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It looks like my PCs are going to be spending a session or two in Whistledown. I've been trying to emphasize the way that gnomes need to have completely new experiences in order to keep living, and how hard that gets after they've been around for a few centuries. Here are about a dozen of the most eccentric gnomes from Whistledown, who I figure will give us some good comic relief before we deal with the mass killings and horrible in-bred ogres of Turtleback Ferry.
Girorninhongtig Gilthinstump: trying to breed a swamp pony
Jindramargrayiv Lilytrumble: only eats fungus, and is suffering from deadful malnutrition, needs a new distraction
Mindrogivar Graldenbucket: middle aged, chopped off two fingers on his left hand to prevent further Bleaching, currently trying to train mosquitoes
Nanzivilgid Harbipulley: walks everywhere on his hands
Ogradeximann Jalligrub: flirts with non-gnomes, big eyes
Arv Jalligrub: flirts with whoever her brother targets for flirting, laconic
Dran Zirgifrog: is studying how to get eaten (ie swallowed whole) and then escape
Ench Thistlemorg: teaches classes on how to be poisoned, offers occasional samples, pays for poisonous plants obtained from the Mushfens
Fing Saladahrog: fencing instructor who prefers a Large dagger, wants a huge mithril dagger
Hoob Fingerdiln: claims to be a vampire but isn't, speaks with a fake Galtish accent
Jum Dwaldinut: glassblower who makes inappropriate adventuring equipment out of glass (swords, pitons, coils of rope, etc)
Klin Mimblethrottlefog: claims to be a dwarf named "Throic Humungoustool" and often strokes her imaginary beard.
Is this going too far? There are also lots of normal gnomes too, but these show the extremes they reach in their attempts to avoid The Bleaching. Is this going far enough? What have the rest of you done with gnome communities?
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Jum Dwaldinut: glassblower who makes inappropriate adventuring equipment out of glass (swords, pitons, coils of rope, etc)
ahh... make it darkly colored glass, and every few items he fills the item with something random ( healing potion, caltrops, alchemist fire, acid, rum, throwing spikes) as these look like toys they can be coveted by assassins - if you know what's inside it...
I like it! I think gnomes craving excitement probably engage in a lot of wacky weirdness.
Okay, so if any piece of equipment from the adventuring gear table in the PHB is available in glass form, what's a reasonable cost? Fifty times the list price? With one in ten containing some liquid and another one in ten rattling a bit?
I think I'll work up some tables, so if the PCs buy something they can roll when they bust it open. Before that the objects will just contain some Schroedinger's contents.
Tbug,
I think this sounds fantastic for the purposes you describe. Good work!
However... did I miss this whole bleaching thing somewhere? Is this something from your campaign or something in the Paizo stuff I somehow completely missed (if so, can you direct me where to find it)?
Sean Mahoney
However... did I miss this whole bleaching thing somewhere? Is this something from your campaign or something in the Paizo stuff I somehow completely missed (if so, can you direct me where to find it)?
It's on p. 11 of the setting hardcover. Basically: gnomes don't age so long as they keep having new experiences.
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However... did I miss this whole bleaching thing somewhere? Is this something from your campaign or something in the Paizo stuff I somehow completely missed (if so, can you direct me where to find it)?It's on p. 11 of the setting hardcover. Basically: gnomes don't age so long as they keep having new experiences.
IE Golorian's Gnomes make great Planescape Sensates or whatever they were called
That definately explains it... I don't have the setting hardcover yet...
Sean Mahoney
My group had a day in Whistledown and some fun.
they are traveling up stream on a Varisian/Gypsy barge to Turtleback.
just got my campaign setting today, so i expect a more detailed setting for the return trip.
on to Ogres!
Mine had fun, too. They met all the gnomes I mentioned above, and then some. I also told legends about Glorgaberdinald Ziffenbubble, a low-level sorcerer who had apparently become a worm that walks. This scared them a little, and they decided not to go into the Mushfens looking for him.
I like your gnomes Tbug. Especially the names. Any advice on creating gnomish names?
CJ
I like your gnomes Tbug. Especially the names. Any advice on creating gnomish names?
Thanks for the kind words! I took the advice in the Pathfinder setting hardcover. Male gnome names have lots of nonsense syllables, and female gnome names have one. Family names have one English word plus a few nonsense syllables.
Contributor
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This is great, tbug. I've found the gnomes as described in the PFCS to be one of the more difficult aspects of the setting to handle, and I think you've got their quirkiness nailed.
