seafaring dwarves in my upcoming homebrew CS [Archive] - Wizards Community

seafaring dwarves in my upcoming homebrew CS [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
ewancummins
07-30-07, 10:58 PM I was BSing with one of my friends the other day, when it came to me:

Dwarves are boring to me. I want to tweak 'em in my new homebrew. Not make them unrecognizably weird, just a bit different from the usual stereotypes.

I came up with this:

A kingdom of dwarves occupied a region of mountains and valleys, not far from the ocean. Catastrophic flooding[ caused by melting ice caps, divine punishment, whatever...] covered most of their domain with water. The survivors fled to the islands that once were tall mountains.

The dwarves have adapted to the new conditions by learning to build waterbourne vessels, thus allowing travel between islands. They started with crude rafts, but have since become master shipwrights and good sailors.

Each island is semi-independent, often being dominated by a single clan. All clans pay homage to the Lord of the Mountains[ yes, Lord of the Isles would make more sense, but the dwarves haven't changed the title in the centuries since the deluge].

These dwarves have learned to smelt a strange silvery metal, which is fairly strong but light weight [aluminum]. The use the metal to construct metal hulled boats and ships for sailing between the islands.

That's all I have for now. I'll add more later. If anyone has any criticism, ideas, or comments on this, I would appreciate it being posted on this thread. Thank you.
Rhineglade
07-30-07, 11:03 PM I've used a similar idea in past campaigns based on the cards from MTG Homelands regarding the "Sea Dwarves." The Sea Dwarves based their economy on trade and developed many merchant vessels for sailing the open oceans and therefore reach more potential customers. The Sea Dwarves were greedy to be sure and had a deep love of gold.

You could almost develop them into pure capitalists or even go a step further and make them similar to the profiteering Ferengi from Star Trek (if you are familiar with them). This all adds up to a lot of new flavor for our stunted little friends.
ewancummins
07-30-07, 11:10 PM Never played MtG, so I missed out on the Sea Dwarves. Sounds cool.

I dunno how expansive a trade network these guys will have. Depends on how I place their islands on the world map[which isn't fully drawn up, not even close].
ewancummins
07-30-07, 11:12 PM I think I'll ditch the whole ''we hate elves'' bit, as well. No real reason for the racial animosity to exist in my CS.
Return of the Flumph
07-30-07, 11:24 PM Interesting. I too have been trying to tweak my setting's dwarves, and this is just plain brilliant.

Is it possible they might carve tunnels connecting some of the mountains? They would still use ships, but that could be an alternate method of transportation between cities.
ewancummins
07-30-07, 11:38 PM Hey RotF!:)

I thought about the tunnels, then decided they were mostly flooded. Underwater dungeons! There's lots of stuff down there: treasure, dwarven undead, morkroths, etc.
ewancummins
07-30-07, 11:47 PM I'm also thinking they have developed terraced farms to maximize the available land for growing crops. I suppose potatoes would work well.

Fishing would provide a good ammount of food, as well.

Dwarves might make pretty good fish and chips, eh?
Arco Versipellis
07-31-07, 02:14 AM A while back, I decided to make the seacliff dwaves of Stormwrack in my campaign instead of making them extinct (which ha been a campaign feature fo several years now. Among several other events, such as an earthquake, a civil war had broken out among the dwarves. A prophet foresees the destruction of the dwarf peole, and he manages to persuade some of them to leave with him. They eventually come to settle in the sourthern most portion of the continent, where the land raises high above the water in sheer cliffs. Tunnels, both natural and carved, connect their underground cities to the surface, to water level, and even below.

They were pretty much isolated, except for raiders from the sea. These cultures have now reached the point to wherethey are begining to produce adventurers who seek to return to the caverns of their fathers, to rebuild the dwarf nation.

I had no thought of using terraced farming to support thei numbers. Mine aren't very active traders. I haven't made a sound decision on their attitude towards elves. In my world, elves are definately numerous, and I think they can be seen as the champions of Alles, so I think they may harbor some ill feelings toward them because of the fall of their own nation.

