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It's fun to take something from popular media and give it a twist. Whether it's vampires, goblins, or just tropes in general.
Do you have any interesting twists on common things, in your settings?
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Credit goes to Lord_Herman for the fantastic Joseph avatar (and the also fantastic Kremle avatar which I can't use because I'm already using the Joseph one).
I, uh, tend to end up doing this to the concepts of various shows/books/anime/manga that I watch or read.
I took the character erasure that Shakugan no Shana had and wrote a short story based around tracking down all the holes left by the common "you get deleted and no one will remember you!" mechanic.
Spoiler
Essentially, modern society tracks its citizens to such an extent that simply deleting a person and everyone's memories, as well as making their pictures go blank (which is a popular mechanic for some reason)... doesn't actually delete them. About the only way to properly delete a person in the modern world is to rewind time to their conception and delete them there, then wind forwards again.
The story has the protagonist, an unreasonably good detective for a high school boy, tracking down the disappearance of his (ex-)girlfriend who no one, including him, remembers. He does this by tracing the holes left in the world by a simple deletion of the girl and everything connected to her by 1 step (so pictures of her become empty, places where her name was go blank, and no one remembers her).
He also infers that the simple deletion mechanic is a natural law of some sort and not the result of an intelligent agent, and therefore this thing is safe to investigate.
He also demonstrates how to find a location with an Attention Deflecting Field that makes everyone everywhere spontaneously forget about it and unconsciously ignore it.
And so I managed to take the mechanic of people disappearing, which was played for Drama, and wrote something not-quite-a-mystery out of it.
Essentially, you don't *actually* have to introduce a twist into something to make it new. You just need a new perspective.
Or take it to its logical conclusion, which is very often not what was intended. =D
In many of my games I usually take one of the classically savage races (gnolls, goblins, orcs, etc) and turn them into to tactics masters, using all the dirty tricks and feats that low level martial players use so efectively.
They still may use swarms and ambushes, but it's a lot more orderly and planned.
I also often use a striking or uncommon race combination for a recurring NPC in the world. For example, I have a favorite ship captain who is half-orc and other half gnome or halfling. He's a half-orc stat wise, but dwarf size/build and quite the uncommon sight compared to the typical 7' linebacker half orcs players are used to.
I've had an idea for a while that, instead of just being undead, vampires are mages who use blood to fuel their powers. At some point they 'run low' on spirit energy-rich blood in their bodies and consume most of what they have left to strengthen their mind and body. They then take in blood from others to keep the magical furnace inside them working.
Sunlight kills them because it destroys (or severely damages) all magic - it radiates absurdly strong unstable magical power, which does to normal magical energy what RL radiation does to molecular bonds (if I understand it properly, that is).
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In one of my other settings, the fey are a massive empire that controls almost all of the world and puts down rebellion by setting off magical nuclear explosions (of sufficient strength to obliterate entire peninsulas) in the capitols of the rebelling nations.
In this setting, elves are warrior people who don't do anything other than keep ready for war and relay messages between their creators, the fey, and the mortal races. They have everything provided for them by the fey empire so they can't do much of anything but fight.
The dwarves are an older creation of the fey, left to rot in massive mountain-forts after they failed to do much against the last rebellion.
Okay not ALL of them. But I assume that monsters are not a static force, and individuals are capable of training and learning every bit as much as PCs.
Not to the same extent (usually only like 1-3 levels for a monster), but it makes combat more interesting when the ogre is investing essentia, the ghouls have 3rd level maneuvers, and the shambling mound can rage.
I also do the "half-something doesn't imply other half-human" thing like OOdlez said.
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Epic avatar by the Epic Ceika
Spoiler
78% of DM's started their first campaign in a tavern. If you're one of the 22% that didn't, copy and paste this into your signature.
I started mine with the only player waking up in prison
For my lizardfolk, I wanted to make an advanced and ordered iron age civilization with big capital cities and large temple districts, while individuals are still viscious warriors with maws full of sharp teeth.
