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  1. - Top - End - #31
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    PairO'Dice Lost's Avatar

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    Default Re: DMs: What's a bit of world building on the micro-scale you're proud of?

    A new player just joined my group, and a friend of his already in the group informed me that he has a tendency to make "quirky" characters when joining a new group to sort of test the boundaries on roleplaying dynamics (in a funny way, not a disruptive one, usually). For this game, he decided to make a paladin who, personality-wise, was essentially a stereotypical attendee of Burning Man (complete with funky hairstyle, an inability to shower regularly, etc.) and made it clear during character creation that he was going to be making lots of Burning Man jokes and references in-character, which could threaten to get anachronistic/metagamey after a while.

    Well, he hadn't chosen a patron deity yet, and one of the religions in the setting worships a minor pantheon of fire-related demigods: a god of crafting symbolized by a forge-fire, a god of knowledge symbolized by a candle, and so on...including a god of death symbolized by a funeral pyre. So I wrote up a little wiki article on the Festival of the Flames, a multi-day religious rite where worshipers of the pantheon assemble at a holy site to make contacts among the faithful and honor the gods with their activities.

    On the first day, they lead workshops on smithing and crafting techniques, and build shelters, sculptures, and other things out of metal to be given out freely to the other participants as a sacrifice to the forge-god; on the second day, they tell stories, discuss religious philosophy, and so forth, and freely share spell scrolls, personal research, and other valuable knowledge as a sacrifice to the candle-god. This continues until the last day, where an assortment of sculptures from the first day, transcriptions from the second day, and so on are gathered around a wooden sculpture of a man, all of which is then burned as a sacrifice to the pyre-god.

    So I managed to turn a potentially-irritating character quirk into a roleplaying hook while adding depth to a religious institution. When I showed him the article, his reaction was basically. "...huh. I guess you win this one."
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  2. - Top - End - #32
    Dwarf in the Playground
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    Default Re: DMs: What's a bit of world building on the micro-scale you're proud of?

    not yet sprung this but looking forward to it (this is inspired by planescape:torment)
    1) have a minor joke antagonist rat king (wizard)
    2) have him get away each time or resurrect depending on the outcome
    3) have him invent cranium rats
    4) as players aproach high level either have him lich or go "worm-that-walks" (except with rats) if the players disrupt the ritual too early
    5) cranium rats join together to form one-of-many (or form rat kings conciousness as "worm that walks") (ideal scenario is that players kill the lich and thus the plan is all from the cranium rats)
    6) cranium rats try to make a one-of-many in every city and then unleash a plague of were-rats (which they control)
    7) players break into rat king's laboratory (it's the same lab every time for comedic value, only to find lich corps exactly where they left it)

  3. - Top - End - #33
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: DMs: What's a bit of world building on the micro-scale you're proud of?

    I changed Kobold society and warfare a bit. made them (mostly) non evil traders of metals and edible fungus, and the approach to warfare was that if they actually had to face their enemies, something had gone fundamentally wrong. also they had a valley of there own, along with the sides of the mountains there of, that no one had ever managed to take from them. they used scrying magic and traps immensely.
    I did this because the behavioral description given by wizards of the coast made no sense to me.
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  4. - Top - End - #34
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    Default Re: DMs: What's a bit of world building on the micro-scale you're proud of?

    There's a small community out on the frontier border of one the kingdoms that herds Gray Renders. They're mostly known for exporting labor in the form of worker/overseer pairs of a Gray Render bonded to a humanoid "shepherd". Also, Gray Renders can produce multiple offspring in their lifetime because each creature only reproducing once would be unsustainable for any species.
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    All Roads Lead to Gnome.

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  5. - Top - End - #35
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    Default Re: DMs: What's a bit of world building on the micro-scale you're proud of?

    Quote Originally Posted by a_flemish_guy View Post
    not yet sprung this but looking forward to it (this is inspired by planescape:torment)
    1) have a minor joke antagonist rat king (wizard)
    2) have him get away each time or resurrect depending on the outcome
    3) have him invent cranium rats
    4) as players aproach high level either have him lich or go "worm-that-walks" (except with rats) if the players disrupt the ritual too early
    5) cranium rats join together to form one-of-many (or form rat kings conciousness as "worm that walks") (ideal scenario is that players kill the lich and thus the plan is all from the cranium rats)
    6) cranium rats try to make a one-of-many in every city and then unleash a plague of were-rats (which they control)
    7) players break into rat king's laboratory (it's the same lab every time for comedic value, only to find lich corps exactly where they left it)
    Have you heard of Falvic, the King of Rats?
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  6. - Top - End - #36
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    SwashbucklerGuy

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    Default Re: DMs: What's a bit of world building on the micro-scale you're proud of?

