I had an idea the other day for a campaign world that is very different from any world I know of. A normal world (that is, a material plane) where humans are the rarest of the intelligent races, filling the spot usually taken by elves only with a different flavour.
This is how it goes: The Humans, with their ingenuity, high rate of breeding and courage, dominated the world. They took magic and technology further than anyone else, and were more civilized than anyone else. Then a plague struck that only affected humans, and wiped out about 90% of them, leaving most of the remainder sterile. Monstrous humanoid races like orcs, and semi-barabaric elves and dwarves rushed to fill the vaccuum, taking over the abandoned human cities, and now the only humans left in the world are of two kinds:
ORPHANS: These humans wander the world alone or in small bands led by ex-generals, clerics, or some other leader type, kind of like the Melniboneans in Michael Moorcock's Elric books. Humans are highly prized as mercenaries, with better quality weapons, armour, and magic than just about anyone else. They are also feared, and rightly so.
HERMETICS: These humans fled the cities before the plague reached their land. They settled in secret villages which are completely hidden and cut off from the outside world, ruled most often by druids and protected by rangers. Some hermetics are banished or leave out of wanderlust, and all of them have curious customs that have evolved in the century since the plague.
What do you think? I think it would make a really interesting campaign. Maybe it's an Aussie thing but we love the underdog, and I think many players would be proud to play a Human PC in a world like this. It makes humans rare and mysterious and tragic instead of being the vanilla flavour of the world. Sort of a post-apocalyptic thing where humans are the endangered species.
OK that last bit was cheesy but you get the idea...
Then a plague struck that only affected humans, and wiped out about 90% of them
Seems too hard to believe. It's like you want to find a way to kill humans and didn't even think of a reason yet. You should work more on that idea of a disease that only affects one race..looks cheesy
|
Make whatever it was that slew the humans in their multitudes a complete mystery. Figure out secretly what it is, then don't tell the players.
Maybe the elves are next(?) or...insert your own favorite demihuman where I put elves(?)
Whatever it is, that's a pretty frightening notion. A paranoia-inducing notion.
Then delves or adventures can involve the search for clues as to the nature of the evil doom from the past.
|
|
Maybe a mad wizard who was trying to create the perfect human. He injected subjects with nano-modrons which were designed to heal wounds and illnesses, but which decided the human body was in and of itsself an illness, so unchecked, they went on a killing spree.
The nano-modrons can be passed from human to human via bodily fluids, or even more insipidly, via an airborne route, much like the common cold. They do not affect elves/orcs/dwarves because those races are not in their instructional set (programming), only humans.
|
|
Disease seems entirely reasonable to me, since cross-species diseases are less common than intra-specific diseases. (They make a bit more sense if you don't have human-other halfbreeds.)
You might want to consider what other sentient races think of the die off. Was the disease engineered (by whom?) or random? Did other races cheer, were they sympathetic, or did they just try to avoid the plague-ridden humans? (Your steady-state society would be very different in each case.) Is the plague still around? Have the survivors developed an immunity to the original strain? Are there mutant strains that are more or less virulent than the original?
FWIW, it sounds like an interesting concept to me.
Maybe a mad wizard who was trying to create the perfect human. He injected subjects with nano-modrons...
Nano-modrons... priceless
Sean Mahoney
I like the concept a lot, and I think it may work really well with the idea of humans being the most adaptable: maybe a long time ago at the height of their Empire they had specialties like the other races but a nomadic and mercenary lifestyle lead them to being more adaptable. Perhaps the hermetic strain of humans possess these old abilities.
As far as why they were wiped out, I'm not a fan of the plague idea. What if the human rulers grew too ambitious in their plans for domination and the "lesser" races all rose up to topple them down? Or, taking another page from Moorcock's Melniboneans, perhaps they grew too decadent and complacent and left their outlying territories to fall to the humanoid tide while the humans of the Empire wallowed in their excesses? A covenant with a deity or demon lord that kept them secure in their power (and producing the keystone of their dominance- a powerful corps of Warlocks and Sorcerers) may have been broken in an act of hubris by an Emperor or High Priest, which lead to the scattered tribes of humanoids rising up against them?
