Post/Author/DateTime	Post
CombatMedic 10-13-07, 10:04 AM	Here's an idea I've been kicking around lately: The Prime Plane of this cosmology lies very close to the Elemental Planes. In fact, the Prime is a sort of crossroads between the elemental planes. Coterminous regions and portals are more common than in most worlds. The Outer Planes are very far away and hard to reach. Of the PHB races, only humans are very common. Genasi replace most of the others. The jann might fit in well. Elemental races and monsters are a lot more prominent, obviously. Genies in particular will be important I may add the hydrax, horde, and other cool elemental critters from the old D&D game. I'll add more later...
locustechpriest 10-13-07, 01:03 PM	Sounds like a fun time. Are you making genasai be distinct races, or are they still half-human? You might not really need to abandon the usual races, if it's just because of the elemetal nature of the setting. Dwarves, for example, are close to earth, Orcs to fire, Elves to... nature. (It works better for some than for others.) But if it is simply the flavor you are going for, then it is, of course, prefectly fine. Are you going with the classical four elements? That would be easiest, naturally, but there are some other options that could make things interesting, like the chinese elements (tree, earth, metal, water, and fire IIRC), or your own homebrew mix. The classical elements work well with modern RL sciences, suprisingly enough. Matter comes in four phases: solid, liquid, gas, and (the less known) plasma. Earth, water, air, and fire are all shining examples of their respective phases. The chinese system has the benefit of being unusual as far as gaming goes. Most of the games I know of go classic greek, so throwing in metal and tree in the place of air can switch things up quite nicely. I personally don't like fire as an element. It is less common in "ground state", meaing you just don't see fire naturally laying about. It makes more sense to me that the elements wich make up the world be seen naturally, so I tend to cut fire out of the mix, at least in my mind, and call it an energy. I guess I might prefer a hybrid of greek and chinese (tree, earth, metal, water, and air). Well, I'm sure I have given you enough trouble. I will be looking forward to see what you come up with! :)
Eldritch_Lord 10-13-07, 01:44 PM	Sounds like a fun time. Are you making genasai be distinct races, or are they still half-human? You might not really need to abandon the usual races, if it's just because of the elemetal nature of the setting. Dwarves, for example, are close to earth, Orcs to fire, Elves to... nature. (It works better for some than for others.) But if it is simply the flavor you are going for, then it is, of course, prefectly fine. The Sovereign Stone series has Dwarves related to fire, Elves to air, Orcs to water, and Humans to earth --Dwarves for the whole metalsmithing thing, Elves for the "airy and graceful" thing, Orcs because they are a seafaring race in the series, and Humans because earth is what's left. You could either make these associations or take the genasi and make them like the corresponding races to give a unique flavor to both. Alternately, you could use the elemental races from Unearthed Arcana, though that's been done before (obviously). I'd suggest combining the elemental races with the genasi and then taking a look at the Sovereign Stone trilogy for cultural ideas.
CombatMedic 10-14-07, 12:49 AM	I'm sticking with the elemental planes as typically portayed in D&D. I don't know for sure how I'll handle the quasi and paraelemental planes, but I am inclined to keep them in, at least as border regions or demiplanes. I'm going to go over my books carefully when picking player races. Monsters are a bit easier. I'm considering the possibility of using the gemstone dragons instead of the typical chromatics and metallics. Don't know yet... Giants will be elemental types: storm, fire, frost, stone, ocean, etc. Genies of all types should fit in well. [more later...]