    A minor change to Flesh to Stone (and similar spells) used to explain certain hauntings and spontaneously sentient magical items.

    Those spells now trap your soul, instead of killing you. Even if the materials are worked or broken down, your soul stays attached to a piece of it. Over time, those materials are worn down till they're indistinguishable from raw materials. Sometimes they end up mixed into the materials used to make a sword, or even to build a house!
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  7. - Top - End - #37
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    Default Re: DMs: What's a bit of world building on the micro-scale you're proud of?

    Quote Originally Posted by Vegan Squirrel View Post
    Gnomish teas. [...] the goliath PC really took to Gnomish Bubble Tea, always keeping some on hand to entertain himself and the children they encountered.
    This one might be my favorite, although others, like the fire pantheon, are also pretty good.

    I think my favorite bit of micro-scale world building would be for a caste-system society. The detail about this people seemed to really enjoy was that each had there own set of hairstyles to draw from and the warriors (those that fight) didn't have military cuts at all. Instead they had the longest flowing hair out of any of the castes. As part of gearing up they would fold their hair into elaborate patterns which they pinned under their helmets. As an extension of this a warrior tying there hair up while off duty was considered a threatening gesture or a pretty unsubtle warning.

  8. - Top - End - #38
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    WolfInSheepsClothing

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    Default Re: DMs: What's a bit of world building on the micro-scale you're proud of?

    Quote Originally Posted by Cluedrew View Post
    the warriors (those that fight) didn't have military cuts at all. Instead they had the longest flowing hair out of any of the castes. As part of gearing up they would fold their hair into elaborate patterns which they pinned under their helmets.
    that's a very neat way to save money on helmet paddings
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  9. - Top - End - #39
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    Default Re: DMs: What's a bit of world building on the micro-scale you're proud of?

    I'm not sure why people focus on the hair as padding thing, but both times I have brought it up on this forum someone has. I wonder why.

  10. - Top - End - #40
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    WolfInSheepsClothing

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    Default Re: DMs: What's a bit of world building on the micro-scale you're proud of?

    Quote Originally Posted by Cluedrew View Post
    I'm not sure why people focus on the hair as padding thing, but both times I have brought it up on this forum someone has. I wonder why.
    oh, i don't think a bunch of hair would be all that effective as padding. human hair is designed as heat insulator, not armor. they can be mildly effective against slashing, but have very little against bludgeoning, which is what passes through the helmet. so, those helmets still need padding.
    i was just making a joke.
    In memory of Evisceratus: he dreamed of a better world, but he lacked the class levels to make the dream come true.

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  11. - Top - End - #41
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    Cozzer's Avatar

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    Default Re: DMs: What's a bit of world building on the micro-scale you're proud of?

    After a series of misunderstandings that would be difficult to translate in English (due to the fact that "bull", as in "Bull's Strength", is "toro" in Italian, as in a "toroidal shape"), the party's barbarian gave a random shopkeeper the idea of creating the "doughnuts of Bull's Strength", instead of the usual potions.

    During the rest of the campaign, in the background, this random shopkeeper made it big and an ever-increasing percentage of magic potions was substituted by magic doughnuts, in the whole kingdom.
    Last edited by Cozzer; 2020-01-14 at 08:20 AM.

  12. - Top - End - #42
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    Default Re: DMs: What's a bit of world building on the micro-scale you're proud of?

    A significant number of dragons think that once humans have lived for about a century, their ears become pointy and they call themselves "elves." This is the result of most dragons having extremely limited interaction with non-dragons. Those that have interacted with other species noticed that those with round ears were less than 100 years old, and those with pointy ears were over 100 years old. Given that "humans" and "elves" looked almost the same apart from their ears, the dragons just assumed that the humanoids' ears grew larger and pointier with age, mirroring their own horns. Thinking that this must be incredibly obvious to the humanoids, the dragons didn't bother to explain this assumption to them until it had already become common knowledge, and they were confused by the fact that humans didn't expect to eventually become elves.

