D&D General consideration on sapient folk having two distinct base cultures?

I have absolutely no idea what the difference between those three are. Other than one has a space version that puts red stripes on things to make them go faster.

Probably it would be better to have warrior orcs (not necessarily violent raiders--could be mercenaries, or maybe they war amongst themselves more than with other people, or maybe they engage in mock battles) and non-warrior orcs who ranch or mine or whatever. Since Tolkien orcs were corrupted elves, the dark orcs should probably be the type that are basically possessed by Gruumsh into being the violent raiders.

Warhammer- Ultraviolent Might makes Right Warrior Guys. Not necessarily evil but hates and disgusted by peace. More CN.

Warcraft- Regular Might makes Right humaniods. Shamanistic or animistic in religion. Don't go looking for fights but don't shy away from fights. Mostly GC.

Tolkien- Ultraviolent Strong evil guys. Full CE. Actively goes out to bully, pillage, and kill.
 

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Warhammer- Ultraviolent Might makes Right Warrior Guys. Not necessarily evil but hates and disgusted by peace. More CN.
I prefer the take that they cannot fathom peace. Its an alien concept. Considering (at the 40K level) they were literally created to fight, that their currency is their own (or others) teeth, and 'things work because I think they work.' its a pretty alien species lol.
 

Most forms of larger mining operations which would also prevent advances in smelting and metallurgy for example.
But, no one invented those things. The God of the Dwarves taught Maggun how to do this and then she spread the knowledge among the faithful.

See, this is where things get kinda weird. For some bizarre reason, despite the fact that in D&D worlds, people were created by intelligent beings, all the D&D worlds progress in a similar fashion to real world history - paleolithic through bronze age and into iron age (yes, I know I'm skipping rather a lot there). But, there is zero reason why that happened. Fire wasn't "discovered". It was gifted/stolen from the gods. Smelting works because the spirits of metal want to form certain shapes. And there REALLY ARE spirits of metal. It's not like these are things with no basis in truth. They are part of that reality.

So, all these notions of scientific progress go straight out the window. Fire isn't a chemical reaction - it's the release of fire elementals into the world who die almost instantly. So on and so forth.

Sure, if you want your fantasy world to work by real world physics with real world physics restraints, that's fine. But, that's just rather the sort of traditional fantasy approach. Fantasy world as ersatz Earth with a thin veneer of magic. Doesn't actually delve much into the actual reality of that fantasy world though. I find it a rather lazy approach to be honest. It's ignoring the facts of that reality in order to present a very narrow slice of what a fantasy world actually is. A fantasy world is a magical construct, created by beings of unimaginable power, fueled by narrativium.

I highly recommend the Science of Discworld books as an excellent primer for fantasy world design.
 

I prefer the take that they cannot fathom peace. Its an alien concept. Considering (at the 40K level) they were literally created to fight, that their currency is their own (or others) teeth, and 'things work because I think they work.' its a pretty alien species lol.
It's only of the most complete and sensible "race destined by the gods" races in popular fantasy.

WH orcs aren't evil. They just fight whoever is near them. You technically can pacifiy them with gifts but it is expensive since they already have a closed perpetual economy they run on.

Just toggle their hostility up and down for 2 subraces.
 

But, no one invented those things. The God of the Dwarves taught Maggun how to do this and then she spread the knowledge among the faithful.

See, this is where things get kinda weird. For some bizarre reason, despite the fact that in D&D worlds, people were created by intelligent beings, all the D&D worlds progress in a similar fashion to real world history - paleolithic through bronze age and into iron age (yes, I know I'm skipping rather a lot there). But, there is zero reason why that happened. Fire wasn't "discovered". It was gifted/stolen from the gods. Smelting works because the spirits of metal want to form certain shapes. And there REALLY ARE spirits of metal. It's not like these are things with no basis in truth. They are part of that reality.

So, all these notions of scientific progress go straight out the window. Fire isn't a chemical reaction - it's the release of fire elementals into the world who die almost instantly. So on and so forth.

Sure, if you want your fantasy world to work by real world physics with real world physics restraints, that's fine. But, that's just rather the sort of traditional fantasy approach. Fantasy world as ersatz Earth with a thin veneer of magic. Doesn't actually delve much into the actual reality of that fantasy world though. I find it a rather lazy approach to be honest. It's ignoring the facts of that reality in order to present a very narrow slice of what a fantasy world actually is. A fantasy world is a magical construct, created by beings of unimaginable power, fueled by narrativium.

I highly recommend the Science of Discworld books as an excellent primer for fantasy world design.

Sure. 100% agree, but the knowledge of how to do something is very different from having the means to do so. Mining ore, refining that ore, and turning it into finished products are all steps that require not just knowing how to do so, but a significant investment in time and rather specialized equipment. Much of that equipment would be incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to move. Stretching the time a nomadic group stays in one place (cough dwarves,) or involving high fantasy magic could circumvent those issues but would create others.

Agriculture is another tough one, as I mentioned before. Historically, food production spiked when humans settled and began farming. Without traditional farming how do these nomadic cultures compete with settled peoples? Again, magic, sure, but what about something more unique like sowing crops that require little upkeep before moving to a new location that is ready to harvest. Do that in enough places and you are moving every 3-4 months and constantly harvesting and planting. In theory, that gets you a constant food supply. Since you are working with smaller crops storage remains minimal, and thus portable.

Edit: the roving farmers would also need some way of protecting their crops from animals. Defensive measures might be difficult, but aggressively hunting large herbivores to the point of near extinction is entirely plausible. Some sort of guardian predator would be more fun, and less likely to piss off local druids, but conflict is fun. 😁
 

Agriculture is another tough one, as I mentioned before. Historically, food production spiked when humans settled and began farming. Without traditional farming how do these nomadic cultures compete with settled peoples? Again, magic, sure, but what about something more unique like sowing crops that require little upkeep before moving to a new location that is ready to harvest. Do that in enough places and you are moving every 3-4 months and constantly harvesting and planting. In theory, that gets you a constant food supply. Since you are working with smaller crops storage remains minimal, and thus portable.

Edit: the roving farmers would also need some way of protecting their crops from animals. Defensive measures might be difficult, but aggressively hunting large herbivores to the point of near extinction is entirely plausible. Some sort of guardian predator would be more fun, and less likely to piss off local druids, but conflict is fun. 😁

To reinforce your point, agriculture allowed a spike in food production that was useful to prevent starvation. Farming is hard. Hunter-gatherer worked less on average, but were more exposed to wild variation in food availability. Agriculture solved this problem and had the positive side effect of providing more food on average, with the societal result we know. If your hunter-gatherer societies can provide enough food (through either plentiful fantasy game to hunt or berry-boosting magic, then there is very little reason for agriculture to emerge as it would be a suboptimal choice to work more for the same result. You'd have to find a fantasy justification to agriculture.
 

I had a DM long ago where the dwarf and elf subraces where colonies of the main race.

Hill and Dark dwarves were colonies of the Mountain dwarves for new sources of metal and stone.
Wood, wild, sea, and dark elves were colonies of High elves who ventured out of the magic forests.

Hill dwarves and wood elves were more progressive as they were too far from the conservative elders that enforce the old traditions.
The dark dwarves and dark elves went evil because of the mind flayers' psionics and this twisted their patron gods that traveled with them via worship backlash.
 

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