A complete N00bz first try at world-building...

[Wyntonian]

To be entirely honest, an infodump sounds pretty good. With a small focus on military and political stuff.

[Eldest]

Ok, I'll put one up in a spoiler on this post once I get it together.

Spoiler

Show

Info will be here.

[Wyntonian]

In the meantime, I have a thought that's been bugging me for a while. In most games of this variety, the goal is simply to kill things. Now, i'm ok with having some hacking and slashing be a part of my world. In fact, it's almost necessary so players can have a break from roleplaying-heavy plot motions and political whatevers. However, I don't really have anything for the characters to kill at low levels without weird questions coming up. Yeah, they could be attacked by bandits, but then they're killing other human beings, and not everyone digs that. Also, that opens up the "well how did you know they were bandits?" question. Stereotypically, the role of the Mook is played at low levels by goblins. However, the closest thing I have to goblins in this setting are Urgals, who are not exactly mookish (See: 6-8 feet tall, more for kull, big horns, lots of class levels). So, what i think I need is a race of little bastardy creatures for people to kill, that are essentially harmful and evil, almost beyond question. or, you know, goblins.

TL;DR: I need a non-goblin race that can fill the goblin-shaped void in my world.

[SamBurke]

Can I say Kobolds loudly enough?

[Icedaemon]

TL;DR: I need a non-goblin race that can fill the goblin-shaped void in my world.

Elves.

You know that's the right choice. Primitive, depraved, insanely arrogant and self-righteous.

[Wyntonian]

Yeah.... I'd suggest you read the rest of this setting. No offense, and I know it's hella long, but that would explain why elves don't work. Right now, There's really only four choices for a player race in my low-diversity world, and three of them have serious roleplaying drawbacks. Something a little more monstery, maybe.

[SamBurke]

Thus the annoyingly twerpy Kobolds... seriously, those things make you want to kill them.

[Wyntonian]

That's a definite possibility....but they always seem a little too closely tied up with dragons to me, and I don't have any of those. I saw this monster a while ago, i think it was connected to the arboreal halfling race as a racial enemy, and it was essentially a tree-goblin with some weird other abilities. If i can find that, I'll consider it. Other options?

EDIT: It's the Tasloi that I'm thinking of, from the Shining South. here's a link.

[SamBurke]

Duergar, fetchlings, other monster races. Not that weak, per se, but unless they're optimized, they won't present more than a mild challange.

[Wyntonian]

Out of these, I'm tempted to go with the Tasloi, or maybe another homebrewed race to compliment them. Or i could refluff kobolds a little bit.

[Eldest]

Sorry about the infodump taking a while, had to deal with finals for a while. Should have stuff up by the end of the week or so.

[Wyntonian]

Yeah, I had/have the same issue. I don't end the term until thursday, sadly enough. On that note... does anyone have an opinion about a calendar for this world? I'd like to just simplify our modern one, make it 12 30-day months, three ten-day weeks in each, and a 360-day year.

[Eldest]

Regular lunar month, it doesn't get used enough in my opinion.

[Icedaemon]

Yeah.... I'd suggest you read the rest of this setting. No offense, and I know it's hella long, but that would explain why elves don't work. Right now, There's really only four choices for a player race in my low-diversity world, and three of them have serious roleplaying drawbacks. Something a little more monstery, maybe.

I read only the first one or two pages, where elves were mentioned only in passing (something to do with vikings?). Ah well.

[Wyntonian]

Regular lunar month, it doesn't get used enough in my opinion.

That works, a 30-Day lunar cycle? Or how much fun could I have with two moons....

I read only the first one or two pages, where elves were mentioned only in passing (something to do with vikings?). Ah well.

Yeah, in the backstory it turns out there never were any elves, just humans, and some backwoodsy dwarves, a couple gnomes and some Urgals. The vikings in question (Vallheimers) are human, much like the other three major nations.

[SamBurke]

The lunar cycle is actually 28 days.

[Wyntonian]

yeah, but I can fudge that around a little bit. Maybe I could have two moons, and have them both be full about twice a year, and both be new twice as well. That's probably be a pretty significant event, religiously and socially.