  13. - Top - End - #43
    Librarian in the Playground Moderator
     
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    Default Re: DMs: What's a bit of world building on the micro-scale you're proud of?

    Literally, micro-scale.

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  14. - Top - End - #44
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    Son of A Lich!'s Avatar

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    Default Re: DMs: What's a bit of world building on the micro-scale you're proud of?

    My Gnolls are not Fiendish in nature.

    They're carnivores and incapable of speaking common tongue (A tonal based language, where the chirps and giggles of their "Laughter" is all a highly complicated linguistic system that has no human analog). Even spells like Tongues and Comprehend Languages makes huge mistakes from time to time.

    They also practice ritualistic cannibalism, believing that leaving a dead warrior on the battlefield or burying it in the dirt (Or worse, lighting it on fire!) is a huge insult, basically saying that they were not worthy of passing on through the tribe. A foe who takes the life of one of their own is deemed worthy of consumption and prized to warlords and the ilk.

    Necromancy (Raising skeletal and zombies) is seen as a punishment for cowardice or insubordination/laziness. They were deemed unworthy by the tribe to be consumed and are left to suffer and contribute to the tribe beyond death.

    Evil, yes, but not Fiends. Simply misunderstood and a deep culture that recognizes death as an important part of the life cycle.
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  15. - Top - End - #45
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    Imp

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    Default Re: DMs: What's a bit of world building on the micro-scale you're proud of?

    - I wondered what D&D life would be like if more people had access to (simple) magic, just to make life a bit more convenient the way we use technology/gadgets. I ended up with writing a whole set of legislations, rules on how to get permits and enroll for courses, what people are eligible, consequences for breaking these laws, etc. The party has a document they can access if they want to, but they just accepted it as fact and it only comes up every now and then. For example, necromancy is heavily regulated and forbidden unless being specifically exempted: "wait, we can have him resurrected at the temple? Isn't that illegal?"

    - since I love holidays and festivals, I made a list of all important dates in a year stating what the celebration is for and what customs/rituals/activities are held. I grabbed some existing ones, tweaked some others, and invented some new ones including 2 exclusively for my city-state. When one of these days comes up I mention it, but leave it entirely up to them whether or not they want to do something with it

    - I made a list of all NPCs the players have encountered and give some of them a bit of background story. Sometimes the party sees them only once and then never again, but I want to make these NPCs feel as if they have their own lives and personalities. For example, one desk clerk they encounter often (at the 'quest job agency' I introduced) is a young bloke in his early twenties, who walks with a limp due to childhood illness. He would've loved to become a great adventuring hero, but it'll never happen. So he started working at the quest job agency to live his dream through the people he meets and whose stories he hears when they come to report a job well done. It's a hopeless situation for him to be in, and he sometimes struggles to keep his optimistic mask on, but he's already thankful he has a job at all...... all that the party knows, is that he's a young man who is very enthusiastic and loves the stories they tell him.

    - one of my WiP is the city-state's government system. I have a ruling Council, made up of 8 key figures from various important factions of the city. I gave them all a background, personality, and goals - what I'm working on is to flesh out the history and founding of the city: how did the Council come into existence, who were the founding members, what happened to them, how did they shape the city to be the thriving harbour city it is today?
    Just remember... if the world didn't suck, we'd all fall off.

  16. - Top - End - #46
    Titan in the Playground
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    Default Re: DMs: What's a bit of world building on the micro-scale you're proud of?

    The players have been told that the dwarves no longer exist. They were wiped out 200 years ago in the great dwarf/Frost Giant war. The whole world knows this. IThe truth, however, is that the last remaining dwarves have been enslaved by the Frost Giants. When the PCs get high enough level, they will bump into a few Frost Giants wielding new dwarf-made weapons. This should show them that dwarves are still around. The dwarves can be freed – by somebody powerful enough to invade a giant underground city.

    -----

    By the way – dwarf tunnels are never more than four feet high in my worlds. It’s really hard for humans, elves, or orcs to fight in dwarven mines.

    -----

    There is also one more tribe of dwarves nobody knows about. They live in an isolated valley, and the PCs will first find out about them from carved friezes in an abandoned area that show humans who are smaller than dwarves.

