'Rumors' for the game world

[Coredump]

One thing I like to do when starting a new campaign is give each character things that they 'know' about their world. And just like real life, some things you know turn out to be true, and some false. I was wondering if people would like to come up with some 'facts/rumors' that could be interesting to use. They can be true, or false, or misleading, or a bit of each.

Elves are hatched form Elf eggs (false)
Kobolds can breathe fire (true for some, mostly false)
Gillia has undead walking the streets (True, but not in the way it sounds)
werewolves hate silver (true)
etc.

For those that want to be specific, I am playing in Rhenaria Bay (bad spelling) in Kalamar. But any rumors can be used.

So go ahead and list others that you can think of.

 

[Crothian]

I'm not going to list true or false, because as DM that's really your job

1) The greatest gems can be found in the hidden caves under Crystal Lake

2) The goblins have recently killed the dragon known as scorch, but still spread rumors that it lives.

3) The elves hide a secluded forest were wood grows harder then iron.

4) The gnomes are secretly gaurding a gate to the underworld...either stopping no one from going in, or stopping something from getting out.

5) The merchant ships are having troubles sailing to the north because the sea elves have taken to raiding.

There are five basic rumors. Then what I do is I come with other parts to the rumors and give them to different players. THat way they sort of have the same information.

 

[Henrix]

I just have to post this link to a thread on RPG.net where Unknown Armies-style rumors for D&D are posted.
Perhaps not exactly what you were after, but good fun nevertheless.

Retired adventurers who own taverns have a secret society that is in charge of the thieves' guilds, the cleric's temples and the barbarian hordes and when the time comes they will stop shining flagons and attempt to take over the world.

Sorcerers aren't people with magical powers. They're bodies controlled by little demons that burrow in under the skin and hollow out the chest from the inside. There are more and more of them every day. Your next door neighbour could be a sorcerer and you wouldn't know it, not until he burns you to a crisp, or his offspring take over yours.

 

[Halivar]

True? False? Who cares. Figure it out if the player's decide the find out.

1) Tensions are rising in Nearbylandia, where paladins of the gods Lawfulneutralus and Neutralgoodius are arguing over what do with vigilante paladin (see the "My paladin killed a child molester" thread).

2) The bar the players are in is haunted at night by the spectre of a jilted lover.

3) The local ruler is really a doppelganger.

4) That guy smoking in the corner is an aspect of Orcus... at least his wife says so.

5) A group of travelling troubadours is shaking down caravaners on Old Rocky Road leading out of town.

6) The outhouse in back of the inn is really a planar portal to the 70th layer of the Abyss. It certainly smells that way.

7) The whole town is really run by illithid mafioso.

8) The Ladie's Knitting Society is really composed of wererats.

9) The world is supposedly "round", and it rotates around the sun.

10) Trolls taste like chicken.

11) The thatcher's wife is carrying on with the local roof-tiler.

12) Buxom Barmaid Betty the has a magically enhanced brassiere (+2 Brassiere of Ogling, to be exact).

13) The windmill outside town is really a glammered lich tower.

14) Government-issued gold coins are really only plated lead.

15) Nearbylandia is raising an undead army to invade our country.

16) Our country is raising an undead army to invade Nearbylandia.

17) Moon-pies are about to be rationed due to supply decrease resulting from a zombifying disease outbreak in the south country.

18) Li'l Tommy Deufenburger won the three-legged race this year by using a single boot of striding and springing.

19) Potions of cure moderate wounds are made from the ground-up thigh bones of executed convicts.

20) The king is gay.

 

[spyscribe]

How about:

In the capital, it costs 1 sp to use the sidewalks.

 

[haiiro]

1) The greatest gems can be found in the hidden caves under Crystal Lake

Just as long as you don't have to...camp...there while you look for them.

Badump-tssh! I'll be here all week! Try the veal, and tip your servers.

 

[mythusmage]

Then you have facts that are true, but interpretations can be problematical. Such as...

The royal family's first born is a blond.

The royal family has had black hair as far back as people can remember. The same holds true of the queen's family.

The captain of the royal guard is blond.

Take it from there.

 

[Prince of Happiness]

Emperor Kabori is said to be making plans for conquests eastward to gain ports on Renaaria Bay.

Brandobians, particularly Eldorans have secret clubs where they...fraternize with members of "lesser" races. They also love being told how tall they are.

The Dejy are secretly uniting behind a great and hidden king (or queen). Through a long process of infiltration they will enslave the "invaders" i.e. Kalamarans, Renaarians, Fhokki, and others, while working with a secret cabal of gnomish financiers who actually control everything.

I'll try thinking some more up later!

 

[tarchon]

Kalamarans don't eat squid because their race is said to descend from a squid god, whom their elders still worship in secret.

It's bad luck to get bitten by a wolf on the night of a full moon.

Gods are just a tale that priests made up so ordinary folk wouldn't be suspicious of their sorcery.

All wizardry is demon magic!

Them people that call 'mselves elves is just she-dwarves. That's howcome dwarves and elves is fightin' and arguin' all the time.

Halflings are young dwarves before they get all fat and hairy.

The town crier there, he just ain't right.

If you rub wolfsbane on a werewolf's belly, he's bound to serve you for a year and a day.

If the owlbears get white feathers before the harvest moon, it'll be a hard winter.

 

[green slime]

If you want some inspirational reading, you could try the books by Hugh Cook. His "The Age of Darkness" series, with simultaneous occurances across the series and rumours of events in one book featured in another, is quite amusing, IMO.