EDIT: Finally had my brainstorm about the red mage bonus, I think I'll give them darkvision. Remember, they're not just oriented around fire, but also sunlight. I think it's pretty balanced. That still leaves the blue guys though....

[SamBurke]

So you have: Familiar, Darkvision (which seems a little off.. maybe some Fire Resistance?), and what was the one for the Black?

[Wyntonian]

I was going to go with Martial Weapon proficiency for blacks. And everybody gets a familiar but greens, who get a druid-style animal companion. And what sort of fire resistance could I give the red mages? maybe something like 2+red mage level? and blues are the ones I'm really stuck on.

[SamBurke]

2+level seems good.

Let's list the dominant characteristics of blues.

[Wyntonian]

Let's see.... Their dominant season in winter, and their powers revolve around wind and cold, as well as water and other weather to a lesser extent. In a party, they could be competent blasters with some of their cold and lightning based spells, but they're also good at communication, with a bunch of communication and scrying spells.

[SamBurke]

Electricity resistance? It seems kinda lame, but it could work.

Or, alternately, some sort of special feat... A range-based feat, something like Extend (I'm not good with magic, so that might be completely messed up...)

[Wyntonian]

That could work... electricity or cold resistance. I'd like to avoid metamagic if i can, it seems like just that one other thing that makes casters way better, so I might flat ban it. I'll look around in my new stack of books and try to find something.

EDIT: Another reason against electricity resistance is that this is a fairly low-magic setting, so there won't be a lot of situations where electricity would help.

[Wyntonian]

another brainstorm: I plan to use most of the gods from the BoED, simply because they seem like gods people would actually follow. Smiles? Love? sacrifice for those you love? Those are all things that people find positive, and would look for outside themselves, in this case in their deity.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Just because people follow these gods doesn't make them real. In fact, people in this world know about as much concretely about the existance of a deity as we do: Most people are pretty sure for their own varying reasons, some aren't sure, some disbelieve, and nobody can reliably say who's right. However, god/gods may be a myth, but religion is as real as rocks. Lack of physical scientific proof doesn't keep the people of Soleh from worshiping Ayailla, goddess of light.

[Wyntonian]

This is indeed the fabled triple post of important stuff. Here it comes, the entirely refluffed Tasloi! Yes, I started with the idea of little green tree-buggers, and created a whole race/society/item type for them. Woo.

The Tasloi

Physical description
Short 2-3 feet. Covered in mottled green-brown fun. Blunt, animalistic features. Pointed ears and teeth. 2 foot prehensile tail. Yellow eyes.

Society
Small hunting bands of those under the effects of Tasal. Treetop communities of those without. Led by a single female druid who is the religious and spiritual leader. Generally calm people, with a low crime rate. Consider those with Tasal to be little more than animals. Have few qualms about killing the Tassali in self-defense, but do not look for fights. Many Tasloi are those that have defeated the Tasal, and carry a deep shame. Little contact with humans, some suspicious talks with dwarves, gnomes. Most other groups don't know about Tasal, kill all Tasloi.

History
The Tasloi had a positive relationship with the First People, with trade and other peaceful connections. They worked as messengers, hunting scouts and some other roles. When the Patrian Empire came, they brought along the disease Tasal, which has no effect on humans or most animals. Shocked at its effects, one of the last things the First People did was to weave a spell that essentially put a biological stop- clock on place, so that any Tasloi who lived into their middle ages would be freed of the disease. This did little to help those without the virus, but gave them a fairly steady trickle of new people who had fought off the disease, augmenting their small population. They now live in small treetop bands, hiding from the depredations of the Tassali and the humans.

