5e Homebrew Setting: Malebolge, Post-Apocalyptic Fantasy

[Chaosmancer]

Thank you very much for your interest in this setting! It really does light up my day when I see somebody saying that this setting has awesome ideas in it. And I appreciatey our trying to comfort me about the lack of responses.

Not a problem, didn't have a lot of time, so I read as much as the gazeteer as I could and I'm throwing down some responses, but I've got a Roll20 game starting soon.

On Hermaphroditic Kobolds:

I'm not entirely sure what you mean about "using" the lizard-breasts. The lore-angle I was going for is that it plays into how kobolds are, or traditionally view themselves as anyway, cursed with a "mockery" of a form, a bleding of "elegant dragons" with "inferior humanoids". They should be dragons, but instead, they're this pale imitation that looks more like a humanoid aping a dragon. I figure it can't hurt anyone too badly, so I'll go ahead and post their current racial gazetteer, let you see how I ended up working it.

I saw this paragraph and thought, "okay, kind of cool idea" and then read the gazeteer was wasn't as impressed.

If having them is an indication of their fallen state, they should be dragons, but instead they look so much like humans it's wrong or embarrassing, that could be a cool angle to play with. But you're kind of ambivalent. I think you could lose the reptile breasts without any impact to the story you're trying to tell, they just don't seem to be serving enough of a purpose.

On Playable Races:

The basic principle I work for with my races is "Never Always Chaotic Evil, But Usually Chaotic Evil". There are inherently antagonistic races, but they're not monocultures that you never see any difference in. That's why kobolds have gone from "mad scientists whose desperation to turn themselves into dragons creates mutant monsters" to "aggressive, somewhat xenophobic reptilians who are trying to get away from the remnant tribes who still want to turn them all back into dragons". If my "blackbunnyfolk" idea does get done, you would still have defectors, renegades and those who just said "screw this!" because it's not that they're evil, it's that they're ruled by evil tyrants, and that screws things up for everyone.

I get avoiding monocultures (though personally I have no problem presenting a monoculture and then chipping away at it in practice), but not exactly what I was trying to get at.

In my world of Arista the Yuan-Ti have an their entire religion based around the idea of ritualistic cannibalism. It isn't evil, it isn't even done to the unwilling. In fact, consuming an unwilling individual is seen as a great shame. They aren't evil or good, they believe in reviving their overdiety, remaking the world anew and achieving perfection and harmony in "wholeness" instead of the fractured reality they have now. They exist, their empire exists, I have no need for players to play any Yuan-Ti though. If someone really, really wanted to I could see about making it work, but I'm not going to offer it. Same with Drow, I reworked the origins and motivations of Drow completely. Lolth isn't evil as much as she is a media represented paranoid schizophrenic. She is insane, what effects does having an insane goddess have on a culture. I figured they have the backstabbing and plotting that they normally have, but it is less "because evil" and more a ongoing "gentleman's game" (Ah, I see you poisoned my tea, a wonderful vintage. Did you enjoy the poison on the fork? Oh yes, quite a good attempt that was my friend) Think Addams family.

The point is, both of these cultures exist, but I feel no desire to make them easily accessible to the players. The players will get more enjoyment I think out of encountering these strange cultures than in trying to emulate them .

On Your Question:

I actually don't have plans on running this. I've never DMed, I don't have anyone I can play with, and I don't really think I'd be much good at it. I'm building this world because it's an image in my head that I need to exorcise, and it's good personal training. As for the query you ask... I don't have an answer for you, I'm afraid. As I said, I'm no DM, so I don't have the skills to properly answer you.

To not having anyone to play with, my best advice is to try out Roll20 or something similiar. They aren't the absolute best, but they are good enough for the people who enjoy using them. I'm growing to tolerate it with this group I was invited to and we are having a blast.

As to being no good at DMing, I doubt it is anything that practice couldn't fix. I was terrible, now everyone says I'm amazing (I figure I'm mediocre but what do I know)

And out of time. Can't be late to this party, we've got massive inter-party conflict to ride out

 

[QuietBrowser]

Not a problem, didn't have a lot of time, so I read as much as the gazeteer as I could and I'm throwing down some responses, but I've got a Roll20 game starting soon.

Thank you very much for your interest in this setting! It really does light up my day when I see somebody saying that this setting has awesome ideas in it. And I appreciatey our trying to comfort me about the lack of responses.


