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I have been fiddling with my campaign setting a bit lately and have decided to come up with a document that has descriptions of the regions found in the campaign world. The area they play in isn't the ENTIRE planet, more like a country.
Anyhow each region I went with the approach of "these" races are commonly found and "these" races are rare and "this" race is the freakshow race but found here. For example:
Blackshire is a providence in the Principality that is characterized by hilly forested country that turns into alpine mountains. The duke is totalitarian in his rule and a bit more racist then other dukes in regards to human supremacy. You find humans and halflings in the area. The halflings are more like the sterotypical shire hobbits rather then the swift, athletic gypsies of 3E and 4E. You also find dwarves from a city-state in the region that has good relations with the duke of Blackshire due to effort of the church and ongoing trade agreements. The dwarves are considered "rare". Lastly there are Goliaths...yes...as in Races of Stone character race type Goliaths. They were given some land and encouraged to use it by the duke in order to keep an eye on them better and to "humaize" and civlize them more. The Goliath is the "freak show" race.
I am trying to do this for a region I really don't have a really clear vision for. It is a large flat grassland or plains that has been used for farming...kinda like Nebraska or Iowa. Little thorps dot it all over and the capital of the Principality is there near the rocky coast. Also the Holy See of the church is there making it a spirtual capital as well. I figured of course humans should be found here. Nomadic halflings feel right too. I am at a loss for "rare" or "freakshow" races.
So ideas? More information needed? Creative input is appreciated.
I am trying to do this for a region I really don't have a really clear vision for. It is a large flat grassland or plains that has been used for farming...kinda like Nebraska or Iowa. Little thorps dot it all over and the capital of the Principality is there near the rocky coast. Also the Holy See of the church is there making it a spirtual capital as well. I figured of course humans should be found here. Nomadic halflings feel right too. I am at a loss for "rare" or "freakshow" races.
Well, the first thing that popped into my mind was "plains". Then, when I think of plains, I think of "horses". Then when I thought of "rare" or "freakshow" quasi-humanoid race + plains + horses, I thought Centaurs.
They could be a mongrel variant, primitive, tribal, nomadic. They hunt game and do little or no farming (mostly gathering). They might trade for basic materials (beads, metal tools, blankets, knives). They probably try to stay clear of most everyone else but when threatened, they may go to war - complete with face paint, war crys, hit and run or "Parthian shot" tactics, etc.
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It's a bit too high fantasy for my tastes, but maybe you could work with it? <??>
Catfolk (Races of the Wild) might work for the plains. Maybe gnolls. Maybe Orcs with some Mongol/Plains Native American flavor. Maybe raptorans (Races of the Wild), gliding on the heat currents in the big sky of the plains? Maybe Illumians have some secret cabals in some secret caverns under the plains, or in nomadic trading caravans in the area, and they seek to undermine the Holy See for some cryptic reason that has to deal with First Speech and Truenaming, etc.
Perhaps the area of the plains closest to the settlements - along with the roads in between - are (relatively) normal with farming hobbits and humans as the dominant area.
However, out in the plains are various copses of trees and a (relatively) small range of hills dubbed the Black Beard. Semi-feral dwarves dwell in those hills, barely retaining the dwarven tendencies towards craftsmanship in stone and metal. Driven semi-mad by an unknown leader, they go to extreme lengths to return their dead home - and taking injured foes with them. A rare intruder that escaped the horrors of the Black Beards tell impossible tales of zombified dwarves herded like cattle by cloaked wyvern riders. The skeletons of their foes, tiny morsels of flesh and tendon still clinging to them, arrayed in lifeless battle formations. Worst of all are the soul-wrenching screams of his colleagues ringing in his ears as he fled foaming-mouthed worg-mounted dwarven ravagers...
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Well, the first thing that popped into my mind was "plains". Then, when I think of plains, I think of "horses". Then when I thought of "rare" or "freakshow" quasi-humanoid race + plains + horses, I thought Centaurs.
I am intrigued. The LA and ECL seems a bit high. I looked at the Dragonlance version of the Centaur and the "Wendle" Centaur. The Wendle despite the freaky appearance is about the power level in term of game mechanics I am looking for. The racial Hit Dice raised it to a total of 3 but it is getting more in line with what I am looking for. Something that is about a LA of +1 or less is okay I think.
