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5e Homebrew Setting: Malebolge, Post-Apocalyptic Fantasy
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<blockquote data-quote="Chaosmancer" data-source="post: 6938225" data-attributes="member: 6801228"><p>Sorry it took me so long to get back to this. I wanted to take time to go over things, not just post and bolt, but life has not been conducive to that.</p><p> </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p>Okay, it explains your intentions better, and for me reemphasizes my point. The differences between them are not the same differences as we see between male and female. It is big or small, front or back. So, why should they characterize them in the same way we do? A “same-sex” kobold couple in the way you have it set up is simply a couple with the same set-up instead of different set-ups. It’d almost make more sense for same-sex couples to be the norm rather than the other way around from how you’ve presented them.</p><p> </p><p>Their biology doesn’t support the terms your using in the same social context we use them.</p><p> </p><p>Also, spoilers are done with [sblock] </p><p> </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p>Sounds like a solid plan to me, bugbears seem like they’d make an excellent ork type, long-limbs give them advantage of reach in combat after making it harder for enemies to close, the sneak could be interpreted as shock tactics, a squad busting out of hiding and laying into an enemy will do massive carnage before the enemy can react.</p><p> </p><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p>Too many is a hard bar to judge. Arista technically has 14-15 races, sometimes more.</p><p> </p><p>Some of them all live together in the same kingdom, for example High elves, Wood Elves, and Gnomes are all distinctly different, and yet all reside in the massive Southern Woods, called the Feylands, while my dragonborn live isolated in the frozen north.</p><p> </p><p>Part of it is who is interacting with whom, and part of it is how secret do you want them to be. Your rat-people for example, are nearly completely isolated in those wastes, but you have at least one other race in their as their enemies. IF those two “kingdoms” are the only ones deep in the those Wastes it doesn’t feel crowded.</p><p> </p><p>In terms of players though, which I know is not exactly what you are going for, it would be best to start them in an area, and make only the races they would encounter in that area available. Everyone else is just interesting lore to be found later.</p><p> </p><p>Essentially, do you think it is too much? If you are populating an entire world, it could work, especially since some of your races necessarily must be living together.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>There are permanent portals to other planes correct? Blur the line and have them live on the border of those planes?</p><p> </p><p>I don’t think it is necessary , but I am almost completely unfamiliar with Rifts.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>A lot of interesting discussions I missed, but looking over your “world map”. My first thought is, are we sure we want to have all the races native to this “continent”? One very interesting thing you can do with highly magical ancient world spanning civilizations is ask “how did they travel that world?” If the Human, Dwarf and Elf civilizations had teleportation stations that transitted between the main continent and some place else. You could have a race that discovered one of the this transit stations and use it to colonize a new continent, giving them a small area on the continent, but leaving them mainly based somewhere ese.</p><p> </p><p></p><p> </p><p>So, mostly humans found here? Maybe a few small tribes of Kobolds.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p>A cooperation between the races? Perhaps Human and Dwarf? Could have travelers from many areas come to find fortune and trade, but who lives here? Who settled it? Also, is the Sea of Blood where your Tritons are?</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p>I assume this is where the Draege are (the bunny people?) perhaps Orks, Elfs, Kobolds and others as well? Not a place for people, but a place for exploration and battle</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Sounds like fun, also how bad is are the Cradlelands then, because I would think a place of mountains, glaciers, and volcanoes would be much worse, not the same.</p><p> </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>And I think this is where you said the rat-folk were as well as whatever it was that was trying to destroy them. Memory says Orks?</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p>The elves are the most practiced in body altering magicks, they introduced the stuff to the world. Also, they technically exist in the bunny-folk as the Wraith Liches. So, if no actual elves exist, the only version you have are those messed up and horrible things.</p><p> </p><p>Biggest question I have: Do the Elves want to finish the job or fix what they broke?</p><p>Are the elves still big into exactly what they were doing before the Black Dawn or are they trying to reverse a lot of the damage that was done? It seems like it should be relatively easy for pure-blooded elves to still exist, as well as plant-mutant ones. Heck, they are the only ones who had spaceships, so they could have an orbiting satellite city that they retreated to. Easy enough to include them, it is just a matter of should you make them allies or villains of the world?