Of course you can't get PMs, you're a guy.
Here ya go, in a big long barely sensate stream of consciousness style rambling:
Serpent Kingdoms just came out for FR. It's another in a long line of supplements I'm never going to buy; I mean if it was thrown at me from a moving car I might pick it up and keep it, but otherwise I have a finite amount of resources in both the financial and time-related areas, and another $30 sourcebook for a place I won't go in a game world I don't run just isn't going to make the cut.
But I have been thinking about serpents and serpent kingdoms a lot these days. It's a great name for a book. Every time I design a game world, I always find a place to stick a little country called Slinai, which is my repository for all things serpentine. I've never fleshed it out very much because it’s never come up. Yuan-ti had the big civilization, lizardfolk were the tribal nomads, and it was all very humid and jungly.
A game I ran a few years ago, I decided to scrap the whole D&D cosmology without telling anyone and run one based more on Stargate (the movie, more than the tv show, which I never watched), AvP, and all those alien-hybrid colonization conspiracy theories. Instead of other planes, there were other planets, which corresponded to what the sages and scholars thought the outer planes were like. I think I was going to cross this over with my idea for a D&D game based on the Doom video game, but it doesn't really matter. In fact, forget I brought it up. Put it completely out of your mind.
So I've been thinking again of the serpent kingdoms, and it occurs to me that a D&D world (doesn't really matter which one) might've had an environmental development much like our own world. Warm climates, big lizards, and so on. And since it's a fantasy game with magic and scaly gods, the scaly races could have come about during this time... perhaps even developed highly advanced civilizations. (
Highly advanced meaning anything you want it to in this context, they could be like the Mayans with a stone age tech level and a superior understanding of mathematics and astronomy, or they could have had Jetson cars and ray guns.)
Then the climates shift and the world cools and the scaly gods go to sleep for a bit. Most of the reptilian races and cultures are wiped out in the intervening millions of years, except perhaps for a small band around the equator. (Assuming an earth-like set up, though there's no reason that with a different planetary alignment one pole couldn't be a tropical land of eternal sunshine and the other couldn't be the land of eternal frost and night. I think Eternia was set up this way.) Temples lay buried, technologies forgotten, that sort of thing. The equatorial regions could be the Land of the Lost areas, where remnants of these societies and peoples (for lack of a better term) remain, where mammalian life never established a foothold.
Kobolds would be the lower caste, the worker-slaves, the tribal bandits... as S7 eloquently put it in another topic, the
vermin. Lizardfolk would make up most of the "civilians", with cultural influences similar to those of primitive SE Asia and South American societies (lizardfolk always seem to get the best ziggurats, in any system). Troglodytes would inhabit the underdark areas, and probably have more of a presence in the mountainous regions. Bullywugs aren't technically reptilians... in fact I don't even know where bullywugs are in 3.5, but I'd lump them in here because, damnit, I
like bullywugs, and I don't care who knows it.
And then from there, the mob-bosses of this place, the Yuan-ti. Always good go-to badguys, because they're powerful, devious and so dang creepy. Conan fought snake men, He-Man and Skeletor fought snake men... Indiana Jones had to fight snakes and men at different times... I may be drifting slightly from my point, but the Yuan-ti make good heavies. I think their cities would be the most technologically developed, their societies would be the most advanced. Whereas most of the reptilians would be semi-nomadic tribesmen, hunter/gatherers and subsistence farmers and fishers, the Yuan-ti would have governments, writing, agriculture and trade, all supported by slave and serf labor.
Then we get into the fun part, the domesticated animals. Since mammals never made it big and the big lizards never died out, there's going to be a lot of dinosaurs wearing harnesses. Triceratopses (and the like) will function much like elephants did in ancient societies, as beasts of burden and beasts of war. Elasmosaruses would make good barges. Velociraptors (just sounds cooler than "deinonychus") will make excellent cavalry mounts. I am currently envisioning a Brontosaurus as an enormous mobile weapons platform with lizardfolk archers clinging to its back and sides and yuan-ti blasters letting fly with all manner of arcane, divine or psionic destruction. If you're going to have a Serpent Kingdom, you'd better get them into a land war with someone because they certainly have the nasties for it. ("You fell victim to one of the classic blunders. The first is never get involved in an land war with the Serpent Kingdoms, because they have
200 ton dinosaur warbeasts that will stomp your whole frickin' army into paste that they will then put onto crackers and feed to their young, but only slightly less well known than that is...")
