Snippets of Creativity

[Booper]

A few subraces of giants that resemble wemics, centaurs, or mermaids, but with elephant, giraffe, and orca parts instead of lion, horse, or fish.

[jqavins]

A few subraces of giants that resemble wemics, centaurs, or mermaids, but with elephant, giraffe, and orca parts instead of lion, horse, or fish.

How about whale shark instead of orca? That replaces the man-size fish parts with giant fish parts instead of sea mammal parts.

[Booper]

How about whale shark instead of orca? That replaces the man-size fish parts with giant fish parts instead of sea mammal parts.

DUH. I was trying to think of a large sea creature that still looked like a fish but I couldn't think of one. How on earth did I forget about whale sharks?

[Laserlight]

Last time the orcs came, they weren't raiding; they came to conquer. Now, a generation later, the orcs remain warriors; their taxes are not just gold, but also slaves: artisans, military engineers, administrators and scribes. Informers are everywhere, and insurrection is stamped out mercilessly.

Now it has become clear why the orcs moved into human lands--they were escaping an even greater threat, but they didn't go far enough. Now destruction has come to the fringe of the orcish realm--your home province! Can your party of humans and half orcs bond together, avoid the notice of the informers, turn aside the Deathless King, and subvert or overthrow orcish oppression?

[heretic]

When drow elves die, they climb from the underdark chasm known as the Bottomless Void, reborn as driders. They retain the character levels of their past self, a raw emotional hatred for their former enemies, but no other memories. It is said that fully slaying a dark elf requires quashing two spiders: the one with two legs, then the one with eight.

[aspekt]

So... Klingons?

OK, no.

Of course they are. In fact the entire culture has developed a strong stoicism due to the suffering they can cause each other.

Think Pon Farr and Vulcans as opposed to Klingon mating rituals.

[Yora]

Just had a really good idea for my demons:

Normally, demons come from a realm of primordal chaos that knows neither time nor space. They have no shape or dimensions and think in ways that are completely incomprehensible to mortal creatures. If they want to come into the physical world, they have to take a material shape. Usually it's rotting corpses, but if enough black demon magic has been used in a place, they can also make elemental-like bodies similar to gravel, ice, ash, and tar. If they are summoned with a living sacrifice, they can also take over the living body and absorb its soul with all the memories. But how to make these things truly alien and incomprehensible things instead of just a little devil in a human suit?
The great idea: Just like the demons wear the body as their material shape, they can also wear the mind and use it to make sense of the world around them. The mind they have just consumed processes all the things that the body percieves, interpretes languages, and things like that, and turns them into emotions, which is something that demons also have. That means the mind of the possessed person is still mostly intact, but motivations, goals, and values are completely changed. It's still the same "brain", but with a completely new "heart". They know everything the person knew, but just don't care about anything the person cared for. That could be really creepy, I think.

[jqavins]

Reminds me of something I thought of a while ago; it's just fluff and maybe not even as large as a snippet, but a mere snippetina. The rank and file denizens of the outer planes - demons, devils, and their counterparts - are fundementally all the same, speaking biologically and biomagically. Like mortals, each individual has his/her own alignment and level of power. Unlike mortals, their physical forms are effected over time by these things, so they take on the sorts of appearances we've come to know. But under the surface and excepting things like horns and extra limbs, they're all the same. It's even possible, though very rare, for them to change their alignments and then form gradually follows.

[Mr.Cobalt]

I saw this idea a few times in other places, but not sure if I saw it here:

Humans are Dire Halflings

Dwarves are Dire Gnomes


Think about it: both Humans and Halflings are known for their wanderlust and adaptability, but where Halflings are nomadic and seen as outcasts at worst or second citizens at best, humans hunker down and make kingdoms and empires wherever they go (or expand existing ones) and will royally f*** up anything that dare try to stop them (or die trying themselves). Both Gnomes and Dwarves are known for their love of machinery and merriment, but while Gnomes are more childish and are more known for use of clockwork, Dwarves run on mead and testosterone and build golems and war machines using steam power and big-arse metal cogs.

Both pairs of races similar in some basic way, yet one side is almost always hardier and more aggressive, if not also considerably larger in average body size. Not quite unlike what the Dire template does to an animal, no?