So I pretty much made them a hybrid of Turians from Mass Effect and Jungle Trolls from Warcraft.
Spoiler
The only type of beings from other planes are demons.
They are not outright evil by nature, but they are creatures of the default state of the multiverse, while the world of mortal beings is just a small anomaly. The mere presence of a demon in the material world starts reality to break down, causing disease and mutation, and general decay. It's not that they want doing it, it just happens to everything near them when they are visiting.
Since their world is immaterial, they can not go to the material world, but they can replace the spirit of a material being, be it alive or dead. It can be a corpse, a living creature, or sometimes even just a heap of stone or ice. But even then, they need a material spellcaster to open a gateway for them from the inside, and can only interact with the material world through telepathy by their own power.
The motivation for all demons to visit the material world is curiosity. Some try to avoid causing damage, while others don't care, and some even find it quite entertaining to destroy material things. As they are completely immortal, they can stay for decades before their body is destroyed. But no matter how well meaning, all demons corrupt their surroundings and anyone who spends time near them.
Vampires can be barely called that, since I stripped them of almost all their powers, and they are now much more like the Inspired from Eberron, but they fill a similar niche. They are created when a living person is possessed by a demon and both the mortal spirit and the demonic spirit merge. The new being has all the memories of the originals, but it doesn't care at all for anything that was important to the mortal and whatever the demon left behind in the demon world. It's all about living one mortal lifetime in the material world. And with the improved physical and mental abilities of the demon possession and the considerable magical powers, it's usually about climbing up to power. They usually lead some kind of secret organization that gathers wealth and political power. Often they also arrange for some of their demon friends to get a mortal body as well, so the organizations endure for longer than the demon who started it.
They are basically super-humans who are almost immortal and of superior mental abilities, who are always at war with those people who try to fight the spread of demonic curruption of their world.
Lycathropes are entirely natural creatures and there is no disease and no moon influence involved. They are mortals who have the spirit of a humanoid and an animal, which allows them to shift between the forms. Most live in their own communities, but powerful animal spirits can also give this gift to people they consider worthy friends.
While I mess with game mechanics on a regular basis the twist of a popular pop culture image is more rare.
My personal favorite is gollems. Power them with bound souls. (I have a thing for finding ways of powering magic (or at least boosting the power of magic) in nasty ways.
I did take the idea of the saurians (as in the lost valley inhabitants from FR) as having a past fleshwarping culture who created most of the humanoids in the world. With one nation creating humanity expressly as a base for additional experiments and breeding programs (which is why human cross breed so easily) thus leading too changelings, lycanthropes, planetouched, etc. to be various tools created by leading nations (I apply a similar idea to my tweaked version of Eberron with the Bound Lords of Dust being the modifying force)
Oh and Orcs being fully integrated into society with Elves in an Eastern Setting. With the racial divide falling along the noble/commoner hit (it was a gimmick to a large extent but it played up the idea that destroying the system would release a powerful menace on the world and it hit my players harder than I thought it would)
Goblins look just like in the Lord of the Rings movie, because I like those.
Also, they are not a race of swarming marauders, but rather the only true subterranean humanoid race. They are also the only people who regularly travel between deep caves of the material plane and the Underworld, the underground realm of the Spiritworld. When surface people want to go to the underworld, they have to get themselves some goblin guides, because they are the only ones who know the unmapped passages and are familiar with all the dangerous creatures and how to find food and water in the underworld.
Unlike other mortal humanoid races, goblins can see without any light source. They have no connection to worgs, but instead gain incredible climbing abilities. Not only are they short and very thin, their entire equipment is also made to not get into the way when squeezing through incredibly tight and narrow cracks. When you fight goblins, it's always tuckers kobolds. They don't need to fight one on one, they can simply disappear into the rock and come out somewhere else any time, while medium sized travelers can only stay on the main path that is large enough for them.
Also:
Goliaths are Earth Genasi. Jarael from KotOR is an Air Genasi.
Draenei are Tieflings.
