Hello everyone, I am starting to plan for a new campaign, and there are some things that nag at me about the current settings. I'd probably go with Golarion or FR anyway, but there are some ideas in my head I'd like some feedback on.
First of all, most settings that I've come across tend to be quite anthropocentric - as in, humans are the dominant (PC, non-monster) race and have the largest variety, and most likely focus. Other races tend to be integrated and/or have a few separate territories. In a way, it's fated to be, almost like a manifest destiny of mankind. Now, I realize that this is partly because we are all humans, and our own experience as the players behind the characters is of a world where we are the dominant species. Still, it sounds like an interesting idea - if it can be done. Has anyone here run a homebrew campaign setting where humans are a minority, or another of the core races - dwarves, elves, gnomes - is the main power of the world and holds the majority of territories. My idea is of a world (or at least part of it) where the superpower - a mostly human empire has fallen apart due to a vicious civil war. Most remaining communities are fairly insular, with the "demihuman" races moving back in on territories they had lost - or just seeking to expand their borders. Strangely enough, halflings have risen to power in the old imperial holdings, having taken on the role of traders, merchants, and mediators between the insular communities. In effect, this has allowed them to obtain a position of power not unlike merchant princes, having both a hold on intercommunity commerce and enough favors and funds to call in a large army when they want to.
As part of this, I'd prefer to see more variety in the "demihuman races." So far, elves are the only race for which we have variants, and I'd much prefer more options for dwarves, goblins, halflings or gnomes. Here is what I have for now, and I'd welcome feedback.
Halflings, as mentioned above, thrive as the leaders and merchants in the formal Imperial lands, but live elsewhere as well, having a tribal confederacy in the Darthin marshes and present in some of the other countries, which has helped their former Imperial kin establish trade and diplomatic relations. Part of the Imperial halflings retreated into what used to be thier homeland and founded a very xenophobic, secluded country, trying to readopt the traditions of their race. Relations with the rest of their race are somewhat strained (not that their relations with everyone else are better), and the halflings had almost come to war with each other. Most outsiders are unaware of the true extent of the strife between the wee ones, but are aware that Vastar is a city that does not accept outsiders.
Elves in the traditional PF sense are what is called sky, star or "high" elves, a fairly rare and mostly secluded people who seem to have a connection with magic and the heavens. It is theorized that both they and the "low" elves have some fey or outsider blood, and what led to the split between the two is not quite known. Their high and thin forms are easily recognized anywhere, and they are often given a wide berth - their magical abilities and lore command respect (and in most cultures, their extremely long lives are considered an object of awe in its own), but most members of other races consider them too alien to befriend. Traditionalist and conservative, the star elves used to mostly keep away from the Empire in their small states, although a population existed within the Imperial lands, mostly in enclaves that paid tribute to retain some authonomy. With the dissolution of the superpower have taken steps to expand them somewhat, mostly via tributary relations with neighboring states. One of the largest enclaves has risen to prominence in the former province of Xallos, where one of the most famous mage academy still stands, becoming a power in its own right.
I'm planning to use the half-elf template as a "low elf" race, relatively common creatures with a bit of fey blood (as is presumed) that grants them longevity (less so than the star elves, but still a bit more than dwarves) and uncanny adaptability to any setting they spend more time in. Mostly called "earth elves" or occasionally "low elves", many occupy some of their forest domains, but some have settled in plains, hills, and practically anywhere else. Second only to halflings, they maintain a web of connections in the imperial lands, but often work alongside the little ones as part of an informal agreement reached shortly after the fall of the empire. They have several realms of their own both in the old borders and without, which can be starkly different from each other. This differentiation often leads to cultural differences, and despite their shared heritage low elves can be just as prone to infighting as humans or orks - although their wandering kin and the halflings often act as emissaries. By the way - the term "half-elf" is considered an insult to low elves, used both from the "star" elves and outsiders, to denote their inferior talent - bonding with the land instead of the sky and stars. Needless to say, it is not appreciated anywhere in low elf company.
There are few actual half-elves. Interbreeding with other races (humans, often enough, although dwarves are also not rare) happens often enough, but since they are different species birth complications are common, offspring are few, and very few are fertile without divine intervention. Children usually exhibit traits from both parents when it comes to appearance, but mostly the "half-elf" ones mechanically - the adaptability of their blood is retained even when it is merged with other. Pairings with "high" elves have much lower risk of problems at first, but is considered taboo due to events in the past, and children often have mental issues or magic-related diseases.
More later
Reserving post for other races
Reserving post for additional details if necessary.
Let me first start by saying you got some pretty cool stuff going on in your setting. I will be following this thread closely and look forward to maybe helping you build your world.
