D&D 5E Brainstorm - stories to tell with WotC's new position on various folk (fka "race")

[Eyes of Nine]

Humans only for PCs in my current campaign which started in May 2019. Elves, dwarves, halflings (and other 5e PHB) races don't even exist in my world. Also, no orcs, goblins or any «evil» sentient humanoids that feel too LOTR or derivatives. 90% of enemies have been humans with ill intentions towards the «goodly people of the realm». The PCs from a noble family are trying to stump them out. My only indulgence has been using devils and their weird monstrous pet creatures has instigators behind the «nihilist» human cults. The players are enjoying it immensely.

Sounds like Harn.

 

[shesheyan]

Sounds like Harn.

Heard of it, never read it or played. My inspiration was Shadow of the Demon Lord. Like the idea but didn't want to learn a new set of rules.

 

[GlassJaw]

As much as I like the mind flayer/goblin idea in this thread, I still want to throw an evil necromancer/lich/humanoid warband/whatever that is up to no good and the PCs need to bring the pain.

Everything doesn't need to be a moral conundrum.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Over in some other threads (here's one) people are debating whether it's good WotC's new direction on race (hereafter referred to as "folk" in this thread).

This is NOT the place to argue that.

Please post in this thread your ideas for campaigns or oneshots or anything in between that you could tell if a race is not monolithically evil. Here's a couple I'll share:

1. 1st level adventure where the PCs come upon a peaceful farming/fishing/mild trading village composed of many humanoid folk - mostly goblins, kobolds, orcs. And they are being predated upon by a bandit group made up of dwarves, elves, and humans. (already shared in that other thread)
2. Inspired by something someone else said: Gruumsh has been perverted by one of the other gods in the pantheon, and he's making all his followers do horrible things - many of whom are orcs. Your team of orcs and allies first try to find a cure, then go try to figure out the source of this and perhaps ultimately face either the other god, or their minions to force Gruumsh back into the god of strength, battle, and poetry.
3. The peace of a monastery predominantly housing hobgoblins has been shattered by murder. Your party happens to be in the neighboring village and is brought in to solve it.

I look forward to hearing what creative stuff EnWorlders come up with where folk aren't monolithic.

I wanna talk Gruumsh in more detail. Wanna do that here, or would you prefer a new thread for that?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Pulled from DDO.

A Kobold approaches the PCs, asking for help. There are dogs, strays and abandoned dogs, in the caves and sewers where some kobolds live, and there is maintanence that is going to be done one the sewers that would endanger the dogs. The city officials don’t care. He wants your help getting the dogs safely out before they get hurt.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

This actually came up in our Mad Mage game last night. We had gone back to Waterdeep (WD) for some downtime, and were approached by the head of the WD Watch. There was some back and forth about defunding the watch - but we ended up saying we'd support the Watch; but ALSO see about developing some social services - of which there is a marked lack in Waterdeep

Aren’t the Watch classically pretty Good and not corrupt, in Waterdeep?

 

[Weiley31]

A hobgoblin paladin is seeking a way back home to defeat a minor avatar of Maglubiyet. This is after the avatar teleported it away and took over his kingdom.

Is said Hobgoblin voiced by Phil LeMarr?

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Cool! I could see the players then getting drawn into either helping him; or maybe befriending him and at higher levels defending him from other mind-flayers trying to bring him back to the elder brain.

And maybe even ultimately figuring out how to decouple mind flayer biology from needing sentient creatures to prey upon to reproduce (iirc, there's some aspect of illithid reproductive cycle that requires a living sentient brain?)

IIRC, the illithid feeds on brains, they don't need them only to reproduce. Specifically, they feed on "enzymes, hormones and psychic energy" provided by said brain. To reproduce, they need to implant their larvae into sentient humanoids, with implantation into other lifeforms resulting in either death or the creation of an hybrid monster. The illithid could forego reproducing himself, but it would be much more difficult to forego feeding.

I could see the quest of fiding a way to feed their illithid friend with a string of scenarios exploring different solutions, including finding an alternative version of Goodberries called Goodbrainies to exploring a way to provide euthanisia for hopeless elderlies to questioning the ethicality of True Polymorph. If you turn a carrot into a human to feed your illithid friend, are you killing a carrot or a human?

 

[Minigiant]

A ccmpany of kobolds need a mine cleared of a pack of wild animals and cannot overcome their natural cowardice.

Is said Hobgoblin voiced by Phil LeMarr?

That would be ideal if your DM can afford him.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

IIRC, the illithid feeds on brains, they don't need them only to reproduce. Specifically, they feed on "enzymes, hormones and psychic energy" provided by said brain. To reproduce, they need to implant their larvae into sentient humanoids, with implantation into other lifeforms resulting in either death or the creation of an hybrid monster. The illithid could forego reproducing himself, but it would be much more difficult to forego feeding.

I could see the quest of fiding a way to feed their illithid friend with a string of scenarios exploring different solutions, including finding an alternative version of Goodberries called Goodbrainies to exploring a way to provide euthanisia for hopeless elderlies to questioning the ethicality of True Polymorph. If you turn a carrot into a human to feed your illithid friend, are you killing a carrot or a human?

Druid solves the problem by going to a local farmer. (locally sourced food only) and casts Awaken on cows for the Illithid to feed on. To finance this expensive diet, the adventurers plunder old Ruins but they are charged for grave robbing and the cows, goaded on by a rival circle of druids, rise up and revolt, demanding to be free.