And I made a race based on mashing together Shifters from Eberron, Catharfrom KotOR, Feraifrom Primal, and Qunari from Dragon Age. You basically have 2 meter tall muscular warriors with lions heads who don't take **** from anyone.
Dwarves are very good at using poisons. It's a shame nobody notices this, but with better saves against poison, they should be using that stuff all the time. Not just in their ale.
I've been working on a Pathfinder campaign setting for a few months now where all of the races are at least slightly different than the 'original' versions. My goal is to convert everything in the Advanced Races Guide into something in my new setting.
Changelings are people who somehow came into contact with the setting's resident Lovecraftian horror, and were irrevocably changed. They can't remember anything of their past lives and are usually driven insane within a few years by the mysterious voices they hear in their heads at night.
Dhampir, being walking paradoxes (since they were given life by an undead creature), are monsters that look human but are, essentially, ferociously violent animals; many vampires use them as the undead equivalent of guard dogs.
Elves are so strongly tied to nature that if they stay in one place long enough, they begin to take on it's physical characteristics - i.e., an elf who lives in the forest may find their hair turning the color of the leaves and their skin might take on a bark-like quality.
I haven't finished all the races yet, but those are some of my favorites so far.
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Orcs are extinct, wiped out by a disease similar to small pox.
Half-orcs are nomadic horsemen.
Elves are descended from humans who were abducted by the fay and changed a bit by their time in faerie. They're also quite martially inclined.
Dwarves are naturally and culturally attuned to magic.
Gnomes are slave-taking, communist sailors and merchants.
Halflings are mostly poor subsistence farmers, but the adventurers are pretty much either pirates or paladins.
Kobolds don't worship dragons, they worship a kobold (who is yet to be born) who will turn into a dragon.
Undead can't stay animated if they're too far from their necromancer.
Elementals and outsiders form spontaneously from magical energies; they don't come from different planes (since there aren't any).
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lateral
Well, of course I'm paranoid about everything. Hell, with Jeff as DM, I'd be paranoid even if we were playing a game set in The Magic Kiddie Funland of Perfectly Flat Planes and Sugar Plums.
In a new somethingsomething I'm preparing for my next campaign:
- Undead have troll-like regeneration powers, and need no necromancer to animate them: All dead human bodies that aren't burned will rise up and start hunting people down within 3 days or so. Also, they're immune to bullets (which have advanced enough to replace most weapons).
- Necromancy isn't hated and feared but is instead a valuable community asset, as it has the power to *control* undead, not just create them. Towns are kept safe from the undead hordes by large necromantic devices that keep the zombies away.
- Clerics no longer exist. If you need healing/buffing magic, talk to an alchemist instead.
- Pretty much all mundane flora and fauna have gone extinct and been replaced with monstrous versions in the wild. Farming and animal husbandry of traditional foods has become all but impossible: Most communities now rely on hunter-gatherer subsistence on nearby monsters, though easily-accessible firearms mean communities are significantly larger than they are in stone age hunter-gatherer cultures.
[*]Kobolds don't worship dragons, they worship a kobold (who is yet to be born) who will turn into a dragon.
I use a similar idea for my Kobolds in my main setting. Dragonwrought Kobolds become dragons after a certain point (the change happens when/if they finally reach venerable), and this is the only way a dragon can be 'born'. They do not reproduce themselves. This is why most Kobold tribes serve a dragon, and why Dragons like to keep them around, even when they're being a full on nuisance (i.e. most of their conscious lives). This is a secret kept closely by Dragons, the only members of other races privy to the fact are the highest ranking of Dragon Shamans.
Amusingly enough, not a single player in my campaigns has ever uncovered this truth, and so it's never actually played a conspicuous role in my setting!