On Hermaphroditic Kobolds: I'm not entirely sure what you mean about "using" the lizard-breasts. The lore-angle I was going for is that it plays into how kobolds are, or traditionally view themselves as anyway, cursed with a "mockery" of a form, a bleding of "elegant dragons" with "inferior humanoids". They should be dragons, but instead, they're this pale imitation that looks more like a humanoid aping a dragon. I figure it can't hurt anyone too badly, so I'll go ahead and post their current racial gazetteer, let you see how I ended up working it.

I saw this paragraph and thought, "okay, kind of cool idea" and then read the gazeteer and I wasn't as impressed.

If having them is an indication of their fallen state, they should be dragons, but instead they look so much like humans it's wrong or embarrassing, that could be a cool angle to play with. But you're kind of ambivalent. I think you could lose the reptile breasts without any impact to the story you're trying to tell, they just don't seem to be serving enough of a purpose.

I appreciate the sentiment. Your statement is definitely viable, but you've made me curious; is there any way I could edit the relevant paragraph in the gazetteer to recapture that initial "okay, kind of a cool idea" that you've said I've missed? I would much rather keep them and make them fit, because they were always intended as being part of what emphasizes their status as "fallen dragons", than simply take the easy route and abandon them.

Incidentally, I'm still morbidly curious about how creepy their reproductive strategy ultimately came across as in the gazetteer proper, if you can spare a thought on that after you've gamed.

I get avoiding monocultures (though personally I have no problem presenting a monoculture and then chipping away at it in practice), but not exactly what I was trying to get at.

The point is, both of these cultures exist, but I feel no desire to make them easily accessible to the players. The players will get more enjoyment I think out of encountering these strange cultures than in trying to emulate them.

It's a good point, but, well, since I don't have players, I'm working on this entire project for one simple reason: I like world-building. Even the racial gazetteers are more about fleshing out the world so people who look into this project can better experience the world I'm making. I don't need to worry about things like "can the players play this?" because I'm not doing this for my particular group to run. I'm doing this because I want to make this world.

To not having anyone to play with, my best advice is to try out Roll20 or something similiar. They aren't the absolute best, but they are good enough for the people who enjoy using them. I'm growing to tolerate it with this group I was invited to and we are having a blast.

As to being no good at DMing, I doubt it is anything that practice couldn't fix. I was terrible, now everyone says I'm amazing (I figure I'm mediocre but what do I know)

And out of time. Can't be late to this party, we've got massive inter-party conflict to ride out

Appreciate the sentiment... but, well, let's just say that Roll20 isn't an option for me. I literally can't run it, thanks to the network strength I'm forced to operate on where I live. Talking about this stuff on forums is all that I have.




And on a more cheerful note, here's my first draft of the Forgeborn's Phyisology entry for their gazetteer. How do people think they look? I will confess, a big part of their inspiration came from 4e's elemental dwarves - Azers, Galeb Duhr and Eisk Jaat - with a little from this pic by an artist called MarkDaySaid that I'm pretty sure I can't link to here due to it being NSFW.

Although considered mutants by their "pureblood" kinsfolk, the forgeborn have not diverged that greatly from the template of their kin.


Like pureblood Sonnlinor, forgeborn dwarves fundamentally resemble short but strongly built humans; though they only reach heights of 4'3 to 4'9", their powerful frames, broad builds and natural muscles means that they can easily weigh as much as the average human. Where forgeborn differ from purebloods, however, is in what they call their "manifestations".


A forgeborn is defined by his or her inherent affinity for elemental energy, which always has some physical effect on their body. At its most basic, forgeborn all possess very unusual coloration of the eyes - both irises and sclera, skin, and hair. Unlike purebloods, who have fundamentally human appearances, forgeborn are more alien looking.


Members of one forgeborn clan may have fiery dark red-orange hair, charcoal black to ash-gray skin, red-gold irises and copper sclera. In contrast, members of a second clan may have snow-white or frostbite-blue skin and hair, and a third may electric blue eyes and "lightning yellow" hair.


Precise colorations do tend to run in family lines, and usually, although not always, suggest one particular "element" from their innate affinity for storm, earth, ice, fire and metal. Mixed elemental appearances are only slightly less common, and in some clans are encouraged.


However, these strange colors are only the most common of "manifestations". The elemental nature of forgeborn can and frequently does display itself in more overtly supernatural fashions, and those forgeborn with particularly strong natures often display much more dramatic or much larger numbers of such tells.


