These are an outline of my first notes on a new world I'm drawing up to use with PF. Any thoughts / reactions? Any suggestions?
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The main known civilised area of the world is centred on the Confederation, a group of seven countries. In the western Confederation are two hobgoblin nations (although these contain many settlements of goblins). In the eastern Confederation are five human nations (although these contain many halfling villages, and the cities have mixed human/halfling populations).
Early in the previous century, there was a long war between hobgoblins and humans. The military might of the hobgoblins was only thwarted by the magical prowess some humans have access to. Out of a ceasefire, the Confederation was born - and now humans and hobgoblins generally have cordial relations and free trade. However in hobgoblin nations, use of arcane magic is feared and strictly banned - generally on pain of death. Even in human lands, magical skills and items are uncommon and something to be handled with care and respect.
There are sometimes even consensual relationships between humans and hobgoblins - well tolerated in hobgoblin nations but only partially by humans. These sometimes lead to offspring - ‘hob-humans’; these children are generally healthy but always infertile.
To the north-west are dwarf lands and mountain wilderness; hobgoblins raid these as a source of slave labour, and dwarf slaves are also sold on to humans. Within human lands, some humans and halflings are opposed to this slavery, and factions of a secret ‘dwarf resistance’ are thought to be growing in strength. Dwarves and criminals are used across the Confederation for hard labour and popular gladiatorial contests.
To the immediate south of the Confederation are a number of independent human city-states, as well as one city-state whose population credit their origins to elves as well as to men. Further human lands lay further south, past a desert. To the west lies a vast nation inhabited by another race of hobgoblins with strange and foreign customs.
To the east and north-east are human and halfling settlements that border the wilderness and only loosely give allegiance to the Confederation. To the distant south-east a population of elves lives deep in thick forests; elf contact is infrequent but they are known and generally welcome in human lands. (Hobgoblins are mostly ignorant of elves, and mistake them for humans).
To the southwest lay the sea, allowing trade with the foreign human lands in the south and hobgoblin lands in the west.
From beyond these better known countries arrive rumours of fantastical people and beasts - dragons and giants in the distant north, mystical fey creatures in the far east and sea monsters away to the south.
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I'm switching round some racial features to get the flavour I want:
- Dwarves have +4 Con, -2 Chr, and the APG Craftsman, Deep Warrior and Stone Singer traits by default.
- Elves have +2 Dex, +2 Wis, -2 Con and the following racial traits different to normal:
* Base speed of 40 feet, but only 20 feet if wearing medium or heavy armour or encumbered.
* Elven Magic: Elves add +1 to the DC of any saving throws against enchantment spells that they cast. Elves with a Wisdom of 11 or higher also gain the following spell-like abilities: 1/day— detect magic, detect poison, know direction and speak with animals. The caster level for these effects is equal to the elf's level.
- Goblins are available as PCs and have these racial traits:
* +4 Dexterity, -2 Strength, -2 Charisma
* 60 ft Darkvision
* +4 racial bonus on Ride and Stealth checks
* Keen hearing: Goblins’ large ears give them a +2 racial bonus on Perception checks based on hearing.
* Small size (giving +1 AC, +1 attack roles, -1 CMB and CMD, +4 stealth), Base speed 30 ft.
* Weapon Familiarity: goblins are proficient with shortbows.
- Halflings have +4 Dexterity, –2 Strength and the Practicality racial trait from the APG
- Hobgoblins are available as PCs and have these racial traits:
* +2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution
* 60 ft Darkvision
* Sneaky: Hobgoblins gain a +2 racial Bonus on Stealth checks
* Keen hearing: Hobgoblins’ large ears give them a +2 racial Bonus on Perception checks based on hearing.
* Medium size, Base speed 30 ft.
* Weapon Familiarity: Hobgoblins are proficient with shortswords, longswords, bastard swords and shortbows.
- Hob-humans are available as PCs and have these racial traits:
* Hob-humans characters get a +2 bonus to one ability score of their choice at creation, reflecting their varied nature.
* 60 ft Darkvision
* Sneaky: hob-humans gain a +2 racial bonus on Stealth checks
* Medium size, Base speed 30 ft.
* Weapon Familiarity: hob-humans are proficient with shortswords, longswords, bastard swords and shortbows.
(Humans and half-elves are as per the core rules. No player half-orcs or gnomes)
Hobgoblins society is nocturnal, Human diurnal, so obviously that creates issues for trade/interaction.
Nice world here are my thoughts.
As slave race if they are used as menial labor dwarves might not have the more cultural racial traits of craftsman or deep warrior. Maybe have a different set of recital traits for dwarves born in slavery vs those who were born free.
I like having hobgoblins and goblins as PCs you might consider being sure that the NPCs have a range of alignments as well. Just as there are some humans who are slave owners they should be a few hobgoblins who are abolitionist though probably not very many.
I also like infertile half breeds. I have used that myself. You could add a half halfling half goblin small sized half breed as well.
Are you going to do a low magic world or just a feared magic region?