Golarion, in my mind, has seen the spread all of the races over mostly every part of the Inner Sea. This mostly likely reflects a time period in the world’s history where already established kingdoms have tamed a good chunk of the land. The Inner Sea has always appeared (in my mind at least) as a civilized land with not a whole ton of danger. Now I know some of the inner sea nations reflect and borrow a lot of European concepts, so if we look at the evolution of our world conversely with the evolution of Golarion, I can see why the Inner Sea is so bustling.
In my world, I tend to go a different direction, similar to how you are headed. In the real world, mankind has never had anything prey on him, so I find it hard to believe with animals like dragons & drakes & other big bad beasties that humanity has spread so unchecked (as well as the other races). With everything stacked up against them, I find it more conceivable that humanoids would only be able to support only a few kingdoms and humanoid influences. Furthermore, like all species in the world, I tend to agree that although humanity spreads like a weed, there would be areas on the world that are heavily dominated by other races. You will find that my world has more territory appropriate races and humanity is not always the main species.
I especially like your plans to make the 'half-elf' template your low elves. I never really liked the thought of two different species creating off-spring although I know the concept has been in fantasy since the dawn of time. The idea of elves being able to birth part human is like a cat giving birth to cat-dogs. Exaggerated yes, but this is how I view the subject personally. Still, I recognize its importance & fantastical ties and have kept it in my games as I see you did as well.
Look forward to seeing more.
Hmm, I guess I can't edit a post that's already been replied to - that will show me. Anyway, as you can guess by now, the world was most recently shaped by the downfall and collapse of the old Empire - and now everyone it held in check is trying to pick up the pieces. It's a time of rediscovery, opportunity - and perhaps, building something more. Much was lost, a lot of it good, but most have the hope that this time around there is the hope that things will work out for them as well.
Anyway, here are more ideas about the various races:
Dwarves have been around for quite some time... though no one knows quite how long. They kept their strict neutrality from the Empire for a long time, and apart from some unfortunate freeholds captured by the Imperial forces (found to be strangely sparsely populated for their size) have done their best to keep out. Dwarves generally didn't get along very well with humans, but now that the Imperium is no longer a threat they are starting to found colonies on what used to be Imperial land (which was devastated in the Great War) and opening trade with a few neighboring communities. In that, the halflings are far ahead and generally consider dwarven attempts to build trade networks of their own a form of competition - not serious enough to warrant significant countermeasures, but worth expending some effort to minimize. Dwarven traders have found remarkably little luck in trading anything but produce of their craft and foodstuffs. However, as one of the premier underground explorers, dwarves have no shortage of strange goods to offer - some of which might actually become valuable to the world outside. Likewise, not all dwarves are traders - quite a few wouldn't mind taking what they want by force if need be, and others have more esoteric pursuits than mere gold (although it IS certainly appreciated). Either way, now that the Empire is not around, quite a few young dwarves find their old cities too crowded and the outside world all too beckoning. From the other races, dwarves get on poorly with orks (they certainly remember whom the Empire turned to in the last few wars), are neutral to star elves, and have varied relations to low elves. Dwarves and the low elves that live near their land get along quite well, but the adaptability of low elves means that there are going to be many others with drastically different cultures or values. Dwarves, who have never been that troubled by infighting, tend to get confused - and often enough consider the different low elves different races in their own right.
Mechanically, there are several dwarven subraces, not unlike the faerun ones. Some have penalty to charisma, some to constitution, some to strength. Dwarves range from raiders to merchants, and generally lean towards the crafts - but you can find dwarven traditions for pretty much any archetype or race variant ability in the APG, and more besides.
Orcs and half-orcs - orcs used to be a steppe culture famous for their fierce warriors and physical strength, and not exactly known for getting along or being particularly great thinkers. The Empire treated them warily at first, but soon realized the potential of using them for its own purposes. It alternately subdued and allied with the orc tribes, offering young orks opportunity to settle in much better lands and ready employment in the military forces - for the low, low price of occasionally going to war where they were told. It worked well enough at first, and many orks proudly fought under the two-headed lion banner of the Gimmerian dynasty, but they remained unruly and not particularly bright - which occasionally dimmed their otherwise stellar military record and did not help cooperation with the Imperium's other forces. Imperial sages had long worked on the problem before eventually a breakthrough was reached in the form of various magical and alchemical treatments that allowed orc/human hybrids that combined traits of both. Much gold and even more blood was spent to perfect this method and create the first communities, but eventually it was deemed worthwhile: the Neorcs, or half-orcs as they are commonly known, became the Empire's shock troops of choice. Some, like the Veronar Janissaries, were among the most feared soldiers of the continent, and more than one uprising died out overnight by the sheer news that they were sent to deal with it. That many youths had to be abducted and at times whole villages near-depopulated for young men and women used for creating more was considered an acceptable price - once.