Examples of such manifestations include, but are by no means limited to, eyes that visibly resemble crackling electricity or burning flames, faintly luminescent hair that moves and so looks like fire, growths of stone or never-melting ice instead of hair, exhaling small clouds of mist or smoke, faceted gemstone-like teeth, small stony or crystalline nodules on the skin, hair that resembles clouds (complete with flashes of luminescence like lightning), blood that ignites in a flash-burn when exposed to air, and developing a crust of rimefrost instead of sweating.


These traits are, again, more commonly seen in singular element-dominant forgeborn, but mixed elemental tells are not unheard of.

 

[Chaosmancer]

So after reading the Gazette for Kobolds.... honestly I'm confused. Why emphasis the differences in gender and then make them able to switch genders? Why state there is no problem with same-sex unions, when they have no such thing because they switch sex at will?

Personally, I would just remove the concept of gender from them. We as a 2 gender species have a framework, if I say someone is biologically a woman, that indicates a set of characteristics that is completely different from someone who is biologically male. Your kobolds don't have this, to the same degree, but you seem to be unable to abandon the remnants of it. They would have little concept of gender (depending on their exposure to other species) because they can flow between male and female whenever they feel like it. So, why not go full bore and remove those traces, why not have the only difference between male and female be a pheromone or a coloration of their scales, something that would be glaringly obvious to other kobolds but completely missed by outsiders.


Honestly, I don't find any of it creepy or off-putting, except that they seem suck in the middle of human biology and kobold biology and I don't see a reason not to just make them fully kobolds. Honestly, the physical frailty and bipedal nature of kobolds is enough to drive home the disparity between them and dragons. Let them be weird and alien, not like us but slightly different.


Honstly, the Forgeborn, all I could think about were either the Genasi or the wizards from D20 Monkey's setting that I can never remember the name to. Cool of course, but I don't see much to analyze.

 

[QuietBrowser]

Ah, I think there's been some confusion. It's not that they switch genders... I guess maybe I made things a bit too PG rated, and that clouded things. I was just worried about how the folks would handle it. I'll explain their reproductive anatomy, since I've obviously muddled things, I just hope it's not too graphic.

Spoiler

Kobolds are male and female, in that they do have two different body-types that are more orientated towards one of the sexual roles - inseminating, or gestating. They are hermaphrodites in that all kobolds have both male and female sexual organs simultaneously.

"Male" kobolds have a penis contained within a groinal slit and a cloaca - a combination anus and vagina - under their tail. A distinct "branch" of their internal cavity leads to a fully functional uterus and set of ovaries, meaning that these "male" kobolds can be inseminated through what is, in human terms, anal sex. These kobolds are orientated towards doing the inseminating, though; their phalluses are larger, their testes are more productive, they can more readily stimulate a penetrated partner, and their sperm count is generally higher, meaning they have greater chance at fertilizing another kobold's eggs than being fertilized themselves. This is why, in general, a "male" kobold will only produce half as many eggs when impregnated compared to a "female" kobold.

"Female" kobolds, in comparison, are built for producing eggs. They have a frontal vagina, a retractile phallus taking the place of a clitoris, and an anus. More of their internal cavity is given over to their uterus and ovaries, meaning their internal testes are comparatively small; they do not produce as much sperm as as the "males" do, and their smaller penises make penetrating sex slightly more difficult for them compared to "males", but they can still effectively inseminate a kobold partner if they desire to.

In essence, what I did in the gazetteer was an attempt to convey my idea of "undifferentiated hermaphrodite dragons being forced, however crudely, into the human framework, complete with pseudo-males and pseudo-females", in a way that was hopefully not too graphic for the readers. It looks like I may have been too worried about reader reactions, and in the end confused the issue because... yeah, they're supposed to be hermaphroditic all the time, just some are better at carrying and some are better at fertilizing, not "males turn into females and vice versa".

Does that explain things better?

 

[QuietBrowser]

So, I've been thinking about the shin'hare expy race, and I was wondering if folks would mind giving me feedback on this stuff?

The current name I'm thinking of using for them is Draeg, a slightly modified version of Drag, which in AD&D was elfin for Hatred or Malice. I'm open to better suggestions, though.