I don't know what else you could do with the brontosauruses, except maybe use them for mass transit. ("It's a living.") Unless you can come up with something to use bronto crap for, like fuel or mortar or fertilizer, because you're going to have plenty of it. I envision entire poop-based economies. People whose entire lives will be based around the collection, refinement and redistribution of poop. Poop smiths (I can already see a Master-Blaster kobold lizardman combo). Poop barons.
There are probably plenty of D&D creatures that are reptilian in nature and would fit in here. Wyverns as aerial units. Giant lizards. Shocker lizards, particularly if they are used as emergency generators. (Every pc should, at least once, have his genitals wrapped in copper wire attached to a shocker lizard. That's my policy.) Couatl and lillends, being native outsider feathered serpentfolk, would fit in well here, particularly as the god-king to some lizardfolk (who have, as has been noted, the best ziggurats). Basilisks and medusas, as well. I could see a medusa getting along very well in Yuan-ti society. She could infiltrate it, or run for public office. I could see either working.
And dragons. Of course dragons. Blacks and greens in the swamps and jungles, reds in the volcanoes, blues in the deserts, whites... not much in the picture really. Also bronze and copper and gold and topaz. Speaking of deserts, doesn't a race of gila monster lizardfolk sound cool, or rattlesnake yuan-ti?
Lycanthropes. Lizardfolk were-crocodiles, weresnakes, weredinosaurs. Werevelociraptors. Werepterodactyls. Probably not too many bigger lycanthropes running around, I'm leery of weres changing more than one size category, and even then I think its a little cheezy. But a kobold who turns into a monitor lizard, I'm fine with that. Sure the hybrid forms will be a little tough to pick out, probably similar to glabro and hispo forms from Werewolf. A lizardfolk werecroc in hybrid form would look like a bigger, nastier lizardman, with a more recognizably crocodile head.
Customs and society would be a lot different. I don't know that much about lizards, but I don't know that much about people either and I still do okay. Pheromones might play a role in social interactions, an aspect that humanoids would likely miss out on. Saurials did this, didn't they? Used a smell-based language? (Fighting the urge to make another poop baron joke.)
Food might have to be consumed live or nearly so, I'm thinking there's something somewhere about lizardfolk not being able to digest cooked food. (Or am I thinking of Newcomers from Alien Nation? Either way, it works.) Rats could be a delicacy, especially in yuan-ti cities-- and woe to the human delegate that risks offending his host by not finishing his warm, barely dead rat.
Of course it still has fur on it, that's how you know its fresh! Tiny snakes and lizards would make pets and pests. I always wanted to do that with a yuan-ti ship, have the pc's take it over and find it infested with snakes the way a human ship would be with rats. Or, birds would make good pests. I could see lizards and birds not getting along.
Well, aside from old Flintstone cartoons, what resources should I be looking at for something like this? Dinotopia?
Anonymous Rex? (Did anyone else see this btw? It was on Sci-fi. Basically, it was Blade with were-dinosaurs. Very weird.)
---------------------------------------
Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 10:11 am
I would definitely see a snakeman's rattle as being something he takes pride in, something of a status symbol. Some might decorate it with piercings and coins, others might dye it with ink like a tattoo. But they have the lower body of giant snakes, they have to have something to compare in the locker room.
Sidebar: I saw a special on PBS about a year ago about rattlesnake hunts in middle Georgia. They walk around until they hear the rattle, then they pour gasoline down the hole and when the snake comes out they kill it. Used to, they could hear the snakes easily, but lately (in the past decade or so) they've started to have to use listening cones and stethoscope-like devices. Essentially, what they had been doing all these years were catching the snakes easiest to hear, the ones with the biggest rattles, and removing them from the gene pool. So rattlesnakes in middle GA have been getting quieter and quieter every year. Eventually, they're going to breed a completely silent rattlesnake.
I did a search on the Wizards site for reptilian monsters; it came up with 22 of them which I don't think is a complete list. For instance, it mentions two lizardfolk subraces, but doesn't mention the base lizardfolk race from the MM (though kobolds from the MM make the list, so the MM is on there). Nagas were mentioned, and that's a good call. Can't forget about the nagas.