The remaining orks from the plains were wary of the Empire, having had all too many sons and daughters leave north and not come back - and that some of their own blood were used to deal with particularly troublesome tribes didn't help matters much. For all the Imperial missions and the funds spent, the plains orcs remained a sullen bunch, all too eager to help caravans passing through their lands get lost in the harsh land and harsher weather. With the fall of the empire, the fates of the orcs and neorcs in its lands is less than certain - while there are few communities that can match them in military tradition, they are quite disliked for their role as enforcers, and their legendary fertility has been somewhat overrated. Some, like their human fellows, hire themselves out to the halfling, low elven or dwarven traders or seek to rob them. Others seek to go back to the old ways of raising livestock, some have become farmers of no small skill. Still, many taverns grow darker at the sight of a half-ork, and markings that signify some of the old (and proud) imperial lineages inspire as much hostility as they used to inspire fear and obedience. Even though eventually a stable half-ork was introduced that was able to breed true, old habits die hard - and a good number of neorks were born with at least one parent stolen from their place of birth and residing in captivity little different from slavery. Nowadays, however, other races tend to have rather vigorous objections to this practice, and several communities have been burned to the ground. If it weren't for some timely ties and contracts with the major halfling guilds, their number would be quite higher.
Mechanically, most half-orcs in the old imperial landswould use the PF Beta profile (bonuses to strength and wisdom, penalty to intelligence), but other configurations would exist. The new PF version with only a variable +2 would be quite rare and represent the few neorc communities in the Imperium that have tried to adapt to its fall - yet even as they have had more than two generations, the vast majority of them tend to specialize in strength or constitution.
Gnomes... gnomes I'm not sure about. I've half a mind to drop them, and have low elves or dwarves fill their ranks. In fact, my other idea is to make them elf-dwarf hybrid that for some reason is stable enough to breed true.
Humans - the mighty have fallen, and there is no telling what, or when, will rise up. There have been many human settlements outside of the empire, and many more inside. The different ethnicities and groups were never fully integrated - it is doubtful if that was ever possible, and it certainly wasn't deemed necessary. The civil war that brought the empire down was, ironically, started and mostly fought by humans as several of the different groups rose against the Emperor - some for the taxes, others to protest poor policies, and some in defense of their old position (many of those, for example, being former military federates who lost their role to the neorc shock troops). After more than three decades of bitter war, and a magical cataclysm that rained death for weeks, the old Empire was no more - and what used to be proud peoples that grouped together to form the greatest empire in the world were embittered, vengeful remnants that spent much of their remaining energy in fighting each other. Some practically welcomed cooperation or even vassalage to the empire's old enemies - after all, they reasoned, things could hardly be worse - and the bad blood with them was much less. For many of the peoples, the last century or two of imperial rule had "experiences" that make bowing to a elf-lord or dwarven caliph more than passable. Overall, the vast majority keep to themselves and the old ways (however they understand it) and are quite happy to handle vagrants like the wee kin or the road elves handle the vagaries of commerce or communication. And if the local layabouts, thugs and ne'er-do-wells decide to seek their fortune on the road with them, good bye and good riddance!
Mechanically, humans would likely be the least changed. Some races might have a +2/+2/-2 stat adjustments - such as pigmy tribes from the jungles or magebred specialists - but the man or woman on the street would be a regular PF corebook human no matter where that street. Their societies tend to be extremely insular and xenophobic, relying on outsiders to communicate with their neighbors due to blood feuds and ritual taboos that make working together all but unthinkable. In the meantime the infrastructure that bound the empire together has all but collapsed. Few have the vision to rebuild, and most of those end up on the road themselves. Despite all the efforts of those who would, much of the old empire is now a few scattered points of light, surrounded by darkness.
Goblinoids, considered little more than a nuissance by the Imperium, are now spreading mostly unhampered. Almost united in opposition to the old empire, they were then given several decades to replenish their number after the last war - and replenish it they did. Goblin warrens have spread throughout the lands, and only their lack of unity prevents them from being a mortal danger to those in the once-safe borders. In the meantime, hobgoblin warlords have been able to raise significant numbers to their banner, able to pillage, loot - and often enough, conquer. No longer can they be considered a mere nuissance - and as they proved in the wars against various orcs and neorcs in the period since the fall of the Empire, they have both strength in war and memory enough to remember and hate their old enemies. The phrase "at it like an orc and a bugbear" is present in many languages, and for good reason. That isn't to say there aren't goblinoids that do live differently - it's just that most are well deserving a place in the monster manual, and on every township's bounty board.