Or, even better, no humans kept records of the event during all the chaos of collapse and no one knows why they fell. Perhaps a human PC is seeking an elf old enough to remember so that he can record an eyewitness account for his band's histories. Definitely a great campaign secret.
Maybe the orcs and/or dwarves still form ritual Human hunting bands that strike nocturnally with the aid of darkvision to catch their quarry by surprise.
And maybe you can work in ancient human technology in the form of flintlock pistols and blunderbusses held by human tribe leaders, the only possessors of the deadly knowledge of their manufacture and use. This may be one of the edges that makes human mercenaries so sought out.
I've had an idea rattling around in my head for a while that would make for a large campaign change similar to this: What if the celestials won the sin war and wiped out all the major fiends and spawn areas? What would they do next? It wouldn't be tea and crumpets, that's for sure. My idea was that the celestials (mostly the archons, but the eladrins wouldn't be totally in the clear here) decided to move on with the Sin war and eradicate the next source of evil - which in their minds was practically everything on the Prime Material. What's cool about this is, like in Ghostwalk, PCs can keep going after death - they become "petitioners" who rise up from their dead bodies (the gates of heaven are closed to Prime filth, and there's no one at the gates of hell to give a warm welcome) with the petitioner template for the plane they *would* have gone to. Of course, they can undergo a ritual to return to life if they should wish and can afford it. Such a campaign would revise what everyone thought of Good and Evil, and would give players cool planar traits without having to leave the Prime.
TK
I proposed something similar to the "plague wipeout" for the world project on the dmtools.org site that Lilith maintains. The rationale was a little different - I used the plague as a way to curb the power of elves (curb the superelf problem - which many threads have addressed), but the idea is pretty much the same.
You get a lot from that excuse - lots of ruins, and concentrations of wealth for adventurers to go after.
Lower population density (more breeding space and excuse for monsters.
And the disease itself can be a tool.
It can be real threat (especially if it is resistant immune to healing magic).
If a magical disease is used, it can also be the source of new races, mutants, the origin of certan types of monstrous humanoids, or new threats (like the victims of "Rage" in 28 Days Later).
And as Doug Sunsdeth points out a disease that effects one species is more likely than one that gets every body. But again with a magic disease it could kill humans, change dwarves, make orcs stronger, make elves sterile, etc.
The other thing you might do is a different kind of plague - a "will o the wisp" type entity (or ghosts of prior enemies)unleashed to punish men (your choice, gods, demons, mad wizard, race hating priesthood, etc) that steal into to devour the life force of new borns. People aren't sterile but their ranks are decimated - and infant mortality is through the roof.
Special classes to defend against these being could develop
a culture of gurads and adventurers to hunt and kill them would evolve (creating a need for adventurers to find "nests".
Anyway hope this helps.
|
I had a similar idea, except the "wipe-out" event was that the moon cracked in half, unleashing global destruction (kind like Thundarr the Barbarian). Humans were affected the most because they had the highest population and covered the most ground. The other races were better able to isolate themselves and survive.
I like the plague idea, though. It seems kinda old school to me, but very cool. I'd definitely make it of otherworldly (or other planar) origin.
The idea definitely has possibilities (and good luck with it) but it got me thinking about an old idea I had: humans get the ultimate generalist treatment by D&D partially because we don't have anything similar to compare ourselves to in RL, and we didn't have any species other than our own as sentient beings on this planet in historical times. What would be the case if we had to share the planet with another sentient species? In an alternate earth (not Oerth: Earth) campaign I developed a concept for, H. sapiens split into D&D type Humans and Elves, as well as possibly other races derived from either of those. H. neanderthalensis developed into Orcs and Dwarves, while miniature H. sapiens in SE Asia (previously dubbed H. floresensis) became Halflings, Gnomes, and Goblins. Meanwhile, in North America, a group of ravens came back down to the ground and developed into humanoids (the Kenkus of MM3), while wolves (red and grey) and coyotes developed into humanoids (the Laikas of the Savage Species web enhancement) and in South America a group of monkeys developed into the Vanaras of OA, and either from monkeys in SAmerica or Siamangs in SE Asia, the Hadozees of Stormwrack appeared. If you want take the concept and modify it to your tastes.