Warforged exist in the setting, but have nothing to do with the Eberron mythos. They were Moradin's first attempt at a race, before the Dwarves came along. They are immortal unless utterly and completely destroyed by something powerful enough (wish, miracle, disintegrate, etc...) and are hailed by Dwarves as Forge Prophets. Each warforged has the designs imbedded in it's mind for a unique artifact (varies wildly, often plot related) which they can create given enough power and ranks in the appropriate craft, and this artifact is their purpose in life. These artifacts are referred to as ForgeGifts, and have been the start and end of many wars and troubles in the world, leading many to question the LG intentions of Moradin.
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All I ask is a tall ship, and a star to sail her by.
Dwarves are very good at using poisons. It's a shame nobody notices this, but with better saves against poison, they should be using that stuff all the time. Not just in their ale.
I could see this translating into dwarves having more flexibility to use plants in food that would normally be deadly to other races, but using it as a murder tool within dwarf culture seems like hobbling yourself to give your victim a sporting chance. Or an elf thinking, "I'll murder my elf enemies! With old age!"
To make gnomes stand out more, I took a page from the Golarion campaign setting. They only recently arrived in the main world, having emigrated from another for reasons only they know. Also, they keep their skin covered at all times, wearing brightly colored cloaks and robes.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stu42
I used to like called shots. Then I took an arrow to the knee.
Kobolds and dragons
Kobolds are spawned by dragons - their task is to tend the lair of their queen, expanding and trapping the tunnels, and gathering treasure. The wiliest of them will eventually become a dragon and go on to spawn her own brood.
Trolls
(I always felt that trolls in vanilla D&D were just basically a different kind of ogre - not much special about them at all.
So, taking a hint from old folklore, which has differing troll myths depending on the region - some small, some large, none rubbery and regenerating - I made up my own troll monster, with its own entry.)
Trolls are shapeshifting giants, who can shrink down to medium or even small size. As they increase in size, they become dumber, but stronger. When smaller, they are scheming and cunning, but weaker.
A troll can disguise itself as another race of the same size - but the illusion is imperfect, and always leaves some monstrous aspect visible: horns, unnatural eyes, tail, claws, etc, etc.
In my game worlds I usually change around a lot of popular culture or religious ideologies. I have an entire world that runs on a sort of demented christianity. (Not intending to start any religious arguments)
One of the things I'm currently working on involves vampires. Their are 12 Fathers of vampirism currently on Earth. All of them are massive, alien, monstosities. They originated on a far off world and after the races of that planet realized they were extremely difficult to kill, they bound them in cubes of obsidian and cast them into space. These cubes crashed to Earth, freeing each Father. As local populaces came to investigate the Fathers drank from them.
So, Vampirism is caused by the mixing of alien and human DNA. Each Father is a slightly different creature and thus produces different bloodlines with different abilities.
Explanation for standard vampire myths:
Spoiler
Sunlight burns because the alien DNA is not accustomed to such direct exposure to UV rays or being on a planet this close to a star.
Religious symbols repel because the vampires have heightened psychic and physical senses, so the strong mix of fear, adrenaline, and blind faith causes the vampires senses to overload, repelling them. (This only works if someone is directly facing the creature or is actively aware it is nearby and believes the symbol or symbols it has erected will protect it.)
Vampires must drink human blood due to the fact that the alien portion of their systems is inherently feeding off themselves and without replenishment they will fall into a coma.
Silver and obsidian harm vampires because they disrupt the cellular functions of the alien DNA
As of right now that's about all I can think of for changes I've implemented to Vampires.
Sealed Evil in a Can (you can look it up on the evilwiki if you want)
My version:
Spoiler
My "sealed evil in a can"-s tend to be... not evil. (well, I say 'tend to' but I've only sold one of these things)
Boringly obvious? Well, they'll still cause the end of the world as we know it. But they're not Evil.
How? Magic technology!
Sealed Evil in a Can (tm) can instantly boost your society's tech level to Industrial/Information/Singularity eras, causing widespread social dislocation, riots and occasional tearing off rulers' heads.
But everyone gets to live longer in nice cushy-er lives and better all-round stuff!... Theoretically. Too bad reality has a tendency to say No. With a capital N.
I basically am starting to think of a setting cobbled together from my favorite races and settings.