Mechanically, goblins would probably be a +2/-2 race with a few minor bonuses to make it properly playable, but I'm somewhat beat for ideas for stats and abilities. Bonuses to dexterity and/or constitution would be more common than not, and penalties to strength and mental abilities are present. Hobgoblins are close to orcs, but with bonuses to intelligence or (seldom) charisma) where the orcs and neorcs favor wisdom and occasionally constitution. Bugbears or orogs might well be puppetmasters, receiving great powers from fell entities that leave them on top of the social ladder.
Technology
The old Empire was at a level between the Roman empire and the early Renaissance when it came to technology - aquaducts and sanitation were commonplace (any city with over 10k people could expect having good-quality sanitation), irrigation canals were carefully maintained and allowed for much more efficient farming, while - admittedly basic - hidraulic machinery allowed for draining of marshlands. Now, however, it is all gone, and while some of the more capable regional rulers maintain some of this infrastructure, it is mostly gone. The land can barely support 70% of its previous population - though due to the people killed or left during the great wars, that is not a problem in most places. However, some of the larger cities have faced famine after their farmlands were wiped out, and now large cities like Palavda or Veli Turin have only a fraction of the citizens they once boasted. Gunpowder and other primitive explosives were used, but due to its great importance the recipes for it and the means of production of the derivatives were a carefully guided secret - and one which was lost during the fall. Today few could replicate working recipes, and the ones (very, very rarely) used are both expensive and unreliable compared to those of old (prices are doubled, availability halved on average).
Prior to the empire's fall, some of this technology did diffuse to its neighbors. Dwarves, in particular, have been very interested in hydraulic machinery of the Empire, using it both to drain land they wanted tunneled or to help their own irrigation initiatives. Star elves are generally at a lower level in technology, but their interest in the heavens has made them the premier opticians - and by extension glassblowers. Tianxan painted glass is a material covered by most imperial temples - and one that few can now reach. With the fall of the empire, the tools they used for their agriculture are failing, and the ones they make are of notably worse quality, which has led to some issues related to feeding the larger elven cities. Apart from them, the major problem the fall of technology and trade caused was for the regions that specialized in producing other materials such as the mining towns, tundra outposts and the like. Most failed, becoming ghost towns in a year or two, and only the rise of the merchant guilds saved the rest.
Overall, trade and communication is still a shadow of what it used to be. Despite the efforts of the halflings and the other merchants, communication is still very slow, the roads, canals and aquaducts are barely usable in most places, and those that are still operable are prime hunting grounds for bandits. One of the dwarven realms that was engaged in more thorough trade with the empire has kept some of technology alive, but even they can't help with the decay of architecture or roads. The merchant guilds are negotiating with the stronger communities - domains of former nobles, warlords, or the like - to ensure that at least the infrastructure of some provinces is maintained, but they have had little success so far, mostly in areas where they can exert their power more directly.
You may want to just use APG. It has a huge variety of alternate racial abilities for the Core races. If you want to create sub-races:
1st - Change one bonus or penalty to ability scores. Try not to change more then this, otherwise it might as well be a completely different race.
2nd - Redesign which abilities the race has. I would likely keep at least one core ability from the original race, but you can sub the rest.
3rd - Theme the new abilities and ability scores together. And don't let your PCs cherry-pick abilities. You can also only allow specific sub-races access the alternate class abilities also presented in the APG.
The main thing is that alternate racial abilities in the APG are the PF equivalent to sub-races from FR. It does nearly the same thing, is more customizable, and much more flavorful.
I am aware of the APG variants, and yes, they'd probably see use. What I'm more interested is comments about the setting, especially by DMs who have already tried homebrewing their own worlds. I'm trying to make something less human-centric, as I think this will offer more opportunities for different PCs.
Anyway, other bits I've yet to get more on:
Religions: for ease of use I'd probably go with Pathfinder, but deities have different names that they are known by in various lands, and quite a few have aspects that might behave slightly different than the "main persona". Chances are, almost any deity from other settings would exist either as itself, or as another's aspect.
Races:
** Lizardmen would be relatively rare, but fairly common in both arid climates (deserts and the like) and swamps. Some have been enslaved for gladiatorial combat, which has made them elusive and generally unfriendly, but not (usually) outright hostile. Still, it's said to be a bad idea to pass carelessly through their lands - but then again, it's usually a bad idea to pass carelessly anyway.