    But it's not really short humans. If they choose to follow the clues, they will find a tribe of 8-foot-tall dwarves. Yes, they are real dwarves, just like hill giants and frost giants are the same race. These dwarves, not being short, don’t have the advantage most dwarves do for tunnel mining, so they have large open-air mines. I have made a bunch of minis by taking some of Steve Jackson Games’ Cardboard Heroes and printing them at a larger size.

    [The friezes show ordinary human-sized humans, but I’m hoping the players never think of that until they meet the large dwarves.]

  17. - Top - End - #47
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    Default Re: DMs: What's a bit of world building on the micro-scale you're proud of?

    A multi-setting thing I do is to have Elvis, an electric axe, (new) a donkey.

    Elvis does exist or has existed in all settings. In D&D games he's is/was a bard. In SF settings he's normal Elvis (dead, famous, etc.) or an alien. In my current DtD40k7e game he's the patron saint of ork culture.

    The electric axe is... well, everything you'd expect from a magic or super-science item called "electric axe". The PCs may never find it, may never use it, but it's there.

    The donkey is just a donkey. Ok so it has off-screen, fade-to-black, author-fiat style immortality. But other than that it's just a donkey.
    Last edited by Telok; 2020-02-25 at 05:55 PM.

  18. - Top - End - #48
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    WolfInSheepsClothing

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    Default Re: DMs: What's a bit of world building on the micro-scale you're proud of?

    An important city in a world I'm fiddling around with sits on a peninsula which sticks out into a great bay. It is the capital of a long decaying empire. The entrance to the bay is protected by two ancient castles.

    While looking through the magic spell list I happened upon a spell that allows a magic user to form walls and other such objects out of stone. So I decided that the walls of these two castles look like they were grown out of living rock. This should show how much more magically rich The Empire was at one time.
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  19. - Top - End - #49
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    Goblin

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    Default Re: DMs: What's a bit of world building on the micro-scale you're proud of?

    Zoink. Stealing this. That's a good piece of lore.
    Quote Originally Posted by Son of A Lich! View Post
    My Gnolls are not Fiendish in nature.

    They're carnivores and incapable of speaking common tongue (A tonal based language, where the chirps and giggles of their "Laughter" is all a highly complicated linguistic system that has no human analog). Even spells like Tongues and Comprehend Languages makes huge mistakes from time to time.

    They also practice ritualistic cannibalism, believing that leaving a dead warrior on the battlefield or burying it in the dirt (Or worse, lighting it on fire!) is a huge insult, basically saying that they were not worthy of passing on through the tribe. A foe who takes the life of one of their own is deemed worthy of consumption and prized to warlords and the ilk.

    Necromancy (Raising skeletal and zombies) is seen as a punishment for cowardice or insubordination/laziness. They were deemed unworthy by the tribe to be consumed and are left to suffer and contribute to the tribe beyond death.

    Evil, yes, but not Fiends. Simply misunderstood and a deep culture that recognizes death as an important part of the life cycle.

  20. - Top - End - #50
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    Default Re: DMs: What's a bit of world building on the micro-scale you're proud of?

    Quote Originally Posted by jjordan View Post
    Zoink. Stealing this. That's a good piece of lore.
    When did gnolls become fiendish in nature? I always thought they were just hyena-inspired humanoids. I mean, yes, their god is a demon, but in 2E at least, they are purely natural beings.

    I gave them hyenadon mounts/pets when I placed them on the Isle of Dread, a matriarchal society (same as real-world hyenas, as I understand it), and made them rivals to the Rakasta tribes.
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  21. - Top - End - #51
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    Devil

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    Default Re: DMs: What's a bit of world building on the micro-scale you're proud of?

    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Torath View Post
    When did gnolls become fiendish in nature? I always thought they were just hyena-inspired humanoids. I mean, yes, their god is a demon, but in 2E at least, they are purely natural beings.

    I gave them hyenadon mounts/pets when I placed them on the Isle of Dread, a matriarchal society (same as real-world hyenas, as I understand it), and made them rivals to the Rakasta tribes.
    They turned into the literal spawn of Yeenoghu in 5E, if not 4E (never played 4E, not session-warring, just saying I don't know if they changed for that).