Is there any centaur variants that start off out of the gate there. For that matter what about other races found in plains/huge tracks of farms that would work. Someone suggested offlist some kind of fey related race...in the spirit of "house spirits" kind of thing.
I'm partial to bariaur when it comes to tauroid races. There are several versions of them.
I was thinking nomadic cat-folk, but I also like the Centaur idea. Why not create your own race? Focus on the tension between the paganistic, earth-loving plains dwellers and the Holy See which seeks to 'civilize' the area.
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Why not create your own race? Focus on the tension between the paganistic, earth-loving plains dwellers and the Holy See which seeks to 'civilize' the area.
Gold star for CF! I like the idea of tension and all between faiths. I have a race in a heavy wooded area...it is the "forest region" of "Bremen". It is the frontier and the gateway to the unexplored west. It is much more relaxed in racial predjudice and bigotry. There I have:
Common: Humans, Half Elves (Wild Elf Ancestry)
Uncommon: Wild Elves, Elfborn (Half Elves raised among elves rather then humans), Forest Gnomes
Rare: Volodni...or at least a race inspired by them which is found in Unapproachable East. The "cliffnotes" version about them is they are to trees and humans as tieflings are to demons.
In the areas newar the Volodni it is rife with pagan faiths since the area in general is hard to travel due to the woods and the area where the pagans are is especially difficult, missionarys tend to not go there.
But why not have something going on in the Goldstar region. Hmm...perhaps a pagan faith that respects the sun and fire and in that way the priests are having and easier time converting people over. Hmmm...this is intersting.
As to catfolk. I like it...but then again I don't want "furry love" jokes being made. Bauriar...I am not familiar. IS that the centaur ram people from Vallhalla or something?
Yup! Bariaur are the goat-centaurs from the 2nd Edition version of Planescape. They call kip on Ysgard, and have spread to the Outlands, Olympia, and the Beastlands, I think. They're medium-sized, and in 2nd Edition, they had different stat-blocks for males and females.
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Was your question, or is your question still about how to cleave up the lands to provide sensible lines of demarcation?
It sounded like with a religious center booming in the area, that should overlap multiple political boundaries, superceding them. And the creature-based lands could be typically divided by rivers, forests, mountains, lakes, or even fierce human settlements/forts that have "faught back" the fell creatures.
Just let me know if you're still needing help with something other than picking creatures - that's of course entirely up to whatever your campaign is about....
One possibility is to make this area genuinely humanocentric; make the other races unusual and have in mind the idea that in the greater kingdom or whatever it is that the duke might be a part of that such beings don't exist.
In my own campaign world most of the surface world is overwhelmingly dominated by humans and human society. Elves, Dwarves, Yuan-Ti, Lizardfolk, Goblins and so on are dying races, limited to isolated regions or scattered small populations. Most humans have heard of them but never seen them. So you might suggest that this kind of thing is the reason for the duke's racism; possibly the area was conquered by the duke himself or the duke's forbears. Narnia under the Telmarines is another example of this kind of thing. Perhaps there is a similar situation in which other races are hiding out from the duke's rule.
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It sounded like with a religious center booming in the area, that should overlap multiple political boundaries, superceding them. And the creature-based lands could be typically divided by rivers, forests, mountains, lakes, or even fierce human settlements/forts that have "fought back" the fell creatures.
To mix things up, the local human culture may have had a running low-level conflict with the local non-humanoid culture (centaurs, thri-kreen, gnolls, anthropomorphic wombats, whatever), but, over the centuries that these two cultures have existed side by side, come to a (very) uneasy state of low simmer, with yearly meetings to trade goods, and then reinforce the basic understanding that they stay the heck away from each other for the other 51 weeks of the year.
As the new human culture comes into vogue, with it's organized religion, some humans think 'About time! We can finally wipe those freaks off the map!' while other humans find themselves casting a wary eye at the zeal and fervor of their new 'friends,' and see their own way of life coming to and end. A significant portion of the human settlements, particularly those closest to nonhuman lands (and having had the most contact with them, both as foes and, later, as reluctant co-inhabitants of the same territories) might find that they have more in common with their ancient enemies (who at least share their lifestyle, out on the frontier, doing their own thing) than with this newly dominant congregation of their own species...