** drow: the legend says that there are elves that watch around and elves that watch above, but the oldest retelling mention those that watch beyond - and elves tend to fall silent when that story is mentioned. There was, indeed, another elven tribe that watched beyond - the Dashnarii, a tribe renowned for its mystics and the greatest clerics and oracles of the elven peoples. However, some of them gazed where they should not have, and cults - demonic and worse - started spreading through their people. The Dashnarii tended towards seclusion, so the other elven tribes did not learn of the bloody purge of the largest of these cults until too late - and certainly were not prepared for the demonic rift opened at what had been the center of the Dashnarii lands, turning their lands into a plane of nightmares made flesh. The other cults and the few Dashnarii true to their old gods fled, and many were killed - some by the other elven tribes, who were still outraged by what had happened and didn't want to take chances. Eventually, a few groups were integrated in the earth and the sky elves, but the vast majority of the race live either in the Maw, as the hellish isle is known, or in deep tunnels under the earth, which hide most of the other cults. As the drow have become more and more reliant on their otherworldly patrons, their own bodies have begun to change - pitch black, albino, and other markings are far from unknown, and usually denote the tradition the drow's kin follow.
While demon-cultist and aberration-cultist drow are the most frequent, others - usually changed by fey or elementals - are also present, though incredibly rare. The usual pitch black coloration tends to be typical of the kinships that were demon cultists, aberration cults tend to have albino
** Duergar: A subbranch of the cave dwarves, the first to know of and fight the exodus of the Dashnarii underground. The Dhar Gur federation tended to have little contact with elves of any stripe (and, for that matter, near anyone else), so the attack came as a surprise - but the Dhar Gur had had previous conflicts with various raids of darkness-dwellers of many sorts, and kept a keen watch. What they could not have been prepared for is the strange magic and summonings the drow unleashed, conjuring - or rather, calling - all matter of creatures from beyond the stars. Only too late for everyone did the drow realize that they had summoned their masters rather than servants - the keeps of the Dhar Gur were almost all lost, the wretched survivors hanging on for dear life against the unworldly hordes (soon enough joined by various creatures that had once been drow). Some fled or tried to call for aid, but dwarves regarded these failures with little compassion. Peoples that had marriage ties responded with some aid, and some others offered the refuges a place to stay (near the garbage heaps, often enough) - and many others didn't even do that. Few dwarves are as bitter and cynical as the duergar, and they have long memories for both friends and foes - especially the other. The war with the aberrations abated, and both forces entrenched themselves. The Duergar's isolation, and the centuries of battling psionic foes, has wrought physical changes to them as well - many are psionic themselves, and even those who don't follow these arts tend to have a sensitivity for such affairs.
((Note: most duergar are LN, LE, N or NE. They aren't quite as "fully evil" as in the standard setting, but they are definitely quite ruthless compared to other dwarves, and are likely to use methods such as slavery, poison or terror that most other dwarves would balk at)).
By the way, since the above doesn't seem to gather much interest, has anyone tried to make different stat adjustments for subraces?
My homebrew world is eerily similar to yours. :) The northern continent was decimated by a huge war between the human Empire and the savage races. Eventually, the monstrous races got the empire to go to civil war, and the winner was a tyrant. Then they tricked the tyrant into exterminating the elves and dwarves, and wiped out the last of the empire themselves. So the northern continent is basically devoid of humans, elves, dwarves, or halflings (and half orcs).
The northern continent is my monster continet, where things are wild and wooly and nothing is quite what most players expect. The southern continent on the other hand, is heavily developed and most of the conflict there is border disputes.
A few suggestions,
Throw some curves at your players. I moved the drow into the arctic on the northern continent, the empire drove them out of the underground in it's death throws. So drow are arctic critters, less darkvision, but not dazzled in sunlight either.
The few elves that are left have been twisted by the destruction of their home forest, and they've turned CE, utterly twisted and way worse than any drow, like rabid animals.
The few dwarves that managed to stay in their home city when they cut it off got warped by a plague, and inbred until they are nearly mindless savages, diseased from birth and insane from the constant pain, only undiseased flesh eases their suffering.
There is a large tribe of blinkdogs that have been so persecuted for so many years, they attack every sentient on sight.
There's a city that is the last bastion of Good on the continent, and it's populated by goblins, drow, minotaurs, hobgoblins, kobolds, duergar, and every other race you can think of except the core PC races.
Interesting thing you have going here.
Instead of making new subraces from scratch, you could poke around various 3.5 Forgotten Realms material and add what you feel is right. Most of them are more or less ready to play if you just add another bonus to a mental or physical stat and give them a place in your world.