The concept would be that humans don't have dominance to begin with and other races fill other niches that humans might otherwise occupy, so humans don't domiante the landscape (although this might require doing some planning on the language front) so you don't NEED a plague to reduce the humans impact.
Thanks for the comments Paizoans, they are valuable as always. Heathansson, I really like the idea of the exact nature of the catastrophe that decimated the humans being unknown to the PCs and NPCs. The idea of the plague was just a quick way to explain it, I just really wanted to make a campaign where humans used to be dominant but are now rare and on the verge of extinction.
Though I still like the plague idea for a few reasons.
James, I also think the idea of orphan leaders having firearms is cool. The old human cities will of course be inhabited by other races now, and their tech level will be lower. An newly orcified city for example will be sort of like an ancient near-eastern city, whereas under the humans it was more like late medieaval or even renaissance. The elves will be barbarians - a side effect of their long lives and natural living is that they change very little, and their culture has remained the same for millions of years, as hunter gatherer tribes. I'm thinking of a war raging between orcs and dwarves, with orphans in the middle serving as mercs on both sides, and hermetic settlements trying desperately to remain shut off from the outside. I think there is huge potential for adventures in this setting, not least if I can think of a cool cause for the catastrophe that the PC's can investigate.
I also like the idea of an ancient race who knows how the catastrophe happened, but the way I want the elves doesn't really suit this. Maybe some kind of wise serpent people, like Yuan-ti but good. I always liked serpent people.
Thanks for your suggestions Steven, they are interesting, but I still like the plague idea because I see the humans being in palpable danger of extinction as a central mood for the campaign. I envisage the catastrophe as having passed, with the surviving humans probably being immune. The danger the humans now face comes from the fact that there are just so very few of them left compared to the other races, they have knowledge that everyone wants, and they used to be top dog but no longer are. I think this is a dangerous situation for anyone!
Anyway I'm hoping it works out. Just wanted to run the idea past the board lords. I have a few new players to DM for soon, and I don't think I should throw them into a campaign that deviates too much from standard D&D, so this is probably an idea for the future. I've learnt from experience that when DMing for newbies it's best if they can look in the books themselves and be confident that just about everything they read is going to be legal, instead of having the DM vetoing this and that and confusing them. It makes them feel like they don't know what's going on and D&D is already such a vast and complex system. But one day, the Endangered Humans campaign will rear it's head...
Seems too hard to believe. It's like you want to find a way to kill humans and didn't even think of a reason yet. You should work more on that idea of a disease that only affects one race..looks cheesy
Then a plague struck that only affected humans, and wiped out about 90% of them
While I agree it is fairly generic, it does not seem too far-fetched. the black plague killed upwards of 1/3 of the population of Europe. Many historians have postulated that it could have been far worse, and that an epidemic is not an ineffective way to destroy a population.
The disease coudl affect humnas maybe because of their living environment, exposure to a material (like Red Steel), or magic use, perhaps.
Just a thought...
Seems too hard to believe. It's like you want to find a way to kill humans and didn't even think of a reason yet. You should work more on that idea of a disease that only affects one race..looks cheesy
Then a plague struck that only affected humans, and wiped out about 90% of themWhile I agree it is fairly generic, it does not seem too far-fetched. the black plague killed upwards of 1/3 of the population of Europe. Many historians have postulated that it could have been far worse, and that an epidemic is not an ineffective way to destroy a population.