Like the shin'hare, the Draega are a very heavily regimented society, though not overtly Japanese. This is the current hierarchy I've envisioned for them:

• Sacrifice: The lowest of the low, a Sacrifice is a Draeg either literally bred to be slaughtered or guilty of some "crime" against the rest of their people. Sacrifices are generally killed immediately to fuel blood magic rituals, but, in the case of adults demoted to the rank, are also used for the most hideous of combat roles. These are the Draega sent charging across the equivalent of a minefield, or thrown unarmed into the den of a monster so that it will be so torpid from gorging on their flesh that the rest of the warren can capture it unharmed.
• Fodder: The default rank of the Draega, Fodder make up the vast serf-militias that are the backbone of Draeg warrens. Their lives are nasty, brutal and usually fairly short, because any one Fodder is as replaceable as any one arrow in a quiver.
• Blooded: Those Fodder who survive long enough may, potentially, win the rank of Blooded. These are capable enough soldiers that they are actually given recognition as individuals, rather than just an interchangeable faceless mob. They still form the bottom of the "true" Draeg totem pole, but they are not sent to the slaughter as casually as the Fodder are.
• Blade: Elite soldiers, the Blades are those warriors whose skills and abilities have warranted merit, propelling them to a place beyond even the Blooded. What this amount to in "crunch" is that they are Draega with adventurer class levels.
• Highblade: Elite of the elite, the Highblades are the most skilled and well-trained of the Blades.
• Exalted: The highest rank any normal Draeg can hope to climb, the Exalted are the general rulers of their population, second in power only to the Eternals. These are the warlords and archmages, the master monks and the chief assassins.
• Lifebringer: Technically part of the Exalted rank, but in practice slightly above it, the Lifebringers are an all-female order of Draeg mages who use perverse fertility magics to produce unnaturally large and quickly-spawned litters of Fodder and Sacrifice. They are the primary "breeder caste" of the Draega.
• Eternal: The true rulers of the Draega, these are the reincarnations of the aelfar lich-wraiths who created the Draega in the first place, endlessly taking new bodies at birth when their old ones wear out.

 

[QuietBrowser]

So, I don't know if anyone's still reading this project or not, the lack of posts make it hard to tell, but I could use folks willing to talk about something.

Specifically, with Volo's Guide and my own efforts at racial homebrewing, I wanted to talk about the races of Malebolge, and whether or not I should adjust them in various ways.

For starters, let me say this: I HATE the official writeup for the Kobold and will be using my own homebrewed version, although I would like to better refine it and could really use arguments for and against changing it from a subrace-based species to a variable trait-based one ala the Tiefling.

Secondly, my plan was to use Half-Orcs for Orks and Forest Gnomes for Goblins, and that plan hasn't changed thanks to Orcs turning out to be "Half-Orcs with -2 Int and Aggressive". But, at the same time, I found myself really liking the official writeups for the Goblin, Hobgoblin, and even the Bugbear. Since the existant plan for Orks and Goblins was that they're due to inherent instabilities in the dwarven alchemy that created them from elven captives, should I consider incorporating the official goblinoids as more mutant strains of orkoid?

Thirdly, I could really use folks opinions on the topic of "how much is too much?" These races aren't all going to share the same little stretch of land. What I'm essentially planning on doing is covering large swatches of distinct "territory" - think how Fallout as a series has covered... whatever the hell the New California Republic was called in FO1, the Capital Wasteland, the Mojave (what is the Mojave's title, anyway?) and the Boston Commonwealth - and so that means I've got a very, very big map to scatter all these races in as I see fit. But, at the same time, even if this is me creating a sandbox that others can play in, there's still the problem of oversaturation, isn't there? Even if, say, the Kingdom of the Snakefolk is way down here in the south-east and the Tritons of the Poisoned Sea are up in the northwestern continental shelf, isn't that technically making too many races?

Finally, pretty much all of my races are essentially planned as magical mutants, from calibans to shadar-kai to the various beastfolk. But, Rifts was a big inspiration for this setting. Do folks think I should consider more "stranded" type races? For example, Diaboli, Tieflings, Aasimar and Genasi all being fluffed as natives of other worlds or other planes who were stranded here during the Black Dawn, to emphasize just how messed up this planet got during Arcano-Nuclear Global Holocaust?

 

[Lanliss]

I think one of the reasons you might be getting little feedback is that you have so much, and seem so sure on it. When I started a homebrew world thread, before the data loss, I got tons of feedback, probably because my posts had very little real information, and a lot of questions. I also had a lot of things that were open and obviously vague enough to prompt people into asking about them. These were "cleverly" laid traps on my part, because I seem incapable of answering a question I ask myself, so I had to get others to ask them for me.

On the other end of the spectrum is You, with so many awesome ideas, fully fleshed out already. I get the feeling that you can do this on your own, and all people on here could do is expedite the process, or maybe sway you slightly away or towards a thing here and there. I want to apologize for not having much helpful advice of my own.