Tasal
The disease Tasal was brought to the land of Patria by the unwitting Empire when they first landed. It has no detectable effect on humans or any other animal species. In fact, few non-Tasloi know it exists, aside from the First People. The virus Tasal has a variety of complimentary influences on a Tasloi body. The first effect is not particularly harmful; the eyes of the afflicted Tasloi gain catlike slits for pupils and lose their natural ability to see in almost complete darkness, but gain the ability to detect infrared emanations at close ranges, usually within thirty feet, which helps the Tasloi, now known as a Tassali, detect the prey the virus needs. Also, the natural capacity for the Tasloi to detect electrical fields of mammals and birds is muted and dormant. The other changes are more subtle, but are more important. For one, the virus spreads best in warmer internal temperatures, and makes the Tassali's body acquire a constant, slight fever. This trait makes the Tassali's body burn calories at a faster rate, making the need for large amounts of food immense, up to 5,000 calories per day. Also, the virus causes an aversion to light, increased aggressive tendencies, and limited recollection of past events, similar to a limited form of amnesia. Perhaps the most important trait of the disease is that, after the magical intervention of the First People, the virus can only be spread through live births, meaning that Tasloi not born to Tassali mothers are effectively immune to the disease. However, every one of the children born to Tassali parents is Tassali, and cannot be cured until their middle age. It is not unheard of for Tassali children to kill their parents once they defeat the virus. Tassali do not attack other Tassali, but they frequently attack and kill Tasloi if they can be found in small groups. Tassali generally hunt in groups of about ten, and can, with an effective ambush, take down a fully grown Kull warrior.

Culture and Technology
True Tasloi have limited access to metals, making such materials the exception rather than the rule. Metals are generally reserved for weapons and tools, and metal armor is almost unheard-of. Instead, the Tasloi use a variety of creative biologically produced weapons and tools, although after the Tasal took the majority of the population, many of the arts were lost. The philosophy behind this is simple: if the Tasloi use all of an animal they kill, they won't have to kill as many, leaving more to be hunted later, making future hunting easier. Normally, this principle would apply only to the individual parts of the animal, bones, hide, meat, etc. However, the Tasloi have a set of methods with which they can preserve some of the reflexes of certain parts of an animal, if not the animal's consciousness. They consider such tools to be powered by the remnants of the animal's spirit, and always treat such tools to be honored gifts from the animal from which it was taken. One of the most common of these tools is the cat-paw glove, consisting of the front paw of a cougar or other large cat, pads, claws and all. The bones and most of the muscle is removed, leaving a space within for a Tasloi -sized hand. Gentle manipulation of the pads near the fingertips can cause the claws to extend and retract, effective giving the wearer claws. These are frequently used by warriors on one hand, leaving their other free to use a spear, short blade, small axe or a spear-thrower. They can also be easily removed, and can help with climbing trees. There are a variety of other life-tools, but many more are forgotten.

I'm thinking about making the Tassali unable to be cured, but I'm still split. Also, I'm worried that Tasloi/Tasal/Tassali are too similar words. Thoughts?

[SamBurke]

Too similar? Yes.

Too likable? Yes. These guys are set up to be PCs, not enemies... they're fluffed in a kind way. Now, of course, most players won't care a whole lot, and will just slaughter anything in front of them.

[Eldest]

They do seem similar, yes. And they don't quite work as well as a generic monster race if they are poor suffering buggers. Btw the 'use all parts of a animal' and 'the animal gave the gift of it's meat to us' ideas were popular with native American tribes, good choice.

[Wyntonian]

One fix for the "But we're SUPPOSED to kill them" problem is to make this disease still contagious and uncurable, so killing Tassali is totally acceptable. Also, there's about a 3-1 ratio of Tassali to Tasloi, so there'll be plenty of rabid tree-bastards to kill.

[SamBurke]

Yes, I also noticed the indigenous analogy.

[Wyntonian]

Yeah, well, these guys ARE one of the few indigenous races. I wanted these guys to be completely excluded from human politics, and to have their society to be inconsequential, in the grand scheme of politics, enough that a DM could just eliminate the Tasloi, leaving just the evil Tassali. I think I'll make Tasal uncurable, and make a new post for just Tassali. They're different enough to almost be their own race.

Overall, I think I like these guys a little too much. I'm considering redoing/ editing some geography, maybe even making an entirely new map. If so, I'll make the true Tasloi in a faraway hidden region of dense forest, and make the Tassali out like goblins, raiding human and dwarf settlements.

Final version? Tassali=evil, Tasloi=xenophobic, hunted, near-extinct neutral, with some good elements. I don't feel like this is "too kind".

EDIT: and I just realized the indigenous parallel with the disease. Got it. Thanks.