The disease coudl affect humnas maybe because of their living environment, exposure to a material (like Red Steel), or magic use, perhaps.
Just a thought...
The oter thing to consider is the collateral damage of such a plague, for example:
Sick Farmers can't harvest crops - so food shortages result
People won't go to public venues - do to risk of exposure so restaurants, inns, markets can't do business - they have no money - and as noted above food shortages are likely in the first place - so prices go up - so malnutrition follows - lowered resistance and more disease.
Food riots/health care riots/and looting for food and money are likely - so combat death, and beyond initial death - injuries reduce immune system effectiveness and more disease and death.
Depending on the nature of your plague - strangers might be shot at distance to prevent exposure.
Fire won't be put out (who will go to help and risk exposure) so stores are destroyed - resulting in more shortages, and well see above.
Some of these effects MIGHT be mitigated by the presense of other races, dwarves, halflings, elves, could fill the gap in the market - though for the humans this reduces rather than eliminates the issue - you still need money (or something to trade) to get food, care, lodging. And just because the plague isn't AS fatal to these races doesn't mean they want the infected or the risk of infection in their backyard.
The other thing about having the other races be resistant, is that it is a great time for other races to attack, and otherwise exploit humans - taking things by force or providing services and commodities at exhorbidant rates.
Which could/would radically change the composition of land and business ownership, the politics of various regions, distribution of wealth, relations between the races, and maybe (depending on your world) the relationship between different religions (human as well as human/non-human).
Lots of stuff to work with.
The plague also (in many ways) launched the Renaissance - the concentration of wealth among the survivors, and the ability of the worker to demand greater rights and wages (due to the shortage), and the greater role of technology (because of a shortage of labor) are considered key factors in launching the new social model the Renaissance promoted - economics, innovation, and supply and demand not philosophy and philosophers run the world.
I am curious as to why you think humans would be dominant in the first place though - or is just one of those "Givens" in your world?
I am curious as to why you think humans would be dominant in the first place though - or is just one of those "Givens" in your world?
Human dominancy is a given in D&D as presented. After all, they're not called "elfinoids" or "monstrous gnominoids" for a reason. Humans come first in the PH despite the rest of the races falling in alphabetical order. Humans aren't listed in the Monster Manual - why would they be? They're not monsters (well, that's not universally true, but physiologically speaking here it is). In the DMG, the racial breakdowns for settlements default to humans being the most populous. As human beings, we think of things in human terms - we're not hundred year old teenagers or 'stones of the earth.' That's why it's a notable shift to make humans the non-dominant race in a campaign.
Contributor
|
While I agree it is fairly generic, it does not seem too far-fetched. the black plague killed upwards of 1/3 of the population of Europe. Many historians have postulated that it could have been far worse, and that an epidemic is not an ineffective way to destroy a population.
And small pox did worse to the indigenous peoples of the American continents. Disease might feel like cliche, but only because it's been so prevalent in our own world. Even today, diseases run roughshod over our species and there is precious little we can do about it.
Maybe, if in your worldview human beings had to have become the most powerful race at some point, the disease was manufactured. A "weapon grade" disease, to borrow from the vernacular of our time. Maybe it wasn't intended as such originally. What if the elves secretly developed a disease meant to slow the prodigious human breeding machine, giving the wilds of the world a chance to recover from the excesses humanity tends to create. Maybe a small group of them became radical and modified the magical disease to make it fatal, rather than merely sterilizing. Or maybe it was an evil race that made the manufactured disease go all wrong. At any rate, something like that would lead to a great deal of guilt among the elves, and they'd certainly do their best to help the surviving humans rebuild their race (albeit at a slower rate).
I am curious as to why you think humans would be dominant in the first place though - or is just one of those "Givens" in your world?
Well the in-game reason is that Humans are the most adaptable race. They are more dynamic, versatile, and individual than the other humanoids. This is standard D&D fare which when you think about it pretty much means that humans are going to be the dominant race, if not militarily then at least through alliance and trade. It also makes sense rules-wise with the extra feat and skill points.