Also, I have a group of islands to which the maenad are naitive, known as the Gem-Dust Isles the land of the dinosaurs (and obviously, psionics). I mention it because each of these tiny isles is dominated by a mountain in the center. If your dwarves were from similair islands, they could retain some of their mountain ties, while also adopting some tropical flavor.
Forfeit
07-31-07, 09:18 AM Come on, you can do better.

Have an entire dwarven city inside an iceberg. Yes, a floating iceberg. You know, instead of a carved mountain, you would have a gigantic iceberg that has tunels, rooms, halls and everything else. Think something like Moria on Ice. I dont have to say that the part that stays outside the water is just the tip of the iceberg, and that the city goes on below water, inside the iceberg. And the great thing is that there is even a harbor carved in the outside of the iceberg.

And, of course, it moves. And, of course, it doesnt melt. Either make it a gift from the gods or the dwarves use some kind of magic to maintain it always cold, which means it never melts, unless the dwarves want it to.
ewancummins
07-31-07, 09:35 AM Thanks for the input, guys.

The iceberg idea is cool. I once planned something similiar with ice trolls[ if you remember those guys from AD&D].
Forfeit
07-31-07, 09:45 AM Yes, I do.

I wonder why they decided on creating dozens of sub-races for elves but decided on cutting out the diferent species of what could be one of the most used monster in AD&D.

And the iceberg could be used by dwarves, as long as it doesnt melt. That way it could be as hot inside it as a regular cave.
ewancummins
07-31-07, 09:57 AM I'll avoid thread jacking myself by avoiding any mention of how much I hate ELFITIS, the inflammation of D&D that produces waves of ridiculous elf subraces. Whoops! I mentioned it anyway. Darnit.

I will post stuff about the elves of my world [who are not hippies, nor do they eat quiche] on a later thread. I don't want to litter the boards with losse threads, so I'll work on these dwarves for a while before reposting them to a new thread that will include general info on my homebrew[still very nebulous].

Anyhoo, I 'll keep the iceberg idea on the list. It would make a cool base for a high level dwarven mage and his assistants.

I am definitely moving forward with the aluminum forging seafarers. More to come....
queenfange
07-31-07, 12:29 PM I wonder why they decided on creating dozens of sub-races for elves but decided on cutting out the diferent species of what could be one of the most used monster in AD&D.
[QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Forfeit;13252666]What a bunch of crap.

Some people like elf subraces, amazingly enough. Some of us even read real literature! *gasp* (I don't even mean Harry Potter by that!!!)

:invasion:

That junk out of the way, I will say that the iceburg idea is good, though obviously a plausible explanation will be needed.

I'm glad that dwarves are being so well-developed in your campaign, as they are often underneglected. I can't wait to see more!

P.S. My elves are not hippies either, nor communists, nor live in trees, nor eat quiche. :D
Forfeit
07-31-07, 04:19 PM Well, the deal is that the elves from The Silmarilion (which is where AD&D stole the idea) are much better than all the elves that have been done after that. Of course, most elven subraces were made so that some DM could add scantily clad beautifull women in any setting and women could play the "beautifull elves" in any setting too.

Basicaly elves are used as eye candy. On water.
queenfange
07-31-07, 07:19 PM I'm a female DM. I don't reward male players with eye candy, though I'm sure for many others that could be an issue. The only other female I've ever played with made an ugly male human monk with a charisma of 6. Also, orcs and goblins are used as tribal punching bags, which I find just as shallow. So, don't blame the elf subraces. :D

Sorry to digress, I won't say any more. Distract me with more awesome dwarf stuff!
ewancummins
07-31-07, 09:00 PM Yes, I shall post more about my dwarves. In fact,I'll stay up tonight and add more. Watching Army of Darkness with my wife, then back to writing! Yarr!
ewancummins
07-31-07, 09:44 PM I've been doing research on aluminum , and metallurgy in general. Without getting too detailed, it sounds like my dwarves have an industrial Revolution[or later] level of tech in certain areas. Not necessarily steam tech, guns, or any of that jazz. Just really advanced metallurgy and engineering. Bessemer process, blast furnaces, electrolysis[ probably using magic, rather than a tech-based generator],etc.