I also have to wonder if constantly having to do things for the sole purpose of staying alive wouldn't give the gnomes a morbid tinge to their psyche.
For me the real problem is that I am pretty much guaranteed to never choose to play a gnome in Pathfinder. As NPCs, I can see how this will be entertaining, but it creates a situation where every gnome is literally neurotic. I just can't see how I would keep that up for 20 levels as a player character.
This isn't a huge problem, as I'm not someone who played gnomes all the time, anyway, but I think this really creative approach to Golarian gnomes has made them...well, kind of unapproachable as a PC race.
What do you folks think?
For me the real problem is that I am pretty much guaranteed to never choose to play a gnome in Pathfinder. As NPCs, I can see how this will be entertaining, but it creates a situation where every gnome is literally neurotic. I just can't see how I would keep that up for 20 levels as a player character.
I just don't see it as a big problem, I guess. I mean, they want to go to new places and experience new things and get new stuff. This doesn't automatically disqualify them from adventuring, at least the way I run games, though I would hope that they'd have more to their personalities than just that.
They only need to experience something completely new once a year, so the trick to making them playable might be to make them young. If they're an adult by human standards then there are probably lots of things they've never tried. Being an adventurer is possibly enough. Even using a class feature they've never used before is conceivably enough, so just wandering the world acting like a PC will probably stave off the Bleaching for the duration of a campaign.
I just like the thoughts of the older gnomes getting more and more desperate for stuff they've never done. :)
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I just like the thoughts of the older gnomes getting more and more desperate for stuff they've never done. :)
I definitely agree. And I think you're right about gnomes as PCs. I guess an adventurer's life would pretty much guarantee new experiences every year...but as you say, the more you do when you're young, the stranger you'll have to become as you get older in order to gain new experiences.
Some of the thoughts you voiced above even came to me as I was re-reading my earlier post.
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Being an adventurer is possibly enough. Even using a class feature they've never used before is conceivably enough, so just wandering the world acting like a PC will probably stave off the Bleaching for the duration of a campaign.
My gnome PFS PC was born without the gnomeish gift of magic (a 7 cha and 9 wis ranger) and has just done everything a guard of the forest call do. So to prevent bleaching, he was forced to go adventuring.
My gnome PFS PC was born without the gnomeish gift of magic (a 7 cha and 9 wis ranger) and has just done everything a guard of the forest call do. So to prevent bleaching, he was forced to go adventuring.
I think that this sort of character would be really interesting to play, particularly when surrounded by other gnomes. I mean, your gnome would have had to have learned a lot of skills mostly unknown in his culture, like how to wash his hair or do dishes or other tasks routinely performed with prestidigitation. Probably he just never had to do dishes, and his siblings did them while he did other menial chores; why would a gnome household even have a dish pan or drying rack or a washing board or any of those things?
Good luck with the character! He sounds great. :)
Good luck with the character! He sounds great. :)
Thanks - I originally wrote the background for a PBP here (IE the The profile I'm posting with right now) the pathfinder society version is a little different, but very similar to this one.. Stats are the major difference.
Cpt_kirstov
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My gnome PFS PC was born without the gnomeish gift of magic (a 7 cha and 9 wis ranger) and has just done everything a guard of the forest call do. So to prevent bleaching, he was forced to go adventuring.I think that this sort of character would be really interesting to play, particularly when surrounded by other gnomes. I mean, your gnome would have had to have learned a lot of skills mostly unknown in his culture, like how to wash his hair or do dishes or other tasks routinely performed with prestidigitation. Probably he just never had to do dishes, and his siblings did them while he did other menial chores; why would a gnome household even have a dish pan or drying rack or a washing board or any of those things?
Good luck with the character! He sounds great. :)
yeah i get to DM him through Hydra's Fang tomorrow... It is going to be fun.
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My gnome PFS PC was born without the gnomeish gift of magic (a 7 cha and 9 wis ranger) and has just done everything a guard of the forest call do. So to prevent bleaching, he was forced to go adventuring.
The gnome sorceress in my RotRL group came from a similar situation. She too was also born without the natural gifts of magic. In her case though, it led to her being ostracized by her family and friends. Growing up, she was always the subject of cruel practical jokes by her more clever companions. Imagine her delight when her sorcerous talent manifested and she ran through her village causing a bit of magical havoc before leaving to become an adventurer.