(I recall there was supposed to be one for Elves too, maybe the Tolkien Elf -> Orc, but I couldn't think of as good a comparison between those two as these other ones)

[Jendekit]

I have used something similar to this last one in my current campaign. A blue dragon alchemist with a personality based off of Varric from Legend of Korra and Xanatos from Gargoyles, just run with it, developed a formula that turns the humanoid folk into better, more pliable servant race forms. Dwarves turn into goblins, humans into orcs, elves into hobgoblins, and half-elves have a 50/50 chance of being orc or hobgoblin.

PS: before anyone brings it up, halflings and gnomes at this point in time do not exist in the setting.

[Tragak]

Orcs are generally considered to be a) less intelligent, b) less civilized, c) less righteous, and d) less influential in the world than humans.

Roll 1d4. Reverse that many.

Humans are Dire Halflings

Dwarves are Dire Gnomes

Think about it: both Humans and Halflings are known for their wanderlust and adaptability, but where Halflings are nomadic and seen as outcasts at worst or second citizens at best, humans hunker down and make kingdoms and empires wherever they go (or expand existing ones) and will royally f*** up anything that dare try to stop them (or die trying themselves). Both Gnomes and Dwarves are known for their love of machinery and merriment, but while Gnomes are more childish and are more known for use of clockwork, Dwarves run on mead and testosterone and build golems and war machines using steam power and big-arse metal cogs.

Both pairs of races similar in some basic way, yet one side is almost always hardier and more aggressive, if not also considerably larger in average body size. Not quite unlike what the Dire template does to an animal, no?

… That was brilliant.

[dysike]

The legendary troupe. A group of travelling performers with a variety of powerful magical capabilities. However their main strength lies in their stories, their combined knowledge of stories, songs and poems contains everything that has ever happened or will ever happen. They themselves do not know what story refers to what events and things are usually vague and metaphorical but they have time and time again ensured history took the right course. Many years ago many of the members of the troupe gave up this duty and vanished into anonymity, now only two still wander the world. However although combined they know all stories, each individual knows only parts so the influence these two may have is severely limited. Now a new power is rising and all the world is erupting into a war between light and darkness and the combined knowledge of the troupe as well as their power will be needed in order for good to triumph, so the adventurers must seek out each of the lost members finding them and convincing them to reform the legendary troupe. But what was it that truly caused them to go their separate ways all those years ago and how do they know the things they do?

[Yora]

I love the settings of Dragon Age and Mass Effect because of the well established hostilities between the races that can be traced back to really just a few historic conflicts in the past. It's something I've rarely seen in any campaign settings, but it seems to add so much more depth to the world and the races. And you also have to take those old conflicts into consideration when dealing with members of those groups.

Here are some I came up with for my own setting.