This high tech will be the result of thosuands of years of experimentation and practice at metalworking and engineering. The craftsman ethos has somewhat hampered the development of a proper industrial economy. Dwarves like to make items by hand, and dislike cheap, mass produced goods. The tech level could best be described as proto-industrial. Magic is used, and seen as another [albeit expensive and uncommon] tool for the craftsman.
taradusis
07-31-07, 10:48 PM Suppose you had a clan of dwarves that operated a big ship like a modern oil tanker?They could specialise as bulk carriers of trade goods.Imagine Dwarves with an oil rig only instead of a drill it lowers a long tube that allows the dwarves to harvest pearls or nodes of nickel-iron?The dwarven sub-races are detailed in the monsters of faerun book,gold dwarves,shield dwarves and wild dwarves.RANDOM THOUGHTS
ewancummins
07-31-07, 11:51 PM I like the drill idea. I recall reading that early oil rigs in the U.S. were improvised from salt mining drills.

The big ship idea is good. All they really need is a way to move it through the water. I was imagining they'd build windjammers. Those can be pretty big, and still sail at a good clip.

I'm avoiding using subraces in this CS. The dwarves[ and humans, elves, etc] aren't so much divided into subraces, as they are into various regional cultures[same crunch for the most part, but different fluff].
ewancummins
07-31-07, 11:58 PM The mages of this particular dwarven culture often use elemental magics to aid in crafting various things. Many are smiths themselves. Most smiths, of course, do not have easy access to that sort of magic. Big projects often have a mage-smith working on them, however. That is how the aluminum ships are built[ making lots of the stuff requires lightning bolts for the electrolysis process].
taradusis
08-04-07, 01:57 PM An idea I've been toying with is a platform?Take 2 large oarships from Stormwrack and put a platform of 50ft planks between them.This gives you a large catamarran.I originally thought this would be a good vessel for a 50ft tall sea god but you could use it as a platform for an oil rig or even a giant weapon.There was a science fiction story about a mercenary group that pushed the worlds last cannon around extorting money from people to not shoot it at them.So the sea dwarves could use a big trebuchet or 50ft long brass cannon that squirts byzantine fire?RANDOM THOUGHT