    OTOH, that sounds like a cool take on them, if you want them not to be fiend-spawn (I ... kinda wanted fiend-spawn, so I used 5E lore).
    Last edited by prabe; 2020-02-26 at 02:50 PM.

  22. - Top - End - #52
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    Default Re: DMs: What's a bit of world building on the micro-scale you're proud of?

    Quote Originally Posted by prabe View Post
    They turned into the literal spawn of Yeenoghu in 5E, if not 4E (never played 4E, not session-warring, just saying I don't know if they changed for that).

    OTOH, that sounds like a cool take on them, if you want them not to be fiend-spawn (I ... kinda wanted fiend-spawn, so I used 5E lore).
    Pretty sure that's a AD&D thing at least, no? I've had this lore set up back in high school and always hated the infernal back drop. I'll check out the 3e book when I get it unpacked, but I'm fairly confident they've always been tied to Yeenoghu in some sense.

    My uncle is a cultural anthropologist, so whenever discussions of Orcs or always evil creatures come up in D&D, I have been warned time and time again about primitivism. Evil doesn't do society very well and tyrants are always doomed to unpleasant graves - a society that is intrinsically evil doesn't work very well for very long.

    That's also why I'm always annoyed with Comprehend Languages as a spell. Translation is a very tricky thing and I can only imagine what happens when we encounter a species that doesn't "Speak" vocally or in a structure we don't really have a way to comprehend. But that is a whole different topic.
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  23. - Top - End - #53
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    BarbarianGuy

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    Default Re: DMs: What's a bit of world building on the micro-scale you're proud of?

    Planning out a kingdom's royal family tree, including brothers, sisters, and the full extended family of approximately 100 generations, back to the original King who unified the area ~2500 years before the current timeline. Most of it was generic "Husband/Wife + d3 Kids" stuff, but I randomly determined a bunch of weird traits, like deaths, marriages, injuries/handicaps, and even Royal Scandals, like adultery or others taboo things, that the family kinda never talks about.

    I even went as far as creating a naming convention, like, a pattern used to name the sons/daughters so that you'd end up with guys like "Henry VIII, Charles II, etc" but also gave them informal middle names, until they were crowned as Prince/King/Queen/Princess/etc.

    It almost never came into relevance though, I only ever needed a detail back about 3 generations, and the original guy, for historical facts about him. It was quite to document, as near the end, I needed multiple pages for a Single relative.
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  24. - Top - End - #54
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    Default Re: DMs: What's a bit of world building on the micro-scale you're proud of?

    Quote Originally Posted by Son of A Lich! View Post
    Pretty sure that's a AD&D thing at least, no? I've had this lore set up back in high school and always hated the infernal back drop. I'll check out the 3e book when I get it unpacked, but I'm fairly confident they've always been tied to Yeenoghu in some sense.
    Always tied to it, perhaps, but at least in 3rd they weren't created by the fiend, just worshipped it. Nowadays they're literally its spawn, with no capacity to change or evolve into something other than cannibalistic monsters. They're created in Yeenoghu's wake, I believe, rather than being natural creatures. Given their long history with DnD (and their popularity as being more playable in Ebberon), it's a bit disappointing Wizards has pushed so hard for the fiendish servant aspect that it seems unlikely they'll be playable again. The one upside is it does sidestep the problem of orcs and goblins: these things are now completely evil and can never not be evil and will absolutely wipe out everything in their path if given half a chance. Guilt-free hack and slash!
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    Default Re: DMs: What's a bit of world building on the micro-scale you're proud of?

    While some gnolls always worshipped the Yreglebergle demon it was only in 4e and 5e that they became literal demon-spawn. I think it's because the developments in late 3.5e with orcs and goblins moving away from being monsters and kobolds being turned into miniature dragon people. Just a replacement for the "always OK to kill, no questions asked" humanoid monster.

    To me gnolls always read as something akin to less advanced surface drow. A similar overall shape to their society, less cool equipment, demon worship, different rubber mask on the actors.

  26. - Top - End - #56
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    Default Re: DMs: What's a bit of world building on the micro-scale you're proud of?

    In a 5e game I run, my players were clearing out this abandoned temple in a foothills region. I tend to use support staff in raiding camps, so as to provide for moments of heart. For this reason they had earlier spared a hobgoblin warrior so he could guard a hired hobgoblin shaman to her home after the chief that hired her had been defeated.