But the main reason I want them to have been dominant is that it makes it more tragic for them when they lose it all. Simple as that. It also means there will be alot of different reactions to human PCs from other humanoids, none of which will be indifference.
Mike, the idea of a biological weapon gone wrong is intriguing. I was thinking of the plague being deliberately caused, but having the ones who caused it feel guilty about it is a nice spin on the idea. Perhaps whichever race created the disease was actually a close and friendly ally of the humans, and created the plague to kill pests or something, and it had the unforseen side-effect of decimating the human race. That would be truly tragic. The other race would have a terrible secret that was eating them up, but they would be too afraid to ever tell the surviving huamns what really happened.
|
Contributor
|
Mike, the idea of a biological weapon gone wrong is intriguing. I was thinking of the plague being deliberately caused, but having the ones who caused it feel guilty about it is a nice spin on the idea. Perhaps whichever race created the disease was actually a close and friendly ally of the humans, and created the plague to kill pests or something, and it had the unforseen side-effect of decimating the human race. That would be truly tragic. The other race would have a terrible secret that was eating them up, but they would be too afraid to ever tell the surviving huamns what really happened.
Yeah, now you're talking. That sounds like a really cool idea.
Part of the turning point of the campaign could be when the big secret is revealed. It could then be up to the PCs to prevent the friendly races from trying to murderize one another.
Lots of potential for adventure in that setup. :)
What if the hermetic sect of humans had engineered the plague by accident? Or deliberately against a rival human faction?
Or maybe it was the gnomes, which would be a good way of turning the harmless gnome comedic relief stereotype on its ear.
Wow, I want to play in this setting now!
Or maybe it was the gnomes, which would be a good way of turning the harmless gnome comedic relief stereotype on its ear.
Heh heh, my next post was going to be this:
IT WAS THE GNOMES! (cue dramatic music)
Wow, I want to play in this setting now!
That is a great compliment, thank you.
When I get home from work (I know, I'm bad!) I'll put my intro text up on the web and put a link in this thread for anyone who's interested in reading it.
OK I'm not exactly an lEE7 H@XX0R so I just made a livejournal and put my intro flavour text up there. That way I can add to it as I see fit. I invite anyone who's interested to go and read it (I promise it's not too long!)
http://end-world.livejournal.com/
What if the hermetic sect of humans had engineered the plague by accident? Or deliberately against a rival human faction?
Or maybe it was the gnomes, which would be a good way of turning the harmless gnome comedic relief stereotype on its ear.
Wow, I want to play in this setting now!
Hear Hear! Give these li'l guys their due!
"What, do I amuse you or something?"
"Ooo, LOOK Robespierre! A delightful toy making mischief dwarf! Mummy will be so pleased!"
"I will kill you."
"It's threatening us! ADORABLE!"
Heh heh. "Mischief Dwarf." That's now my new racial slur for Gnomes.
I am curious as to why you think humans would be dominant in the first place though - or is just one of those "Givens" in your world?Human dominancy is a given in D&D as presented. After all, they're not called "elfinoids" or "monstrous gnominoids" for a reason. Humans come first in the PH despite the rest of the races falling in alphabetical order. Humans aren't listed in the Monster Manual - why would they be? They're not monsters (well, that's not universally true, but physiologically speaking here it is). In the DMG, the racial breakdowns for settlements default to humans being the most populous. As human beings, we think of things in human terms - we're not hundred year old teenagers or 'stones of the earth.' That's why it's a notable shift to make humans the non-dominant race in a campaign.
Thats pretty funny.
It also monumentally ethnocentric.
They're not called "elfinoids" because we are all writing in english (which isn't even "common" or any other language of the D&D world), not elven or dwarvish or whatever.
And I am aware of several reasons why the game is set up as humancentric including a number of logistical ones you failed to list. But the question was really why the campaign in the thread was being set up that way - not a generic question about the game.