• For thousands of years the naga have kept huge populations of lizardfolk as slaves as workers and soldiers for their empire. 800 years ago some lizardfolk shamans who worshipped the sun in secret planned a rebellion to overthrow their naga masters in the capital city of the empire. With the help of the fire magic of the shamans the slaves killed and chased off all the naga in the city and the shamans chose one of the bravest warriors to be their king. Over the following decades, the new lizard kings conquered several other naga castles and made the freed slaves part of the kingdom. Result: The kingdom of the lizardfolk is governed by a powerful warrior king, but he is selected and backed by the Sun Priests, who speak the will of the Holy Sun. They never succeeded in destroying all the naga castles and cities, but still see it as a holy crusade to destroy all their strongholds and keep them from regaining their lost power over the world. Dealing with the lizardfolk still enslaved by the naga is problematic, as many of them still regard them as demigods and are very loyal to their masters. When the two sides clash, it tends to get very brutal.
• The high elves have long been researching sorcery, even though it is well known that this type of magic can be very dangerous and leave long lasting damage on the land and people. But the sorcerers thought they had it under control, until 600 years ago it was discovered that some had made pacts with demons to learn more magical secrets and increase their power. Some of them got possessed by the demons and so the other sorcerers decided to destroy all of these warlocks. It lead to pretty much a civil war, but by the end several demon-possesed warlocks had escaped into the wilderness with some apprentices and relatives. Result: Now the high elves are always looking out for demons, with a kind of inquisition always searching for hidden warlocks or demon cults. The druids of the surrounding wood elf tribes want to put an end to all sorcery entirely.
• 400 years ago the wood elves needed more warriors to both protect their merchants bringing goods from the far western lands, and to fight against other tribes and beastmen. Eventually the merchants started hiring some of the human nomads with whom they traded and that worked out so well that they recruited whole mercenary companies to reinforce their armies at home. Result: With the help of the humans the wood elves could defeat many of the other tribes and get a greater hold over trade. Much of the territory they conquered was given to the humans to settle and become vassals to their elven employers. There is now a considerable human population in the setting, but the survivors of the defeated tribes who had to move deeper into the forests don't like them at all. They also tend to annoy the jungle elves who live in the south, as they are looking to expand their territory.
• The beastmen of the north have made two major raids during the last centuries with massive forces of raiders comin around the mountains and far into the territory of wood elves and high elves. The first time was very successful and destroyed several elven tribes and took a lot of treasure as they returned home. That already made them unpopular with the elves. Some generations later some beastmen chiefs thought it would be a great idea to stop the fighting among each other by all going on anothe big raid south. In the meantime high elves had build a fortress city in the mountains, but the raiders didn't try a siege but went around it and south. However, the wood elves now had their human mercenary cavalry, which did quite a big difference. When the campaign stalled, the elves of the mountain fortress and many of the small gnome kingdoms in the mountains attacked the raiders back and they lost a huge number of warriors before they made it back home with not a lot of loot. Result: Beastmen have not a good reputation or getting an open welcome, especially when they appear in large groups. They are allowed into the mountain fortress to trade, but don't regard the high elves very kindly either.
• At some point the wood elf druids convinced their chiefs that the high elf sorcerers were up to something and working on an army of demon soldiers. They got a big army of wood elves and humans together and started a huge surprise attack against the high elf lands. They destroyed many high elf castles and towns, but eventually the sorcerers organized and achieved a huge victory, despite being heavily outnumbered, completely without any demon help. Result: Most importantly the reputation of the druids was highly damaged. The war turned out to be just a regular plundering campaign that found barely any warlocks, and a huge part of the army ended up lost with not of lot of loot being made by the wood elves. The chiefs don't really trust military advice from the druids anymore and few people believe they really want to keep the world safe from demons, but are just another bunch of mages trying to destroy their rivals. The high elves are still quite pissed at the destruction of their lands and most outsider now agree that the high elves are a military powerhouse.
• Not long after the invasion of the high elves, surviving human mercenaries returned home and were not feeling happy with fighting other peoples wars for pay. Among them was a lot of interest for the teaching of a half-elf mystic who two generations ago had been teaching a philosophy of self-reliance without relying on gods and spirits for protection and good fortune, but on like-minded people united by comradery. The warriors gave the small movement a huge boost and it was also joined by many beastmen and jungle elf mercenaries looking for a more permanent home. The warriors decided that the best way would be to simply conquer some land and resources and while their civilian comrades had reservations about it, they were highly succesfull. Result: Of course, taking land for themselves meat kicking out the previous owners and declaring independence from their wood elf lieges. Which wasn't too popular with most people. Lots of the people from conquered territories chose to simply join the invaders and keep their homes, but many thought this would by defying the gods and angering them and instead fled to other places. This army is currently the strongest one in the world, and being lead by warriors, they quite like keeping doing what they are good at, so they are very unpopular with their neighbours. But they do have some appeal for people who don't like serving nobles or whose farms aren't getting anywhere despite generous offerings to the spirits.

I want at least one more big event, something more highly fantastical and magical than the others, but not quite gods walking the earth or a demon invasion.

[Yora]

There is a kind of spirit that has no own form and can not be detected in any way, and could perhaps be described as a kind of telepathic disease. Nobody is really know where it comes from or how it appears, but it affects animals and even plants and makes them evil. They become twisted and mutated and start killing other animals and people in the area. Normally the effect does not spread to people, but sometimes it affects witches and turns them into hags. The hag is then in telepathic contact with all the other beasts and plants of the swarm and able to command them. In remote areas they often stay among themselves simply killing anything that gets too close, but hags who live near settlements usually start to direct their beasts to kill all villagers in the area.
Killing the hag does not destroy the swarm and as long as there are still some beasts around, it can spread to more creatures and even new witches. Though destroying the beasts or driving them off tends to become a lot easier when the hags are dead. Unfortunately, there can be several hags in a swarm. How they share control is unkown. If a swarm is destroyed but a hag still remains, she can gather a lot of new beasts much faster than the swarm would usually spread by itself. Which fortunately seems to be quite slow, so huge armies of beasts have been encountered only very rarely.