I'll touch on the Good Races first.
Humans: The Republic of the Silver Dragon:
Spoiler
Formed from a group of human pilgrims from various nations conquered by the Empire of Zarus, this diverse group of humans settled the Western Continents. While there are various religious groups in Bahamut's Republic, the most prominent is the Church of Bahamut. Starting out as a revival of an ancient church of the Lost Ones, the founder of the Church - commonly believed to be Bahamut in human guise - ordered his followers to defend non-humans and form strong allegiances with them. He then guided his followers to an unsettled wild land to the West - the Church of Bahamut smuggled non-human races and humans of various religions and races into the New World away from Zarus' influence, while forming pacts with the races that already inhabited this land such as the Raptorans and Warforged. The Republic of the Silver Dragon is a truly multicultural and multiracial place; the various races live here without fear of persecution by Zarus' followers, and the Army of Bahamut is an order founded to defend the freedom of this coalition. The humans here have various skintones, ranging from light to dark as a result of their multicultural heritage.
Elves:
Spoiler
Elves are pretty standard, other than being a fair bit less smug and more likeable. While they're suspicious of outsiders, when you win an elf's trust, he's your friend for life. Elves prefer to keep to themselves - it's what allowed them to survive the Dark Ages... Well, that and they were close enough to humans to pass. They're the second-longest-lived race in the world, living for at most three centuries. They're magic users and artisans, and favor Bards, Wizards, and Rangers as their class.
Dwarves:
Spoiler
Dwarves are standard, other than they get along decently with Elves. There's still some rivalry between the two races, but they banded together during the Dark Ages when the Church of Zarus focused persecution on demihumans as well as the other "unclean" races. Dwarves are miners and builders, focusing on technology. Their best classes are Fighters, Paladins and Techsmiths (basically Artificers with a more tech-bent.)
Halflings:
Spoiler
Halflings have had it rough. The Empire of Zarus spared the Halfling towns... Only to enslave the diminutive cousins of humanity. As such, Halflings were among the first to join Bahamut's Pilgrims on their trip to the New World, where this slave race could finally be free. Ever since achieving freedom, Halflings are free-spirits with a strange sense of humor, favoring the Rogue, Bard, and Techsmith classes.
Raptorans:
Spoiler
A race of scholars found in the New World, Raptorans welcomed the Pilgrims of Bahamut to the New World and were one of the founding races of the Ellegiance, along with Shifters, Elves, Halflings, Warforged and Dwarves. They're argumentative and a bit greedy - it seems these avians inherited their bird ancestors' compulsive love of shiny things. They favor the Scout, Druid, and Wizard classes.
Warforged:
Spoiler
My take on Warforged for setting outside of Eberron is that they were created two thousand years before the main story of the setting by a long lost civilization, and that Warforged are a race that can come in Small, Medium, and Large sizes due to "Scouts" modeled on Halflings; "Champions" modeled on humans; and "Juggernauts" modeled on Goliaths. Since their creators went extinct long ago, Warforged - most of them numbering at least a thousand years old - are an introspective, meditative race that favor religious classes like Clerics, Paladins, and Monks (which are reflavored as Divine). Most of them lived high in the mountains of the New World, choosing to stay away from the rest of the world's affairs... However, they joined the Republic of Bahamut soon after they learned of the threat Zarus' empire posed.
Shifters:
Spoiler
Then you have Shifters - essentially a combination of Catfolk and Beastfolk, they're a natural race that have become rare as a result of persecution by the conquistadors of Church of Zarus. Resembling humans with some animalistic facial features (more feline than canine, but has some influence from both - they have wide, flattened noses, golden eyes and slight harelips), they live in tribes resembling a mix of Native American and African culture. They usually tend towards classes like Ranger, Scout, or Rogue. Instead of suffering a penalty to intelligence, they suffer one to Wisdom - after all, they have a lot of reasons to not be terribly fond of religion. They worship nature, but not to the extent that Druids are commonplace. When the Pilgrims of Bahamut first arrived, the remaining Shifter Tribes were suspicious of the new arrivals, but swiftly allied themselves with them as soon as they learned these Elves, Humans, Dwarves and Halflings were fleeing the Empire of Zarus.
