it all together and say some elves are ruled by undead kings, and some are ruled by vampires.
As a further note, this is not entirely stolen from Eberron. Some of it is also stolen from the Incan empire, who mummified their kings and kept them around as rulers of political parties. Part of the reason they lost their war against the Spanish was they were already in the middle of a civil war between two mummies. (Not kidding, read 1491.)
Friday, April 25, 2008
Halflings Are Cannibals
Not all halflings, of course. Some of them cremate their dead. And their have been rare instances of halfling burial, generally under unusual supernatural circumstances. But most halflings, in most cases, eat their dead.
They're a nomadic people, and thus they feel that it's better to carry their lost loved ones with them then to stick them in the ground in a place to which they may never return. They also believe that, by eating a person, they can absorb that person's strength and wisdom, and carry on their works. There are also some practical considerations; though not all halflings inhabit swamps and waterways, many do, and it's difficult to properly bury someone in that sort of terrain.
It's very unusual for halflings to eat non-halflings, or even members of their race that they don't have a strong personal connection to. It does happen occasionally, most often when the odd, marginalized sect comes up with the idea of eating their enemies. It's even more unusual for a non-halfling to partake of a halfling funeral ritual, but that, too, is not completely unknown.
Halflings don't usually bring it up when they live around other races. They think everyone else's practices are a little unnatural, but they're aware that a lot of other people find theirs downright repulsive, so they don't push the issue. A halfling adventurer might ask it of their comrades, in the event of their permanent death, but only with people they'd known deeply for years.
(Yes, I sort of stole this from Dark Sun. Dark Sun is cool.)
They're a nomadic people, and thus they feel that it's better to carry their lost loved ones with them then to stick them in the ground in a place to which they may never return. They also believe that, by eating a person, they can absorb that person's strength and wisdom, and carry on their works. There are also some practical considerations; though not all halflings inhabit swamps and waterways, many do, and it's difficult to properly bury someone in that sort of terrain.
It's very unusual for halflings to eat non-halflings, or even members of their race that they don't have a strong personal connection to. It does happen occasionally, most often when the odd, marginalized sect comes up with the idea of eating their enemies. It's even more unusual for a non-halfling to partake of a halfling funeral ritual, but that, too, is not completely unknown.
Halflings don't usually bring it up when they live around other races. They think everyone else's practices are a little unnatural, but they're aware that a lot of other people find theirs downright repulsive, so they don't push the issue. A halfling adventurer might ask it of their comrades, in the event of their permanent death, but only with people they'd known deeply for years.
(Yes, I sort of stole this from Dark Sun. Dark Sun is cool.)
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Dwarves Are Crazy
Dwarves get psychotic when they see the sky. They have some weird dwarven word for "sky madness," that they call it, because I haven't decided whether I'm going to go for "old and germanic" for dwarven, or "lots of 'kh' and 'g' and 'd' and little triangle things over the vowels." Everyone else mostly just assumes that dwarves are all nuts, especially in the Southern Lands, where it's more common.
It's really the night sky that's a problem, the stars or the planets or the moons. And for most dwarves, it's not really a huge problem. In ages past, a dwarven sorcerer-king learned to craft a sort of charm that mostly protects against the curse, or whatever it is, and with these forged the first above-ground dwarven empire. Nowadays, like most of dwarven government, they're largely religious in character, and the priesthood controls their manufacture.
It still comes up often enough that that's what a lot of people think of when they think of dwarves: weird, psychotic, atheistic serial-killers. Usually it happens to dwarves who have been exiled, but every so often, for whatever reason, the charms don't quite work.
And that's why dwarves are crazy.
It's really the night sky that's a problem, the stars or the planets or the moons. And for most dwarves, it's not really a huge problem. In ages past, a dwarven sorcerer-king learned to craft a sort of charm that mostly protects against the curse, or whatever it is, and with these forged the first above-ground dwarven empire. Nowadays, like most of dwarven government, they're largely religious in character, and the priesthood controls their manufacture.
It still comes up often enough that that's what a lot of people think of when they think of dwarves: weird, psychotic, atheistic serial-killers. Usually it happens to dwarves who have been exiled, but every so often, for whatever reason, the charms don't quite work.
And that's why dwarves are crazy.
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