[GorinichSerpant]

You know how humans have frat partys where people drink themselves to unconscious and do crazy stupid things. Gnomes do that, except they tinker and experiment while they drink, all at the same time. This has led to horrid disasters, great innovations in engineering, wonders of alchemy, arcane discoverys, horrid abominations of science still out there, laws prohibiting booze in a workshop, and cocktails with gunpowder in them.

[Mr.Cobalt]

You know how humans have frat partys where people drink themselves to unconscious and do crazy stupid things. Gnomes do that, except they tinker and experiment while they drink, all at the same time. This has led to horrid disasters, great innovations in engineering, wonders of alchemy, arcane discoverys, horrid abominations of science still out there, laws prohibiting booze in a workshop, and cocktails with gunpowder in them.

Would explain about half of the Monster Manual.

[jqavins]

Would explain about half of the Monster Manual.

And a fair fraction of the real world.

[johnbragg]

EVIL is an addictive drug. Performing acts of cruelty and destruction, for their own sake, creates the magical equivalent of an endorphin rush.

As with any addictioin, tolerance builds up over time, causing the addict to try for bigger and purer doses. The addiction can often override rational, long term planning.

That's why Snidely Whiplash is twirling his mustache with a maniacal glint in his eye and giving his Evil Laugh(TM) inflicting pain and misery with apparently no real benefit to himself--he's doing it for the midichlorian/endorphin rush of Evil.

[GorinichSerpant]

EVIL is an addictive drug. Performing acts of cruelty and destruction, for their own sake, creates the magical equivalent of an endorphin rush.

As with any addictioin, tolerance builds up over time, causing the addict to try for bigger and purer doses. The addiction can often override rational, long term planning.

That's why Snidely Whiplash is twirling his mustache with a maniacal glint in his eye and giving his Evil Laugh(TM) inflicting pain and misery with apparently no real benefit to himself--he's doing it for the midichlorian/endorphin rush of Evil.

That explains a lot about Saturday morning cartoons, golden age comics and various media designed for kids in general.

[johnbragg]

Rogues rely on luck a lot. But the rogue knows something about luck that most of us do not--you make your own luck. Just like when you figured out how to cheat at dice, you reach out with your fingers just so and your mind just so and just a little push and--things go your way. Is it magic? In a fantasy setting, everything is magic.

[Yora]

Nice idea I've seen:

Some of the Stalker-guys are working on a postapocalyptic game where the threat to humanity is not messed up physics but messed up biology. Somewhere deep inside Russia a forest started to grow rapidly and produce big nasty animals that attack anyone near the forest edge and inside it. And it just kept growing and growing until it covers most of Eurasia. And of course, it still keeps on growing. This is no longer a world that is hospitable by humans.

[Acacia OnnaStik]

The Unspawned, the gods of the merfolk, are said to live in the very deepest of abyssal trenches. The religious hierarchy is based largely on depth tolerance. Merfolk High Priests are terrifying.

(Oh, and cuttlefish make popular pets.)

[jqavins]

(Oh, and cuttlefish make popular pets.)

Popular like gerbils? Or more like dogs or cats? I'd pictured, cliché though it is, porpoises and dolphins as the dog/cat type pets (not necessarily mapping one to one.)

[Mr.Cobalt]

Once upon a time there was a powerful wizard who had gained a reputation for his mastery of creating magical constructs. Like many wizards, however, he lived alone in a tower (his familiar had died ages ago) and was prone to bouts of boredom and loneliness, during which he would try coming up with new kinds of constructs in an effort to make himself some company. These friendships were short-lived and often disappointing, however, as the constructs were of limited intellect, if sentient at all, and couldn't satisfy the wizard's need for stimulating intellectual conversation.

Then, one particularly lonely night while the wizard was studying his spellbook, an idea struck him: this tome was a compendium of nearly all his arcane knowledge gathered over ages of study, serving him faithfully since his early days as an adventurer to the present. It had been his closest companion for longer than any of his now-deceased adventuring allies, and far, far longer than any of his myriad creations- shallow, half-intelligent mockeries of life that amused him for mere hours before he grew bored of them and sent them to his dungeon or sold them.

The wizard had long been trying to make himself a worthy companion- what if he could breath life into this beloved tome of his?