</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I’m only vaguely familiar with Shadar-Kai, 4e, shadow teleporting, something about being gloomy. They don’t excite me very much. I like what you’re talking about but not sure how unique they would end up being. Did all races end up with this, just humans, who were the Shadar-Kai beforehand, may inform who they are now.</p><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p>Well… why not make them the Elven version of the Shadar-Kai? Make some sort of attack that literally made them photonegative shadows of elves who have a hard time in direct sunlight. Ignore all the assumptions about what they do and ask yourself, you have elves living deep in massive cave structures, what is their culture like? Heck, maybe they went down there to protect themselves and when the World Soul got hurt, something from the depths hit their underground shelters and messed them up. They could be crazy cannibals, they could be shadow monsters, they could have an English accent, they could see their existence as punishment for fighting a war for pride and be pacifists who are trying to heal the world from the depths, nearer to the core, or protect the surface from the terrible things that lurk below. </p><p> </p><p>Decide good or evil, what is their goal as a society? That is where you start.</p><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p>Sounds interesting, but doesn’t that make them mutants of mutants? How far down the line are we going to end up going?</p><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p>Do you mean stat wise or story wise? I definitely agree they make a good fit for that area.</p><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p>Not gonna try to talk you out of it here, they could make a fascinating subculture of Kobolds. But they wouldn’t be terribly numerous I wouldn’t think. Kind of rare.</p><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p>I was thinking the Bugbears made good Orks, but that could work too.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p>No idea what they even are.</p><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p>I don’t think it is necessary to have the be a major force, they are kind of happy in the Astral Sea aren’t they?</p><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p>You’ve got a heavy reptile presence. Not sure if the Serpentfolk really need to be added. As an off-shoot sure, but not something that has a large prescence I don’t think</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I think I mixed up kobolds with your bunny-folk earlier, Draega just sounds so draconic to me.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>I think the biggest thing with the other races is how rare are they. If you want to include them for the occasional weird mutant off-shoot of another race, include them. But if the only Derro are going to be in a single village, and there is only that or maybe three other villages, they don’t need a big write up.</p><p> </p><p>They exist as the weird mutants that off shot from their parent race, not as a spate race entirely perhaps. If you don’t think you’ll have a lot of them in the world, I wouldn’t bother putting a ton of thought into them at the moment.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Chaosmancer, post: 6938225, member: 6801228"] Sorry it took me so long to get back to this. I wanted to take time to go over things, not just post and bolt, but life has not been conducive to that. Okay, it explains your intentions better, and for me reemphasizes my point. The differences between them are not the same differences as we see between male and female. It is big or small, front or back. So, why should they characterize them in the same way we do? A “same-sex” kobold couple in the way you have it set up is simply a couple with the same set-up instead of different set-ups. It’d almost make more sense for same-sex couples to be the norm rather than the other way around from how you’ve presented them. Their biology doesn’t support the terms your using in the same social context we use them. Also, spoilers are done with [sblock] Sounds like a solid plan to me, bugbears seem like they’d make an excellent ork type, long-limbs give them advantage of reach in combat after making it harder for enemies to close, the sneak could be interpreted as shock tactics, a squad busting out of hiding and laying into an enemy will do massive carnage before the enemy can react. Too many is a hard bar to judge. Arista technically has 14-15 races, sometimes more. Some of them all live together in the same kingdom, for example High elves, Wood Elves, and Gnomes are all distinctly different, and yet all reside in the massive Southern Woods, called the Feylands, while my dragonborn live isolated in the frozen north. Part of it is who is interacting with whom, and part of it is how secret do you want them to be. Your rat-people for example, are nearly completely isolated in those wastes, but you have at least one other race in their as their enemies. IF those two “kingdoms” are the only ones deep in the those Wastes it doesn’t feel crowded. In terms of players though, which I know is not exactly what you are