Nagas, along with the couatl and the lizardfolk are important because that means this is not just a land of hideously evil serpent men. Nagas vary in alignment but at least one type is usually lawful good (and there are about 5 more naga types in OA, another book I haven't read), lizardfolk tend towards neutral (as do humans), and Couatl are inherently lawful good native outsiders. It's probably pretty likely a lizardfolk society that reverse a Couatl as its God-King (or you know, Queztecouatl) would be lawful good, and have lizardfolk who have taken some variation of the paladin class. (And if the idea of a lizardman paladin summoning a celestial velociraptor as his mount doesn't make you giddy, well, then you're no son of mine.)
They make fairly spot on representations of Yuan-ti, though sadly none that fill the role of the abominations. I guess snake bodies don't make particularly exciting action figures. The 2002 MOTU cartoon and comix are a great resource for D&D art, I dug through a lot of that stuff when I was thinking about making a d20 version of it (and I did make character versions of most of the MOTU, Thundercats and Thundarr the Barbarian stuff).
The Reptilian Subtype, a personal rant.
The "Reptilian" subtype doesn't cover reptiles. Let me say that again. The "Reptilian" subtype doesn't cover reptiles. The MM makes a point that it only refers to a small number of reptilian based monstrous humanoids, which is fine because it doesn't actually "do" anything. All you get for being a Reptilian subtype is a quick notation about being exothermic, without any hints as to what that might mean in play (other than, you know, lizardmen probably don't fare too well in the arctic).
The Slayers Guide to Lizardfolk, by Mongoose Publishing, goes into greater detail about what being cold-blooded might mean, about a paragraph's worth. They suggest a -2 penalty to Fort Saves to resist cold temperatures (perhaps even extending this to Cold spells, though thats my idea and not theirs), and that lizardfolk who get too hot or too cold become sluggish, perhaps suffering the effects of a Slow spell (though I'd probably go with Fatigue and Exhaustion effects). It goes on to mention that lizardfolk tend to regulate their body temperature through environmental means, laying in the sun in the morning hours to build up heat, staying in the shade or in pools of water during the middle of the day, or lairing in underground caverns where there are fewer dramatic heat variations.
A few simple things like this tacked on to the Reptilian subtype, which would then be applied to all reptiles, wouldn't offend me. If they're going to make the distinction between warm-blooded and cold-blooded creatures, there should be some distinction to it, otherwise why bother? Personally, I like the idea of Yuan-ti having heat rock furniture and cooling pools; marvels of engineering that the palaces of the elite are designed around. A mix of a Roman bathhouse and a herpetarium. Likewise there could be Continual Heat stones that reptilians wear in order to help regulate their body temp, probably priced similarly to Everburning Torches.
Part of the problem on the Wizards site Monster Index is there are multiple spellings of "Reptillian", mostly concerning how many L's are in there. "Reptillian" has 22 listings, "Reptilian" has 7 listings, and neither include Lizardfolk, though different lizardfolk subraces are in either category. Huh. Lizardfolk are in the "Repitilian" category. So that's 30 Rep(i)til(l)ian creatures total. Important to note. Sadly, this points to the MM3 and Monster Compendium: Monsters of Faerun as books of interest, as they contain variant lizardfolk, yuan-ti, yuan-ti templates, and the all-important Bullywug. I'll keep my eye on the bargain bins.
---------------------------------------
Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 2:31 pm
Also, one word:
Serpentor.
---------------------------------------
Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 10:27 am
Grippli! I was trying to figure out what the other frog humanoid was; I knew there way one but I couldn't remember the name. (This also relates back to my theory there might be too many monsters in D&D. I mean, how many frog humanoids do we really need?)
As I recall Grippli were more like giant frogs with opposable thumbs, and bullywugs were more like humanoids with froggy features, but still. According to the WotC Monster Index, the Grippli hasn't made it into 3e yet. (I'm sure they're in the process of putting together another $30 sourcebook that will cover this, Hopping Death or somesuch.)
Did I ever tell you my idea for a Bullywug-crewed pirate ship called Kermit's Revenge? No? Well then, let me tell you I have an idea for a pirate ship crewed by Bullywugs. And the funny thing is, its called Kermit's Revenge. (The first mate is a bugbear. Wocka-wocka-wocka.)
I ran a Mythic History game earlier this year for a variant system called True20. Nobody liked the mechanics, but the overall idea for the game was one of my favorites. Basically, in some version of the "real" world, aliens colonized earth and began using it for their genetic experiments, trying to breed the perfect slave/soldier/worker race. (It's an idea I stole from Stargate and various other crazy people.) Mythology was the history, history was the mythology... myths were the pop culture of the game.