Stories about the godless ways of the 'savages' would come from the new faithful, while some of the old folks in town might begin fondly reminiscing about the 'good old days,' when they could recognize their enemies by the fur on their hide, or the fangs in their mouthes.
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...stories about the godless ways of the 'savages'...
I've been playing in a campaign since 2001 that's very low magic, high realism, and there are two big central themes: one is the parallel of the inquisition, of which my character was a part when he was an evil priest, and secondly, the stories about the godless ways of the savages made their way into the equivalent of a papal bull called, "The Docrine Of The Fey".
So, my character was part of an elite right wing church zelot militant arm who tortured the fey (and enter every imaginable thing here).
The point I'm making this morning, is that Set has hit upon a very awesome theme, where the stories about the godless ways of the savages are actually worse than the so-called "savages" turn out to be.
This has had a profound effect on game play, as for obvious reasons, there are inherent lessons to explore, making this allegory about so much more than men versus beasts.
Good luck, whatever you choose.
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One possibility is to make this area genuinely humanocentric
This particular region is more so then the others. If it looks human...like a halfling that is more likely to be found. Elves are mysterious, fey from a kingdom beyond the forest of the Bremen Valley. They were once enemies and now allies to the humans when the orcish hordes came south during the Great War
Most humans have heard of them but never seen them. So you might suggest that this kind of thing is the reason for the duke's racism; possibly the area was conquered by the duke himself or the duke's forbears. Narnia under the Telmarines is another example of this kind of thing. Perhaps there is a similar situation in which other races are hiding out from the duke's rule.
Thats how people are in the country around the capital and the grand cathederal of the Holy See. The capital is one huge city...think Lankhmar or something really big like that. The rest of the region is the opposite. It is small thorps and villages of farmers. Occasionally a halfling farm or something but things that are genuinely different are rare indeed here. At one time the Principality did have a stance on what they called "Unhumans" as the Telmarines did. A Unhuman is basically orcs, goblins and bugbears (oh my!). That doctrine changed when they encountered their first "demihuman"...the halfling. Half the population reacted as: "Huh! I thought we were the only things that look like us? The high prophet says we are the only things out there with a soul...do they but a smaller one?
The other half of the humans went: "ahh cute...they are soo widdle biddles! Look they even have itty bitty farming tools. Whats that? Thank you for driving off the orcs? That was sure golly gee swell of us? What? You don't want to die? Of course you aren't going to die because you all are just too cute."
After that the Principality and the Church toned down their stance and adapted it in case they met other "demihumans" which the did when they met gnomes, dwarves and later wild elves.
That sounds cool. Are you going to still allow demi human characters? In a way the cute reaction is funny--you can picture a gnome coming into the typical D&D bar and having someone say, "Awwww, do you want a drink little guy?"
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That sounds cool. Are you going to still allow demi human characters? In a way the cute reaction is funny--you can picture a gnome coming into the typical D&D bar and having someone say, "Awwww, do you want a drink little guy?"
I do allow for demi-humans in games. I try to keep it to a minimal to be honest. It's all in the "group template" that I have the players do before playing. What I mean by "group template" is why you all are with each other, why are you adventuring, who knows who and whatnot. One group we had it was a questing knight and his entourage. He had a confessor (cleric), a knight in training (fighter), royal naturalist (half-elf druid), noble cousin (school trained wizard) and the guide and fast talker (halfling rogue). Generally in a group of say 6 I don't usually like to see more then 2 demi-humans, although half-elves can sometimes count as 1/2 if they pass more for humans then elves.
Back to your point...yes...the "awww cute...look at his little tankard" does happen. Also the situation of a half-elf raised among elves...ignorant people thing he is a full-blooded elf. The typical "standard" elf in my campaign are looked upon as a distant and faraway people, full of magic and mysterious. This comes from a stereotype that elves are these mysterious fey, magic people and EVERYONE knows magic. This is because the first time they were encountered by humans; no one really knew what they were. They thought that they were some extra planar magical being. They wore mithral armor that didn't show what was underneath, carried lots of magic items and used magic.
I'm sorry; one race for what exactly?
My campaign has a similar region. I'm thinking of using wandering tribes of orcs for the "non-civilized" race on the edge of the frontier. Also, I accidentally came up with a really cool city name that sounds like the ruins of an ancient orc ritual site and evokes mammoths and oliphants and other mega-fauna that wander the steppes: Tuskhenge.