When showing your new creation to your players my strongest advice is to take it easy. You will be having a grand vision that is planned and prepared to no end - I assume, that's how I did it ;) - but your players will have no idea what's going on. Trying to explain it all to them will either bore them to death, or overwhelm them with so much information that they will only remember a third of it, if not less.
I'm currently running a homebrew where the Elves are the dominan species. They have Allied themselves with the Dwarves for trade and mutual military interest and the humans are Viking-like Barbarians who are beneath the notice of the "civilized" races.
I've put the players in a relatively small area of the campaign world, letting them explore it as they go from plot to plot, gaining more knowledge about the setting and making it feel more like they know it.
And it's working fantastically. It gives me time to explore other ideas that I would like to put into motion later, while they are easy to keep interested since I don't drown them in notes, handouts and descriptions for an area the size of Europe.
Keep up the work! Little is so satisfying as seeing your own campaign setting blossom and grow, while your players explore it and start telling stories of the things that happens there. And maybe in time; one of your players will want to give GM'ing a hand and use the setting as well ;)
Sorry to necro-bump this, but I'm curious - has anyone else devised a similar home setting to that? I'm looking to get into it.
I've not gone THAT big w/any of my homebrews for a while. The last time I did I had whole regions of a mega-continent broken up into empires based on race (simply for ease of use). There were the Elder Races: Dwarves and Elves. They'd fought an ancient war and nearly decimated themselves. They used pawns in their wars: Halflings on the elves' side stole some of the dwarves underground knowledge and gnomes on the dwarf side stole illusion magics. In the end they went to their four corners after the common enemy of the Frost Giants and a massive white dragon brought about a cataclysmic ice age.
In the wake of the ice out came humans from their caves. While the Elder races were slow to recover the fast-living humans multiplied and adapted. They wandered about the shattered ruins of the Elder Races and learned all that they could: architecture, crafting, writing and all it took to become civilized.
Back in those days they had a few different elves, halflings and there were "deep" versions of dwarves and gnomes, so those were my different types per race. And of course there was regional variety among the humans too. The Elves controlled a gigantic forest, the halflings built shires on wooded hilsides, gnomes controlled the boreal foothills of the ancient mountains and of course the dwarves held down the peaks themselves. And then the humans had a couple young kingdoms and other settlements scattered in between all of these.
Now of course some of the Elder Races intermingled and lived among the humans, and vice versa. The monstrous races were scattered throughout the periphery, living in the wilderness or in terrible locales unfit for others. I didn't really go to town on them, though I did have a couple different orc and goblin tribes.
Nowadays I'm all about not re-inventing the wheel. I still prefer to use homebrew settings, but they're a LOT smaller and less intricate.
My current one is a rip off of Ustlav in Golarian, save that there are no major undead influences. There's still gypsies, ancient curses and witches and such; it's more like a dark fairy tale though than victorian horror. The major threats in Karnoss are evil fey and lycanthropes.
Still, I DID make a player's guide to Karnoss and created a fair amount of fluff. But all of that was just to give my players something to read and get them interested in the game. I mentioned 13 cities in the PG; I think I have 4 of them featured prominently in the actual campaign. I Didn't give them one overland map, but rather have some regional maps I made up that I'll hand out per campaign arc.
The reality I've found (with my current gaming group anyway) is that when I suggest a vast world with lots of possibility it just distracts from what's really going on. I don't know if this helps but its been my experience.
On Taern (homebrew world) the humans are mostly relegated to the very center of the main continent. They are pretty scared to leave the lands where they have been mostly safe. They have sent colonists out to the Eastern continent but only recently (100 years or so).
The Orcs have a wide Steppe that they control similar culture to the Huns and the Hobgoblins are a world power by taking slaves from every other race and selling them to other races.
The giants have a giant playground in the North with hierarchy similar to the G1-3 series of modules from way back.
The largest Dwarven homelands are the remnants of a once huge clan fortress which they were driven out of and now all live above ground (and have racial fears of going underground now) but there is a spread out series of clans on the far side of the world that live semi-standard D&D dwarf lives in a range of mountains but they are under attack from below by Vermin-kin and were rats and from above by goblins. A third group lives in the rainforest/jungles of the Southern continent and also live above ground. They shave and lime to a bald smoothness and cover themselves in tattoos. They live near the wind Halflings that have a habit of hang gliding over thermal vents from an active volcano.
The Elves are the strongest sea going race and rule several coastal and island kingdoms and are the predominant pirates with a small upstart pirate kingdom of men at the very northern expanse of the human lands. they also have a homeland that used to be forest but is now entirely desert (was destroyed in the Wizard Wars)but they have adapted similar to the Freman of Dune.