Now for the Evil Races.
Humans: The Empire of Zarus:
Spoiler
Humans are the most numerous race... Although that has a bit more to do with the largest faction of the Old World actively persecuting the other races. The Empire of Zarus believe they're innately superior to non-humans - and even fellow humans who do not meet Zarus' ideal of perfection - and exert a vast influence over the world through their numerous colonies across the continents. Zarus worshippers, or "Purebloods" generally have pale skin tones and blonde or brown hair. They can easily be any class.
Drow:
Spoiler
Perhaps the only race that can contest the evils of the Empire of Zarus, Drow are dark violet-skinned elves. Cruel and capricious, they live in a caste-based society that has constant underhanded power struggles between the houses. However, they work together to take slaves from the other races - the Empire of Zarus secretly allies with the Drow cities, but both sides would gladly stab each other in the back.
Orcs and Goblins:
Spoiler
Taking a page from Games Workshop, Orcs and Goblins are close cousins. Goblins are generally smaller and smarter (but still stupid little pyromaniacs), while Orcs are bigger, meaner, and surprisingly strong. Orcs and Goblins are, in fact, constructs, created by a Mad Warlock during the Lost Age - they're formed from clay, and can regenerate like trolls. They don't truly reproduce, and are effectively genderless.
By that, I mean that there are so many traits a individual dragon may have, scale color means diddly squat.
You see, when a dragon is in a egg, it grows by syphoning ambient magic from around it. This, along with local envrioment fectures, genetics, and random chance, tends to mean most dragons are easily spotted from crowds of other dragons.
Also, dragons, rather than by scale color, see there "kind" as most of there extended family. For instance, the dragons of, say, the Emerald Forest are known for greenish, almost rootlike scale ridges on there belly and a tendancy to have poison-breath, while the family known as the Stonescales have distinct large, flat scales and tend to be more compact than most. Hence, a gathering of a extanded family might literaly consist of every creature with the Dragon subtype in the monster manual, exept there all vaugly friendly with each other and have roughly the same body traits.Scale color is usualy only useful in determining a individual dragons origin, roughly the same as telling which contanent someone's ancesters came from.Breath and powers gained from age catagories is even less useful for identification, because those are always influenced by where there egg was layed. A red dragon from the frozen north would still have a frosty cone of breath and has ice-related powers.
As such, a pesudodragon from the local swamp have more in common with his half-fey (which would have been gained from being layed in a fey-controled area) three-headed white-scaled uncle who breaths poison who lives a few miles away than another pesudodragon who lives in the same swamp who, by contrast, has a fire-breathing Linnorm for a mother(who rightly sees the pesudodragon as a runt compared to a fellow sibling who looks almost exactly like her). It gets even more fun if said uncle and mother get together and have there own brood.
Ahh, the fun I have had with my players with this.
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Well, one time at Bard camp...
Former avatars & Quotes
Spoiler
Former avatar, had it since I started realy posting here.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tychris1
Pokonic look what you have done! You fool, you`ve doomed us all!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Doorhandle
Oh Pokonic, never change. And never become my D.M.
Demons were created by the god of freedom, each with a bit of his divine essence. Killing a demon won`t destroy the divine essence (only a god can destroy that), and in a year or more, a new demon will be born, with the same powers and almost the same personality.
They are evil becuse they do whatever they want, and always prefer enjoyment over other beings rights. They have no morals. They have no honor. They sometime "play nice" with other demons, and rarely with other beings with similiar power.
Each one is unique, and is based around something - usually an emotion or impulse, like the demon of hope or the demon of hunger.
Each one has a cult or more, and they treat them diffrently - some think of those cults as a personal army, and nurture it; Some think of it as entertaining, and even have their cults fight against each other; And some simply ignore them. Clerics that worship demons can cast spells.