I can say, with my tiny bit of experience, that having a lot of space is always good. I am not sure on specifics yet, but I think my homebrew world may be bigger than Jupiter, just so that if something new comes up I can say "Yes, that exists, it lives over here". The only way this does not apply is if your World's inhabitants already know the whole world, in which case you just have a lot of writing to do, and not much space to add anything new.

Best of luck with this, and eventually DMing if you do ever get the chance.

 

[QuietBrowser]

Thank so much for saying that this setting has "awesome" ideas - I don't suppose you'd care to elaborate on what those are? ;p

Likewise, I really appreciate you saying that I look like I can handle this on my own. Truth of the matter is, I have some serious self-esteem issues and a tendency to both overthink things and worry a lot about what other people think of my work. Hence some of the debacle with the kobold, which I really should get around to properly revising at some point...

What it all boils down to is that, really, I do work better and more consistently when I have people willing to share their opinions and comment on my ideas, which is why I keep trying to get folks involved in this. It helps me focus more when I know that people are paying attention - plus, I hate it when a conversation seems to just stop dead; I'm still hovering in hopes that [MENTION=6801228]Chaosmancer[/MENTION] will come back and finish the conversation we were having on kobolds.

But, seriously, thank you for the words of encouragement. I'll just have to try and keep poking along with this project... it's just, I've hit that point where I've got so much on my plate I really don't know where to start. I was kind of hoping I'd get people willing to help me better refine the list of races, whether it needs cutting down or expanding. I've long been trying to figure out what to do with elves and whether or not I should include more planar and/or demihuman races - I can't populate the world solely with beastman races, fetish fueling as they are!

Even if Triton stats to create a race of seahorse-folk is an intriguing prospect...

 

[Lanliss]

Not sure I could elaborate... Everything? Anything original and interesting is awesome, IMO, and this covers both of those. I will admit that I was a bit hesitant to get into this thread, since Apocolyptic is not really a main interest of mine, it that is just an opinion thing.

I am almost similar in demeanor to you, in that I do not think much of my own work, at least at first. However, I also have the ultimate super power of not caring what others think. This could be argued to be a bad thing, but I view it as an excellent shield in today's world of spears and cannonfire.

To give a quick run down of what I had in my thread, I had something like three paragraphs of "history", and then the question "would you be interested in this world?". This prompted answers like "no, because X" or "yes, but I would be even more interested if Y" or "You're history says A, what about B". These helped me springboard my ideas, since at the time I had little more than a basic synopsis of what my world was. I do not think this style would help you though, since you already know the answers to a good number of questions about your world.

 

[Istbor]

I like the general idea of your world. A once peaceful place turned upside down and inside out. Great cities become massive labyrinths and dungeons. It is a cool image and idea, one that seems like you have well in hand which as Lanliss stated, could be why there has not been a lot of responses.

I am not an avid fan of 'over the top' races. I don't dislike the occasional fresh idea (in fact I am totally excited for Volo's), but a couple of fellow players back in college seemed to beat the uniqueness of unique races out it.

So... Horse people and Bunny Liches are not my thing.

Though I will agree that the concept is pretty joke provoking. I see what you are hoping for with painting them as very evil and mobid, but then you just have evil morbid bunnies. I want to think that it will work, but in my experience, once something is a joke in your campaign or world, it will generally remain that way.

As a Final Fantasy fan, I approve of your Rat folk. I would be totally cool with a non-evil Skaven race really, that was plucked out of Warhammer. I guess... I just like ratmen.

I am not sure what is trying to be accomplished for your Kobolds. I have to agree with Chaos, that subtle or almost undetectable differences between the sexes from outsiders, but glaringly obvious from the Kobolds perspective. As is, it just feels like we are being told details that don't carry a lot of meaning and are somewhat confusing as written.

I feel the stock Kobold form is ripe for this sense of mockery of form. Unless I missed that these do in fact have wings then, not only are they diminutive in size compared to Dragons, they are flightless. Did your Dragons breathe flame or other elements? Do these Kobolds? Again, I apologize if I missed some that while trying to cover a lot of information on this race. I think your core concept for them is great, keep them both sexed. I just don't see the need for this shadowing of Human genders as a gaffe to their race (which you did state could be as a sign of strength, so contradictory) when their differences from their Draconic ancestors should be what causes them grief.

All said and done, it is your world, so you make the rules. We can only input opinion. I will still read it and offer any thoughts should you seem to want them.