Well, I'm basically looking for something that would be a little less human-focused. That's been one of the usual cliches of most fantasy or sci-fi - after all, the players can most relate to humans. However, at some point it started feeling a little too omnipresent to me.
Basically the idea is to have a setting that has gone through a catastrophe that combines something like the fall of the Roman empire and a world (nuclear) war - think of Fallout in a fantasy version of the early dark ages. What used to be the world superpower imploded in a fairly spectacular and brutal manner, and the world is only just shaking free of the chaos that followed. There some relatively isolated human and humanoid communities that lied beyond the bounderies of what used to be the civilized world, but inside of what used to be the Empire there are some enclaves, various tribes of different creatures (some mixed, some not) and a whole lot of ruins, ghost towns, magic-irradiated wastelands, and worse. There isn't just one or two "racial territories", though - most races have spread both beyond and within what used to be the Imperial territories, often splintering along cultural or territorial lines.
Shoot me a note. Sounds like we have similar lines on this. Humans on Taern used to be dominant but decimated themselves and the world during the Wizard Wars (or Mage Wars) and have since shrunk down to mostly one location while demi-humans and humanoids have expanded to fill all that open space.
I'd be happy to chat w/ you on Google or MSN messenger later?
I've run at least one All-dwarf campaign and started another that imploded when it turned out that no one who was playing liked dwarfs (even tho my call out to players specifically indicated it would be an all dwarf campaign)
I'm generally not a fan of single-location or single-culture races - large regions or general culture group I can live with. My original idea was of a large, somewhat integrated (but not much, think the WH Fantasy Empire with a bit more xenophobia) empire - and now that it's been destroyed and the smoke is clearing, many of those whom it pushed aside have moved in. Many more haven't.
In a dystopian world only those with legendary endurance survive. Dwarves rule here and high atop their citadels of stone they look down upon those weaker than they.
By an ancient pact the wilds have replenished themselves with supernatural alacrity. The trees and wild spaces have come alive and the spirits of the forest sing loudly of their conquest. In this boreal land only those who commune with these spirits survive.
Both of these lands could be the basis of a homebrew for non-human focus. But there could be any kind of reason for non-humans: all the fantasy stories talk about elves and dwarves as ancient races; what if you set a game BEFORE humans when elves and dwarves were still young? If someone wanted to play a human...you re-skin a half orc and say "here you go" because Neandertals haven't learned to walk erect yet. You could also just have these near-immortal races get fed up with their short-lived neighbors and start an impergium, systematically hunting down and slaying every human in a mass genocide.
As for variants of each race you could have thousands. Take gnomes for example: the typical PC version in the core is described in fluff as being mischevious and close to their fey roots, thus they get minor spells and such. Re-skin a mite as a gnome: BAM, you've got a version of gnomes that NEVER found the sanctity of the wooded hillsides and as such they stayed deep under the earth (if you don't want to use Srvf...SNiverb...oh I could never remember them...deep gnomes). Of course you could also just take the stats for kobolds, change their appearance and size, and give them the Fey Touched template and suddenly you've got a kind of gnome that moved fully out of the burrows and into the forest. These Forest Gnomes are taller (Medium) but still weaker than their cousins, making do as excelent ranged hunters who've embraced their Fey heritage.
I guess what I'm saying is - why recreate everything? I remember reading an article online (and I can't for the life of me remember the Author or Title, sorry!) that suggested that for an interesting homebrew you make one small, subtle change to the standard world and build your entire homebrew around that. For Example:
You want a low magic world, so you take out ONLY the cleric and wizard. Suddenly ALL magic is somehow inherited, like in the world of Harry Potter. You can't just teach someone to cast a spell; they have to be born to it. Some like oracales, paladins and inquisitors can be touched by the divine but they are few and far between. And then there are the witches; the unfortunates who have no taint of magic in their blood so they foolishly sell themselves to some patron for a taste of this power.
Now in your case, as bender from futurama says, KILL ALL HUMANS!
Ok, maybe not all humans, but due to a massive civil war and other factors humans are scarce, living on the fringes of society. Now don't think about any other changes; just that. What would a world look like if you kept everything from the core book, no other influences, and at the same time removed humans as the default PC race?
Elves and Dwarves, from core, are notoriously long lived. What would near-eternal lifespan creatures do in this scenario. If it were up to me? Nothing. Think about it: if your lifespan, without any adventures and such, were going to last hundreds of years, would you rush out across the world? I look at dwarves and elves as the curator races; they just watch, from the sidelines, the endless march of time, with only a few of them from time to time having the ambition to conquer the world.