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
ewancummins 07-30-07, 10:58 PM	I was BSing with one of my friends the other day, when it came to me: Dwarves are boring to me. I want to tweak 'em in my new homebrew. Not make them unrecognizably weird, just a bit different from the usual stereotypes. I came up with this: A kingdom of dwarves occupied a region of mountains and valleys, not far from the ocean. Catastrophic flooding[ caused by melting ice caps, divine punishment, whatever...] covered most of their domain with water. The survivors fled to the islands that once were tall mountains. The dwarves have adapted to the new conditions by learning to build waterbourne vessels, thus allowing travel between islands. They started with crude rafts, but have since become master shipwrights and good sailors. Each island is semi-independent, often being dominated by a single clan. All clans pay homage to the Lord of the Mountains[ yes, Lord of the Isles would make more sense, but the dwarves haven't changed the title in the centuries since the deluge]. These dwarves have learned to smelt a strange silvery metal, which is fairly strong but light weight [aluminum]. The use the metal to construct metal hulled boats and ships for sailing between the islands. That's all I have for now. I'll add more later. If anyone has any criticism, ideas, or comments on this, I would appreciate it being posted on this thread. Thank you.
Rhineglade 07-30-07, 11:03 PM	I've used a similar idea in past campaigns based on the cards from MTG Homelands regarding the "Sea Dwarves." The Sea Dwarves based their economy on trade and developed many merchant vessels for sailing the open oceans and therefore reach more potential customers. The Sea Dwarves were greedy to be sure and had a deep love of gold. You could almost develop them into pure capitalists or even go a step further and make them similar to the profiteering Ferengi from Star Trek (if you are familiar with them). This all adds up to a lot of new flavor for our stunted little friends.
ewancummins 07-30-07, 11:10 PM	Never played MtG, so I missed out on the Sea Dwarves. Sounds cool. I dunno how expansive a trade network these guys will have. Depends on how I place their islands on the world map[which isn't fully drawn up, not even close].
ewancummins 07-30-07, 11:12 PM	I think I'll ditch the whole ''we hate elves'' bit, as well. No real reason for the racial animosity to exist in my CS.
Return of the Flumph 07-30-07, 11:24 PM	Interesting. I too have been trying to tweak my setting's dwarves, and this is just plain brilliant. Is it possible they might carve tunnels connecting some of the mountains? They would still use ships, but that could be an alternate method of transportation between cities.
ewancummins 07-30-07, 11:38 PM	Hey RotF!:) I thought about the tunnels, then decided they were mostly flooded. Underwater dungeons! There's lots of stuff down there: treasure, dwarven undead, morkroths, etc.
ewancummins 07-30-07, 11:47 PM	I'm also thinking they have developed terraced farms to maximize the available land for growing crops. I suppose potatoes would work well. Fishing would provide a good ammount of food, as well. Dwarves might make pretty good fish and chips, eh?
Arco Versipellis 07-31-07, 02:14 AM	A while back, I decided to make the seacliff dwaves of Stormwrack in my campaign instead of making them extinct (which ha been a campaign feature fo several years now. Among several other events, such as an earthquake, a civil war had broken out among the dwarves. A prophet foresees the destruction of the dwarf peole, and he manages to persuade some of them to leave with him. They eventually come to settle in the sourthern most portion of the continent, where the land raises high above the water in sheer cliffs. Tunnels, both natural and carved, connect their underground cities to the surface, to water level, and even below. They were pretty much isolated, except for raiders from the sea. These cultures have now reached the point to wherethey are begining to produce adventurers who seek to return to the caverns of their fathers, to rebuild the dwarf nation. I had no thought of using terraced farming to support thei numbers. Mine aren't very active traders. I haven't made a sound decision on their attitude towards elves. In my world, elves are definately numerous, and I think they can be seen as the champions of Alles, so I think they may harbor some ill feelings toward them because of the fall of their own nation. Also, I have a group of islands to which the maenad are naitive, known as the Gem-Dust Isles the land of the dinosaurs (and obviously, psionics). I mention it because each of these tiny isles is dominated by a mountain in the center. If your dwarves were from similair islands, they could retain some of their mountain ties, while also adopting some tropical flavor.
Forfeit 07-31-07, 09:18 AM	Come on, you can do better. Have an entire dwarven city inside an iceberg. Yes, a floating iceberg. You know, instead of a carved mountain, you would have a gigantic iceberg that has tunels, rooms, halls and everything else. Think something like Moria on Ice. I dont have to say that the part that stays outside the water is just the tip of the iceberg, and that the city goes on below water, inside the iceberg. And the great thing is that there is even a harbor carved in the outside of the iceberg. And, of course, it moves. And, of course, it doesnt melt. Either make it a gift from the gods or the dwarves use some kind of magic to maintain it always cold, which means it never melts, unless the dwarves want it to.
ewancummins 07-31-07, 09:35 AM	Thanks for the input, guys. The iceberg idea is cool. I once planned something similiar with ice trolls[ if you remember those guys from AD&D].