It was a way to explain all the many races found in the world, for one thing. I was adapting a bunch of different sources (basically, "anything"), and it was neat to see how the fantasy races break down in similar groups since we all tend to steal from the same places. Anubi from Wargods correspond to the Sibeccai from AU, to gnolls from D&D, to Wolfen from Palladium. Basti, litorian, terrig, tezcat, catmen. And so on.
A Serpent kingdoms idea would fit in nicely with that sort of world.
---------------------------------------
Wed Dec 06, 2006 11:16 pm
I've wanted to work in a villainous snake cult ever since I picked up a load of snakey Heroclix in an online auction. Plus, I like the idea. It goes back to Conan, I guess, or perhaps even earlier. H.G. Wells said in his Outline of History that every culture in the history of the world has gone through a period where they worshipped the Sun, and the Serpent.
There is a point, in trying to create a culture for a race that has followed and entirely different evolutionary path, where the imagination fails us. The Monster Manual says that yuan-ti cities have ramps instead of steps. That's a bit of an odd jumping off point for the introduction to a culture. "Hideous, evil snakemen. All their cities are wheelchair accessible." Which is fine I guess if among the party's magical items there are a pair of Boots of Rollerblading, otherwise it doesn't seem like it would come up much.
But it is the tiny details that sell a place. Like they say about sketch comedy, if they buy the premise, they'll buy the joke.
---------------------------------------
Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2006 6:12 pm
Yuan-ti find cooked food abhorrent; they prefer their meals freshly to slightly dead, warm and with a little kick to it. They can digest cooked food if they have to-- and purebloods infiltrating human society often do-- but most yuan-ti find it disgusting. Depending on how closely yuan-ti are to their serpent ancestors, this probably means that instead of eating multiple small meals throughout the day, they ingest one large meal followed by a dormant period of digestion, after which they have a couple of days of regular activity before they need to feed again.
Even so, I'm guessing this means the Yuan-ti aren't fielding large armies. It’s no accident that in most mythology the gods of warfare are also gods of agriculture; armies march on their stomachs. (Which I guess the Yuan-ti do literally, but not my point.) A force that is subsisting on live game, even if it only has to eat every couple of days, isn't going to be much more than skirmishers.
The closest the Yuan-ti ideal of warfare comes to our own is that of small, guerilla forces that rely on speed and stealth; hitting enemy fortifications, supply trains and soldiers in raids and ambushes before melting back into the jungle. The idea of marshalling a large force to clash with another army in a war by attrition makes no sense to the Yuan-ti mindset; its better to send assassins after the enemy generals, and then use skirmishers and saboteurs to exploit the chaos afterwards. Yuan-ti are serpents, and you only see them when they strike.
Yuan-ti are usually Chaotic Evil, meaning (militarily) they prize self-reliance over discipline. Warriors are expected to function on their own or in small groups. They are highly intelligent and not incapable of working together towards larger goals, but its not their natural inclination. A major Yuan-ti offensive would utilize many autonomous units with an understanding of the larger objective, but with their own particular goals.
Its likewise important to keep in mind how engrained the concept of deception is to the Yuan-ti. Purebloods excel in impersonating humans, so its a given that any human settlement of interest to the Yuan-ti, and certainly any hostile ones, are going to have pureblood spies. Any Yuan-ti strike force attacking such an area is going to have the terrain mapped out in great detail.
That's my impression of the Yuan-ti anyway. The lizardfolk and troglodytes tend to live in small tribal groups, so even in times of war would be unlikely to band together into large, conventional armies. I could see shock troops like troglodyte barbarians and lizardfolk rangers and druids (going by the favored classes of those races), and kobold sappers.
I'd say the closest thing to conventional forces the Yuan-ti would field would be the big dinosaur warbeasts. I'm not sure how many infantry units would be worth one gargantuan psionically-controlled brontosaurus, but I'm guessing it’s a lot. Or what the ground-shaking charge of a tyrannosaurus rex would do to the morale of your average shield wall. Or how much a triceratops would be like a tank on a fantasy battlefield, it's thick hide shrugging off arrows and spears as it gored its way through a pikewall.
---------------------------------------
Okay, so that's what I got. Its long on theory, short on practice, but hopefully you'll find some stuff in there thats you can use as a jumping off point to other things.