Now gnomes are capricous and fey. They to me are like the ADD race of core PF. They have the inquisitiveness to roam the world and re-settle all the lands, but I just don't see their silly, fun-loving nature giving them the "staying power" needed to take over.
Half orcs and half elves are possibilities, but they're not really races unto themselves are they? Also they may be JUST as few and far between as their human parents. I'd give them the thumbs down on taking over as well. Who does that leave us with?
Enter: the humble halflings. Go back and re-read (or watch) your Tolkien; they weren't ALWAYS the gypsy nomads current PF makes them. And in the fluff of the race it does say they're all about home and hearth still, even though they roam about. Maybe all that roaming is just cause all the lands were take up by the "big folk" and now that they're out...
So in my homebrew without humans, Halflings would be the dominant race.
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I built mty world Alarond with two human based empires.
the first is the Imperita Republica Agusti. old common for "Imperial Republic of Agustus"
The Imperial Republic is not one single culture group, but encompasses five distinct kingdoms, the kingdom of Dom-Amoth, the Emerite of Savaory, Tristad, the kingdom of Vol-Amoth, and The Heartland itself.
The Empire has grown and shrunk over it's history, but has always existed in some form (much like china in real life) and has just weathered a civil war in which Emperor Agustus the 7th triumphed.
Savaory and Tristad were partly wrecked and each are concidering a crusade against the other, Amoth was split into Dom and Vol to appease warring factions.
the reinstated imperial sentate has fistfights and duels on the floor as hotly contented issues are debated.
above the political fray is the Emperor and the secret police Centuri Pretori Oochi.
this is more of a confederated constitounal monachary who relies on trade and military force for protection, rather than a single homogenious empire. while rebuilding is taking place entire areas are devistated by industiral and magical weapontry and nobody wants another civil war, people are jockying for position when agustus dies, and playing politics.
there is a lot of weapons and magical problems left after the great war, so bandit lords are becoming a problem, especally with Alchemical weapons and cannons having been introdouced.
Races within The Empire:
Gnolls, mercanries hired from the beastlands of the south to fight in the Great War, they brought their families, and when the war was over, did not leave. seperated from their savage kin and being exposed to imperial culture has resulted in the newest generation of gnolls being semi-absorbed into the surrounding communities. developing a mercenary code of ethics.
Elves: many elves loathe the empire, especally the Centuri Oochi for helping the fall of the Eldarri Republic by creating a rift between elves and dwarves. But the newest generation has begun to realize that it has morphed into a diffrent creature in all but name. The Elvish city states must come to terms with this new reality. of note are the sunborn drow whom were defeated & reloacated after the death of lolith, they find trading with the empire grand, and humans far more fiendly than other elves.
Dwarves: merchant rivals of the drow, they have weathered the collapse of eldarri in the west better than their elven counterparts. under constant seige from the horrors below, they traded knowlage of gunpowder to the empire in extange for assistance a half century ago. their investment has paid off as humans invented firearms and cannons, including the leathal peppermill seige gun duing the civil war. the dwarves bought the schematics from unscruplious human mercs for a pittance.
Halflings: the mootlands of the halflings in the nothern swamps have been the empire's ally and enemy similtaniously for generations. halflings have their own slant on common, there is no word for "Honor" in the old halfling tounge.
Beastials: rare catfolk and ratfolk have found a safe haven in the empire, refugees steam into Savaroy causing serious economic and political unrest, clans carrying their grugdes with them.
Gnomes: gnomes are rare and isolated after their great cities in the sky flipped and crashed into the earth thousands of years ago.
the other is the Iron Crown Kingdom, one of the only human dominated states in the far north, they've embraced necromancy to stay alive. with zombies working the fields skeletons making up the bulk of their infantry. yet powerful and intelligent undead are ground under the heal of The Czar of Twilight.
there is one other human dominated land in the north but it's more of a tribal/cletic hodgepoge. the Valik are barbarians treat Holy War as if it were a football game, people die for their god, has a good time, and go to heaven afterwards. temples are more akin to the local football team. druids who were once the religious leaders of the tribes have been shoved aside by the "jolly crusaders" as Valik clerics are known
...The few dwarves that managed to stay in their home city when they cut it off got warped by a plague, and inbred until they are nearly mindless savages, diseased from birth and insane from the constant pain, only undiseased flesh eases their suffering...
...The few dwarves that managed to stay in their home city when they cut it off got warped by a plague, and inbred until they are nearly mindless savages, diseased from birth and insane from the constant pain, only undiseased flesh eases their suffering...Can't help myself.
Pretty much. :) I steal shamelessly from stuff like that. :)