Brennin Magalus
First Post
Doomed Battalions said:
If most dwarves in your campaign are minors, then how do they get their alcohol? Do they have elves buy it for them?
Tell me about dwarves in your world
- Thread starter Janx
- Start date
If most dwarves in your campaign are minors, then how do they get their alcohol? Do they have elves buy it for them?
Ki
A mix of human and badger. (The kekihj have a lot to answer for.) They do have a tendency to get carried away with their passions. Craftsmen par excellence, very ordered in their lives, with a bent towards prickliness when crossed or insulted.
Excellent miners. Can't stand the idea of living underground. While they have no problem working below ground the very idea of sleeping there gives them the willies. So they have machines and devices dedicated to getting work crews out after each shift, and deep miners are taught meditation and self hypnosis just in case.
Dragon Earth
Descended from a population of humans in Paleolithic Europe. They started off short and stocky and became more so as the generations went by. They prefer foothills and mountains. Some even have trouble with the thicker air at lower altitudes. About the only race Dragon Earth neanderthals and ogres actually get along with.
Mechanically minded, with a talent for constructs and other magical devices. Animated marionettes are a specialty. A favorite among supermarket managers is the returning shopping cart.
As in real life shopping cart theft is a big problem. so a family of Dragon Earth dwarfs invented a construct in the shape of a shopping cart that returns to the store it belongs to whenever it is taken more than a certain distance from said establishment. Usually 50 yards, but some paranoid store managers have set it to 'balk' at the front door.
So there you have something on my dwarfs.
A mix of human and badger. (The kekihj have a lot to answer for.) They do have a tendency to get carried away with their passions. Craftsmen par excellence, very ordered in their lives, with a bent towards prickliness when crossed or insulted.
Excellent miners. Can't stand the idea of living underground. While they have no problem working below ground the very idea of sleeping there gives them the willies. So they have machines and devices dedicated to getting work crews out after each shift, and deep miners are taught meditation and self hypnosis just in case.
Dragon Earth
Descended from a population of humans in Paleolithic Europe. They started off short and stocky and became more so as the generations went by. They prefer foothills and mountains. Some even have trouble with the thicker air at lower altitudes. About the only race Dragon Earth neanderthals and ogres actually get along with.
Mechanically minded, with a talent for constructs and other magical devices. Animated marionettes are a specialty. A favorite among supermarket managers is the returning shopping cart.
As in real life shopping cart theft is a big problem. so a family of Dragon Earth dwarfs invented a construct in the shape of a shopping cart that returns to the store it belongs to whenever it is taken more than a certain distance from said establishment. Usually 50 yards, but some paranoid store managers have set it to 'balk' at the front door.
So there you have something on my dwarfs.
Some good divergences on dwarves.
I know die_kluge is tired of seeing the same old cliche dwarves. I for one see value in retaining some semblance to the dwarven stereotype. Certain people are attracted to that character type, so to eliminate it completely might turn them away. In turn, however, I think each world should have a different take on dwarves, so that you can see the stereotype AND something different.
In my world's case, the dwarves are still short and still have beards. But I've twisted both the gnomes and dwarves such that the gnomes enslaved the dwarves at one point in their history. I think that twist, and all the cascade effects to explain it will make dwarves different in my game, than the stereotype. Yet they can still be played as the gruff, battle-axe swinging stereotype.
Some things I didn't go into detail (and I'll need to when it becomes relevant in my campaign) is that each race developed in isolation relative to the others. Thus dwarves shouldn't get the racial combat bonuses, except perhaps, for fighting gnomes. I'll probably want to check through the ability list and adjust it accordingly.
In addition, there are no dwarven arcane magic users. Dwarves lost that ability a thousand years ago. This trait actually plays into the old D&D stereotype, but ironically enough I had a plot reason for this before I decided dwarves would be the race playing this role. It worked out nicely.
For myself, I think it was a good twist that the dwarves and gnomes were at war. That's counter to what most people consider stereotypical. That they were enslaved by the gnomes goes counter to what most people think of gnomes and dwarves. It also breaks the traditional elf-dwarf rivalry and the dwarf-goblinoid enmity.
The other odd parameter in my game is that the PCs are restricted to the human race. This sets all the other races as NPC races, further changing how the players interact with these races. As some players in my game have commented, they get the feeling this is modeled after "ST:Enterprise" with the humans being the new race in town.
Janx
I know die_kluge is tired of seeing the same old cliche dwarves. I for one see value in retaining some semblance to the dwarven stereotype. Certain people are attracted to that character type, so to eliminate it completely might turn them away. In turn, however, I think each world should have a different take on dwarves, so that you can see the stereotype AND something different.
In my world's case, the dwarves are still short and still have beards. But I've twisted both the gnomes and dwarves such that the gnomes enslaved the dwarves at one point in their history. I think that twist, and all the cascade effects to explain it will make dwarves different in my game, than the stereotype. Yet they can still be played as the gruff, battle-axe swinging stereotype.
Some things I didn't go into detail (and I'll need to when it becomes relevant in my campaign) is that each race developed in isolation relative to the others. Thus dwarves shouldn't get the racial combat bonuses, except perhaps, for fighting gnomes. I'll probably want to check through the ability list and adjust it accordingly.
In addition, there are no dwarven arcane magic users. Dwarves lost that ability a thousand years ago. This trait actually plays into the old D&D stereotype, but ironically enough I had a plot reason for this before I decided dwarves would be the race playing this role. It worked out nicely.
For myself, I think it was a good twist that the dwarves and gnomes were at war. That's counter to what most people consider stereotypical. That they were enslaved by the gnomes goes counter to what most people think of gnomes and dwarves. It also breaks the traditional elf-dwarf rivalry and the dwarf-goblinoid enmity.
The other odd parameter in my game is that the PCs are restricted to the human race. This sets all the other races as NPC races, further changing how the players interact with these races. As some players in my game have commented, they get the feeling this is modeled after "ST:Enterprise" with the humans being the new race in town.
Janx
I have several dwarven kingdoms that range from the oldest in which the dwarven stereotypes are adhered to in a compulsive, Ghormenghast sort of way, to several more traditional ones.
In the east the largest dwarven kingdom has been abandoned, part of the population turning to magic and becoming the duergar while the other part fled into the safety of the human kingdoms and now live lives very similar to Jews in Medieval Europe, complete with their own ghetto like sections of the cities, priesthoods devoted to maintaining old traditions, and constant class/religious competion with their neighbors.
In the east the largest dwarven kingdom has been abandoned, part of the population turning to magic and becoming the duergar while the other part fled into the safety of the human kingdoms and now live lives very similar to Jews in Medieval Europe, complete with their own ghetto like sections of the cities, priesthoods devoted to maintaining old traditions, and constant class/religious competion with their neighbors.
der_kluge
Adventurer
Tonguez, I think it's from Warcraft. "You got a belly full of haggis!"
I'm not sure where the German association came from, though. Lots of beer drinking and a gutteral language will do that, I suppose.
I suppose I could leave dwarves in my world, and just have them deal directly with gnomes for trade, and they never come out of the ground. Not sure what purpose that would serve.
I've just never been able to justify having any race live underground. What the heck do they eat??!
I'm not sure where the German association came from, though. Lots of beer drinking and a gutteral language will do that, I suppose.
I suppose I could leave dwarves in my world, and just have them deal directly with gnomes for trade, and they never come out of the ground. Not sure what purpose that would serve.
I've just never been able to justify having any race live underground. What the heck do they eat??!
die_kluge said:
It's catered.
Brennin Magalus
First Post
die_kluge said:
Drow and svirfneblin.