    Made accustomed to this possibility, when they encountered an Orc raid cook in the abandoned temple, they spared him, and asked for his name, which the orc said was Tim.

    He has since evolved into the party’s steward. They turned the temple into a hideout, and since the Paladin became a baron, Tim has also become a captain of the militia, which occupies the hideout and patrols the small barony when they are away on missions from their king.

    This simple spared life has given me a much easier time of getting the players to engage with social rewards. I’m not sure they would if it was a brand-spanking new nameless npc they had tending to their things.

    It’s a simple npc thing, but they engage with Tim more than other npcs.
    Last edited by Wildstag; 2020-02-27 at 12:20 PM.

  27. - Top - End - #57
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    Default Re: DMs: What's a bit of world building on the micro-scale you're proud of?

    Quote Originally Posted by Son of A Lich! View Post
    That's also why I'm always annoyed with Comprehend Languages as a spell. Translation is a very tricky thing and I can only imagine what happens when we encounter a species that doesn't "Speak" vocally or in a structure we don't really have a way to comprehend. But that is a whole different topic.
    This came up in a prior campaign of mine, when the party ran into a race of subterranean critters that communicated with bioluminescence patterns and pheromones instead of speech or gestures. I ruled that comprehend languages' "understand the spoken words of creatures" clause worked on that form of communication because it doesn't literally translate anything but rather parses the conceptual and emotional content of a creature's communication and dumps that into the user's brain so that the user "hears" it appropriately; if another creature is speaking verbally they'll get the Universal Translator effect like normal, but non-verbal communications result in the user hearing a mental voice overlaying what it senses.

    Speech or other in-person communication is picked up from the creature's mind and aura with a low-grade psychic effect similar to detect thoughts plus empathy, while understanding writing and other recorded communication works by picking up psychic imprints left by the creator, similar to those detected by object reading or sensitivity to psychic impressions. Tongues does the same thing for understanding languages, and lets the user "speak" with a combination of low-grade telepathy and telempathic projection layered under actual speech similar to how a bard layers magic into his words and music.
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  28. - Top - End - #58
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    Default Re: DMs: What's a bit of world building on the micro-scale you're proud of?

    Quote Originally Posted by Son of A Lich! View Post
    My uncle is a cultural anthropologist, so whenever discussions of Orcs or always evil creatures come up in D&D, I have been warned time and time again about primitivism. Evil doesn't do society very well and tyrants are always doomed to unpleasant graves - a society that is intrinsically evil doesn't work very well for very long.
    One of my recent books (just formally proposed to Kenzer!) deals a lot with goblin society, and figuring out HOW goblin society worked was a big part of it, especially when you start getting big. Smaller societies, like you see most often with gnolls, can survive it a bit better than anything big.
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  29. - Top - End - #59
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    Default Re: DMs: What's a bit of world building on the micro-scale you're proud of?

    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Hall View Post
    One of my recent books (just formally proposed to Kenzer!) deals a lot with goblin society, and figuring out HOW goblin society worked was a big part of it, especially when you start getting big. Smaller societies, like you see most often with gnolls, can survive it a bit better than anything big.
    in my campaign i made goblins into a sort of nazis: very xenophobic, but also very nationalistic, willing and eager to lay down their lives for the goblin nation against their enemies (which amounts to everyone else). this kind of society can actually exhist and be a pretty dangerous foe.

    orcs don't have a real society. their only organization is a bit of religious respect for their clerics, but aside from that, the only right is that of strength. the only thing that keeps them from killing themselves is that they consider women as cattle, so they are spared from all the violence. even if 90% of male orcs die before reaching maturity, those who survive can start an harem and perpetuate the species. but orcs aren't really dangerous as a whole, and any seriously organized military can easily wipe them.
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    Default Re: DMs: What's a bit of world building on the micro-scale you're proud of?

    In my setting, the Orc lexicon lacks pronouns. Thus, an Orc speaking in a different language talks similar to a slightly more intelligent Grimlock from G1 Transformers, using both the translated language's pronouns and the objects actual term. E.g. "I, Krunk, will hold them, demons, back!"

    My players instantly got endeared with an Orc technomancer after I introduced this speech pattern.

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