going for, it would be best to start them in an area, and make only the races they would encounter in that area available. Everyone else is just interesting lore to be found later. Essentially, do you think it is too much? If you are populating an entire world, it could work, especially since some of your races necessarily must be living together. There are permanent portals to other planes correct? Blur the line and have them live on the border of those planes? I don’t think it is necessary , but I am almost completely unfamiliar with Rifts. A lot of interesting discussions I missed, but looking over your “world map”. My first thought is, are we sure we want to have all the races native to this “continent”? One very interesting thing you can do with highly magical ancient world spanning civilizations is ask “how did they travel that world?” If the Human, Dwarf and Elf civilizations had teleportation stations that transitted between the main continent and some place else. You could have a race that discovered one of the this transit stations and use it to colonize a new continent, giving them a small area on the continent, but leaving them mainly based somewhere ese. So, mostly humans found here? Maybe a few small tribes of Kobolds. A cooperation between the races? Perhaps Human and Dwarf? Could have travelers from many areas come to find fortune and trade, but who lives here? Who settled it? Also, is the Sea of Blood where your Tritons are? I assume this is where the Draege are (the bunny people?) perhaps Orks, Elfs, Kobolds and others as well? Not a place for people, but a place for exploration and battle Sounds like fun, also how bad is are the Cradlelands then, because I would think a place of mountains, glaciers, and volcanoes would be much worse, not the same. And I think this is where you said the rat-folk were as well as whatever it was that was trying to destroy them. Memory says Orks? The elves are the most practiced in body altering magicks, they introduced the stuff to the world. Also, they technically exist in the bunny-folk as the Wraith Liches. So, if no actual elves exist, the only version you have are those messed up and horrible things. Biggest question I have: Do the Elves want to finish the job or fix what they broke? Are the elves still big into exactly what they were doing before the Black Dawn or are they trying to reverse a lot of the damage that was done? It seems like it should be relatively easy for pure-blooded elves to still exist, as well as plant-mutant ones. Heck, they are the only ones who had spaceships, so they could have an orbiting satellite city that they retreated to. Easy enough to include them, it is just a matter of should you make them allies or villains of the world? I’m only vaguely familiar with Shadar-Kai, 4e, shadow teleporting, something about being gloomy. They don’t excite me very much. I like what you’re talking about but not sure how unique they would end up being. Did all races end up with this, just humans, who were the Shadar-Kai beforehand, may inform who they are now. Well… why not make them the Elven version of the Shadar-Kai? Make some sort of attack that literally made them photonegative shadows of elves who have a hard time in direct sunlight. Ignore all the assumptions about what they do and ask yourself, you have elves living deep in massive cave structures, what is their culture like? Heck, maybe they went down there to protect themselves and when the World Soul got hurt, something from the depths hit their underground shelters and messed them up. They could be crazy cannibals, they could be shadow monsters, they could have an English accent, they could see their existence as punishment for fighting a war for pride and be pacifists who are trying to heal the world from the depths, nearer to the core, or protect the surface from the terrible things that lurk below. Decide good or evil, what is their goal as a society? That is where you start. Sounds interesting, but doesn’t that make them mutants of mutants? How far down the line are we going to end up going? Do you mean stat wise or story wise? I definitely agree they make a good fit for that area. Not gonna try to talk you out of it here, they could make a fascinating subculture of Kobolds. But they wouldn’t be terribly numerous I wouldn’t think. Kind of rare. I was thinking the Bugbears made good Orks, but that could work too. No idea what they even are. I don’t think it is necessary to have the be a major force, they are kind of happy in the Astral Sea aren’t they? You’ve got a heavy reptile presence. Not sure if the Serpentfolk really need to be added. As an off-shoot sure, but not something that has a large prescence I don’t think I think I mixed up kobolds with your bunny-folk earlier, Draega just sounds so draconic to me. I think the biggest thing with the other races is how rare are they. If you want to include them for the occasional weird mutant off-shoot of another race, include them. But if the only Derro are going to be in a single village, and there is only that or maybe three other villages, they don’t need a big write up. They exist as the weird mutants that off shot from their parent race, not as a spate race entirely perhaps. If you don’t think you’ll have a lot of them in the world, I wouldn’t bother putting a ton of thought into them at the moment. [/QUOTE]
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