Hours and days of intensive study and tedious spellcrafting later, the first Living Spellbook was born. Created to be the perfect wizard's companion, it was designed with intellect and curiosity to rival that of any dungeon-delving tome-hunter, with enough comprehension of the arcana it contained to even cast a few spells of its own. It was also enchanted with powerful regeneration abilities which not only protected it from harm and shielded it from the elements, but also gave it a form of motility as it could extend its pages into paper pseodopods with which to interact with its surroundings (though some were additionally enchanted with limited magical flight by their owners). Furthermore, these animate tomes could "consume" magical writings to add them to their own repertoires at the cost of the original, allowing them to scribe new spells into themselves without the aid of their wizard.

[SirKazum]

Once upon a time, there was a great and terrible war, which caused countless death, tore apart families, and brought endless suffering to many (as wars are wont to do). Disgusted by the horrible effect this war had on innocent children, the goddess of Peace snatched up the children of all peoples involved in this war (which included humans, elves and dwarves) and spirited them away to a secluded location, sheltering them from the world's evils and guiding them into a new era. Those children eventually matured, but didn't exactly grow; rather, they retained child-like size and features as a reminder of who they once were, as well as their curiosity and cheerfulness. By the union of those human, elven and dwarven children, a new race arose: the halflings. Tallfellow halflings have predominantly elven ancestors, deep halflings are descended from dwarves, and lightfoot halflings are those of human origin.

[Acacia OnnaStik]

Popular like gerbils? Or more like dogs or cats? I'd pictured, cliché though it is, porpoises and dolphins as the dog/cat type pets (not necessarily mapping one to one.)

Definitely like dogs and cats. Dolphins are at least the size of a grown merperson, which doesn't really say "housepet" to me.

Maybe they use them like horses, though, sort of harness themselves to dolphins to travel further or faster than they could swim themselves...

[jqavins]

Once upon a time there was a powerful wizard who had gained a reputation for his mastery of creating magical constructs. Like many wizards, however, he lived alone in a tower (his familiar had died ages ago) and was prone to bouts of boredom and loneliness, during which he would try coming up with new kinds of constructs in an effort to make himself some company. These friendships were short-lived and often disappointing, however, as the constructs were of limited intellect, if sentient at all, and couldn't satisfy the wizard's need for stimulating intellectual conversation.

Then, one particularly lonely night while the wizard was studying his spellbook, an idea struck him:

"I should get out of the house and make some friends!"

Oh well. Now the world is lousey with intelligent books, flying all over the place by flapping their covers. Thanks a million Mr. Wizard.

[jqavins]

The goddess of death is neutral with good tendancies. Her guiding philosophy, and those of her worshippers, is that all things die and move on in their proper time. Thus, the undead and their creation are anathama, as is soul binding since it prevents the "and move on" part. Her adventuring clerics and holy warriors (paladin analogs) are all sworn to eliminate these things wherever they are found. This is not always in anger, as many undead are to be put to rest with compassion, e.g. ghosts and those animated against their will. But any who resist such mercy are to be destroyed all the same.

Rejuvination and other magics that extend life beyond its natural span are considered sinful (though they don't require instant attack as undead and soul binding do.) Raising/resurecting someone who has died of natural causes, i.e. of old age, is as well. But healng and raising/resurecting those who've been injured or died from accident or violence is encouraged, since these are deaths before their time. Deaths by natural dieases not associated with old age and the curing of such diseases are a gray area; often these are seen as deaths before their time, but sometimes even a child's time just comes early.

Speak With Dead is generally considered suspect. If the departed is willing to communicate then it is acceptable (if a bit hinky) but when compulsion enters the picture it is to be avoided.

Her clerics have a spell called Safe Passage which protects the recently dead or dying from being animated, trapped, etc. and speeds them on their way to their afterlife, whatever that may be. They can spontaneously cast this, like Cure spells. They must use it for all those who wish it, regardless of alignment or religion.

[GorinichSerpant]

"I should get out of the house and make some friends!"

I'm imagining that's what the newly created intelligent spell book told him. It's a smart book ain't it?

[Mr.Cobalt]

"I should get out of the house and make some friends!"

Oh well. Now the world is lousey with intelligent books, flying all over the place by flapping their covers. Thanks a million Mr. Wizard.

That wasn't quite how I envisioned them moving about but now I can't get that picture out of my head or stop laughing at it.