They have no home plane or region. Instead, they go and live wherever they want to.
Elementanels
Spoiler
Elementanels are found in places made from the same material. Earth elementanels are underground. Water elementanels are in the sea. Air elementanels are high in the air.
There are no element based planes. I do not like that idea, and I think it`s dull.
Also, I changed some mechanical aspects of elementanels too. For exemple, earth elementanels must always remain connected to a chunk of earth bigger then them (if they somehow get disconnected, they die), so they can`t jump, but they can manipulate their shape, so they can stretch. However, it is always clear what materials they are made of.
In one of my worlds, I turned elves into the main nasties, inspired by the Terry Pratchett book Lords and Ladies. These are the kind of elves that don't even fit into the good/evil system, these are the kind of elves that fit into the bacon/necktie system. And most of these elves ally themselves with the neckties. (No, bacon and neckties aren't supposed to make sense.) Basically, these elves enslave your mind, run wild across your fields and towns, burn things, and/or be so incredibly cultured you can hardly stand it.
Spoiler
And iron messes them up bad.
Most of them would be Neutral Evil or Chaotic Evil, if they fit in the alignment system.
In another, I turned elves into the selverei, which are red-eyed, pale-skinned, Tech gypsies. Wacky fun. (There were also the tellerei, which I won't go into.)
In my world, I did a twist when it comes to several things:
- the underground isn't dark, as most people believe caverns to be
- I lumped devils and demons and all other non-Material Plane creatures into a single category of outsiders
- I got rid of alignment entirely, it's a world where there are no words for good, evil, chaos or lawful. Everything is grey.
In my setting, Humans are a genetic cocktail of all the other races, dragons, fey, outsiders, etc.
Gnolls, the regular ones at least, are a cultured, honourable race of warriors. They rarely resort to warfare, but all are skilled in swordplay. Think a romanticised oriental Japan, except combat training is more widespread.
Though this is not much of a different perspective I have many different forms of lizardfolk, ranging from brutish crocodile men who have close relations to orcs, dwarf like iguana lizards, sly chameleon nomads, and jungle dwelling gecko tribesmen, with my personal favorite being the hobgoblin like komodo dragons (all of which are pc races). I have a great fondness for lizardfolk and they have always featured prominently in my campaigns. Also races don't have alignments the choice of alignment is chosen by the individual. But the alignment of the gods of the race play a major factor in that choice.
Though this is not much of a different perspective I have many different forms of lizardfolk, ranging from brutish crocodile men who have close relations to orcs, dwarf like iguana lizards, sly chameleon nomads, and jungle dwelling gecko tribesmen, with my personal favorite being the hobgoblin like komodo dragons (all of which are pc races). I have a great fondness for lizardfolk and they have always featured prominently in my campaigns. Also races don't have alignments the choice of alignment is chosen by the individual. But the alignment of the gods of the race play a major factor in that choice.
I would love to see these!
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Custom Melayl avatar by my cousin, ~thejason10, used with his permission. See his work at his Deviant Art page.
Though this is not much of a different perspective I have many different forms of lizardfolk, ranging from brutish crocodile men who have close relations to orcs, dwarf like iguana lizards, sly chameleon nomads, and jungle dwelling gecko tribesmen, with my personal favorite being the hobgoblin like komodo dragons (all of which are pc races).
I've done this sort of thing once. It was a pretty cheesy idea, once you think about it, and it never got off the ground, but the concept was that there were virtually no mammals in the world, and, mysteriously, reptilian analogs had emerged for all the humanoid races.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Carl Sagan
The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition.
Nor, for that matter, is it required to be in perfect harmony with anybody else's.
78% of all DM's start their first campaign in a tavern. If you're among the 22% who didn't, copy and paste this into your signature and tell us where you DID begin. Mine began at a dragon's dinner table. The dragon has kidnapped all the PCs and is forcing them to find her son.
Last edited by Ranting DM : 10-12-2012 at 05:31 AM.
Reason: Didn't quote properly.
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