A solid plot twist with regards to dwarves could be a good idea. This could make their enslavement a tricky matter.
Maybe the dwarves utilize divine magic that is something unseen to hob and mankind alike? If the dwarves, enslaved or free, have a very religious society this can be a thorn in the side of the hobgoblins as they wouldn't know how to combat clerics or maybe even paladins. This could add some more flavor for a robust setting.
As slave race if they are used as menial labor dwarves might not have the more cultural racial traits of craftsman or deep warrior. Maybe have a different set of recital traits for dwarves born in slavery vs those who were born free.
I was thinking about this ... I think craftsman is fine (they can be inherently crafty), but the deep warrior is not suitable for those that didn't grow up in mines. I think I'll probably replace deep warrior with something more universal, and then come up with some suitable campaign/race traits for different dwarf backgrounds (freeborn, slave labourer, slave gladiator). I can't quite decide yet what to replace deep warrior with though.
EDIT: I'm going to replace Deep Warrior with Endurance as a Bonus Feat, and distinguish the backgrounds with traits. (Endurance also makes them more attractive as slaves; they can be pushed harder for longer).I like having hobgoblins and goblins as PCs you might consider being sure that the NPCs have a range of alignments as well. Just as there are some humans who are slave owners they should be a few hobgoblins who are abolitionist though probably not very many.
For sure. I wrote the initial summary as information that could be freely shared with players; the existence of hobgoblin sympathisers probably wouldn't be known to players at the beginning though.
I also like infertile half breeds. I have used that myself. You could add a half halfling half goblin small sized half breed as well.
I considered it but decided not to; they'd come into contact less often (goblins and halflings being both less populous, and travelling to each other's lands less), goblins tend to be less approachable (although there is still the option of violent conception). So, it might happen, but not often enough for me to consider making it a PC race.
Are you going to do a low magic world or just a feared magic region?
A somewhat low magic world. I'm not planning any restrictions (certainly not any major restrictions) on casters, but will make it harder to produce permanent magic items; maybe requiring something difficult to obtain or personally costly (rather than just money) to create a permanent magic item. Permanent magic items can never be bought freely (they might occasionally come up to buy in an NPC interaction). I'm still not sure the best mechanic; perhaps the creator of a permanent magic item has to imbue part of their life force (read: permanently give up 1 point of Con) in its creation; a simple rule that would definitely limit magic item creation and quantity. It's hard to imagine a typical caster creating more than a couple of items in their career with that limitation. I'm not planning on placing restrictions on scroll or potion creation.
A solid plot twist with regards to dwarves could be a good idea. This could make their enslavement a tricky matter.
Maybe the dwarves utilize divine magic that is something unseen to hob and mankind alike? If the dwarves, enslaved or free, have a very religious society this can be a thorn in the side of the hobgoblins as they wouldn't know how to combat clerics or maybe even paladins. This could add some more flavor for a robust setting.
I'm keen to make resistance-related activities available plots for adventures. Hobgoblins have their fair share of divine magic (though unlikely Paladins), but the birth/appearance of a powerful dwarf oracle (or sorcerer ... or oracle/sorcerer - given the hobgoblins' fear of magic) among the slaves/resistance could provide an interesting focus for the resistance effort. However, the slavery is well-established and efficiently run.
I've decided to go with different weapon proficiencies for the dwarves, depending on their background:
Weapon Familiarity:
Freeborn dwarves are proficient with shortswords and all types of crossbows, and treat any weapon with the word “dwarven” in its name as a martial weapon.
Slave-born labourer dwarves are proficient with heavy picks and light hammers.
Slave-born gladiator dwarves are proficient with battleaxes, flails, scimitars and halberds.
(I wanted to get away from the traditional image of dwarves always having warhammers and axes. If you live underground, weapons that need a lot of room to swing seem a bit of a liability; shortsword seems a better choice in confined space.)
(I'm surprised that the core manual doesn't do anything like this; it grants that half-orcs may have widely different backgrounds - some growing up with orcs, some with humans - but then grants them all the same weapon proficiencies regardless).
I've now created a map (much in need of place names; that's the next mini-project). In the map-making the confederation went from two to three hobgoblin-led states (but still five human-led).
Confederation area map jpeg on Google Drive
(I've actually got most of the continent mapped at the same scale (12 mile hexes)).
Each area labels the dominant sentient species in that area. The confederation areas show the species in black; 'free' areas show species in red. (Hobgoblin areas also contain about 30% goblins, confederation human areas contain halflings 20-25%).)
I've added all cities (definition of a city here: population 5000+).
For those not familiar with them: Norkers are goblinoids, a cousin of hobgoblins but slightly shorter (dwarf-sized), more typically chaotic, and have tough skin giving natural armour.
In this world, hobgoblins are descended from bugbears, and about 1 in 60 hobgoblin births gives rise to a 'throwback' bugbear - these hairy offspring are driven to the edges of hobgoblin society (although sometimes exploited as shock troops, or coerced into gladiatorial combat).