Warforged/Fleshie Role Reversal

[Kaodi]

I was just thinking today that it might be interesting to run a game in a theme setting where the world is inhabited mostly by warforged and lower-order intelligence animals and monsters.

This could either be done in one of several ways: either the warforged live among the ruins of lost fleshie civilizations and the game is focused on exploring those ruins, intrigued by the mysteries of fleshie life and culture; a group of fleshies that had been trapped in a portal for thousands of years or were sent to another world explore where they find it overrun by warforged, who struggle to relate and view them alternatively as either a curiosity or a threat. Either of these could be coupled with religious overtones of discovering lost gods who either became powerless or died after their worshippers died out, or who simply lost interest in a world populated by constructs.

The other alternative is that the warforged (who might have some other name depending on their function in the setting) actually created fleshies to be their servants. Perhaps they wanted servants who were a little more diverse and unpredictable in their composition and behavior, or maybe they have other plans (perhaps they are planning to use them to create docents or other intelligent items, since they may not view fleshies as having souls worthy of consideration, if any at all).

I think such a game could make for an interesting economy as well. There may be lots of civilization and artificial goods around, but because all the people are warforged, there is no production of food other than what can be foraged and hunted in the wilderness. There are lots of weapons and armour, but many of them, especially the best quality stuff, was constructed to be attached to a warforged as a component. Security of supplies would be a major factor in deciding whether to underdtake a job or mission.

In any case, I think it could be interesting.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Yes, it could be an interesting premise. Kinda like Gamma world, with no humans or non-monstrous humanoids around around, but they being the ancient folk. The party wakes up in an abandoned factory/garrison/experimental lab and has to find out what is going on, and indeed, if they are the only warforged on the planet itself.

Nice premise.

 

[Locien]

Why not go all cybertron and make constructs be the majority of animate things around, followed by elementals. Make living creatures rare as to be almost unheard of, and for a bizzare twist make undead more common than life; living things are unknown to most of the populace but undead are, while rare, public knowledge.

 

[Ainamacar]

One world in a campaign I ran had a lycanthrope apocalypse, where in the end all that remained were shifters, full lycanthropes, and the previously servant class warforged society that suddenly found itself alone and immune to the scourge, but with almost no idea what to do with itself. (In my game the time-traveling PCs came upon this situation and needed to organize the warforged into a civilization that could stand the test of time.)

In a small change of direction, one could posit the decline of the lycanthropes into predominately bestial states, leaving the warforged the only intelligent race around in significant numbers, left to survive and explore the ruins of all that came before. If the lycanthrope's decline follows soon after the apocalypse, you could similarly deal with warforged who do not know how to rule themselves.

One fun twist from my game: warforged turn out to be rather wonderful submariners once given a few aquatic adjustments.

 

[Kaodi]

...and for a bizzare twist make undead more common than life; living things are unknown to most of the populace but undead are, while rare, public knowledge.

Actually, while I forgot to mention it in the original post, I was going to make undead completely unheard of. In fact, it would probably be a neat twist to take the first living player character to die and make them the first of a brand new generation of undead, which in turn brings brings back a forgotten god of death as a force to be reckoned with.

 

[Glade Riven]

You could also go Matrix or Terminator - "Kill all Humans! Oh, wait, we still need them for x"

 

[havard]

Interesting! I toyed with a similar concept in my City of Steel for the Mystara/Hollow World Setting.

-Havard

 

[nogray]

Another variant

The Warforged could be the creations that the gods used / are using to terraform the planet or battle back the foes of the gods, so they are all protective of the humans that exist, too. That almost casts the warforged as a sort of terrestrial "angel" role. Like maybe the warforged were shock troopers that tamed a world over-run by far realms horrors or something. They largely succeeded, so they just continue existing with less of a sense of purpose, watching (perhaps jealously) over the new children of the gods as they grow and develop.

I'll have to think on this one, but I sort of like the ideas percolating. Thanks for the fodder!