Forfeit 07-31-07, 09:45 AM	Yes, I do. I wonder why they decided on creating dozens of sub-races for elves but decided on cutting out the diferent species of what could be one of the most used monster in AD&D. And the iceberg could be used by dwarves, as long as it doesnt melt. That way it could be as hot inside it as a regular cave.
ewancummins 07-31-07, 09:57 AM	I'll avoid thread jacking myself by avoiding any mention of how much I hate ELFITIS, the inflammation of D&D that produces waves of ridiculous elf subraces. Whoops! I mentioned it anyway. Darnit. I will post stuff about the elves of my world [who are not hippies, nor do they eat quiche] on a later thread. I don't want to litter the boards with losse threads, so I'll work on these dwarves for a while before reposting them to a new thread that will include general info on my homebrew[still very nebulous]. Anyhoo, I 'll keep the iceberg idea on the list. It would make a cool base for a high level dwarven mage and his assistants. I am definitely moving forward with the aluminum forging seafarers. More to come....
queenfange 07-31-07, 12:29 PM	I wonder why they decided on creating dozens of sub-races for elves but decided on cutting out the diferent species of what could be one of the most used monster in AD&D. [QUOTE] [QUOTE=Forfeit;13252666]What a bunch of crap. Some people like elf subraces, amazingly enough. Some of us even read real literature! gasp (I don't even mean Harry Potter by that!!!) :invasion: That junk out of the way, I will say that the iceburg idea is good, though obviously a plausible explanation will be needed. I'm glad that dwarves are being so well-developed in your campaign, as they are often underneglected. I can't wait to see more! P.S. My elves are not hippies either, nor communists, nor live in trees, nor eat quiche. :D
Forfeit 07-31-07, 04:19 PM	Well, the deal is that the elves from The Silmarilion (which is where AD&D stole the idea) are much better than all the elves that have been done after that. Of course, most elven subraces were made so that some DM could add scantily clad beautifull women in any setting and women could play the "beautifull elves" in any setting too. Basicaly elves are used as eye candy. On water.
queenfange 07-31-07, 07:19 PM	I'm a female DM. I don't reward male players with eye candy, though I'm sure for many others that could be an issue. The only other female I've ever played with made an ugly male human monk with a charisma of 6. Also, orcs and goblins are used as tribal punching bags, which I find just as shallow. So, don't blame the elf subraces. :D Sorry to digress, I won't say any more. Distract me with more awesome dwarf stuff!
ewancummins 07-31-07, 09:00 PM	Yes, I shall post more about my dwarves. In fact,I'll stay up tonight and add more. Watching Army of Darkness with my wife, then back to writing! Yarr!
ewancummins 07-31-07, 09:44 PM	I've been doing research on aluminum , and metallurgy in general. Without getting too detailed, it sounds like my dwarves have an industrial Revolution[or later] level of tech in certain areas. Not necessarily steam tech, guns, or any of that jazz. Just really advanced metallurgy and engineering. Bessemer process, blast furnaces, electrolysis[ probably using magic, rather than a tech-based generator],etc. This high tech will be the result of thosuands of years of experimentation and practice at metalworking and engineering. The craftsman ethos has somewhat hampered the development of a proper industrial economy. Dwarves like to make items by hand, and dislike cheap, mass produced goods. The tech level could best be described as proto-industrial. Magic is used, and seen as another [albeit expensive and uncommon] tool for the craftsman.
taradusis 07-31-07, 10:48 PM	Suppose you had a clan of dwarves that operated a big ship like a modern oil tanker?They could specialise as bulk carriers of trade goods.Imagine Dwarves with an oil rig only instead of a drill it lowers a long tube that allows the dwarves to harvest pearls or nodes of nickel-iron?The dwarven sub-races are detailed in the monsters of faerun book,gold dwarves,shield dwarves and wild dwarves.RANDOM THOUGHTS
ewancummins 07-31-07, 11:51 PM	I like the drill idea. I recall reading that early oil rigs in the U.S. were improvised from salt mining drills. The big ship idea is good. All they really need is a way to move it through the water. I was imagining they'd build windjammers. Those can be pretty big, and still sail at a good clip. I'm avoiding using subraces in this CS. The dwarves[ and humans, elves, etc] aren't so much divided into subraces, as they are into various regional cultures[same crunch for the most part, but different fluff].
ewancummins 07-31-07, 11:58 PM	The mages of this particular dwarven culture often use elemental magics to aid in crafting various things. Many are smiths themselves. Most smiths, of course, do not have easy access to that sort of magic. Big projects often have a mage-smith working on them, however. That is how the aluminum ships are built[ making lots of the stuff requires lightning bolts for the electrolysis process].
taradusis 08-04-07, 01:57 PM	An idea I've been toying with is a platform?Take 2 large oarships from Stormwrack and put a platform of 50ft planks between them.This gives you a large catamarran.I originally thought this would be a good vessel for a 50ft tall sea god but you could use it as a platform for an oil rig or even a giant weapon.There was a science fiction story about a mercenary group that pushed the worlds last cannon around extorting money from people to not shoot it at them.So the sea dwarves could use a big trebuchet or 50ft long brass cannon that squirts byzantine fire?RANDOM THOUGHT