Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 zylo_drizzt Jun 21, 2010 14:33:04	Ok so I got my races stats down but not my races flavor down, need a little help. races can be found here This is an apocolypes campaign where everything got messed up by very long meteor storm (maybe some still coming thier way) these meteors have single celled organisms that cause mutations in the living and causes the dead to reanimate. The meteors released this critter on the world and its caused all sorts of chaos and rampant destruction. Here are some ideas about my races you probably should consider. Each race have the chance to be born from any other and usually manifest by adulthood, it is rare however. Gulgs are sterile, none can reproduce naturally. Basic ideas about races. Gulg- Big, strong, mean and stupid. They are sterile creatures. Natural and unnatural have diffrent blood, unnatural have orange and natrual have red. Mutation caused petuitary glands and testosterone glands to flood the system. Looking for: what they look like, some behavioral stuff, anything else not covered here. Trog- Reptilian and hermits. These critters are tough, very tough. They dont need no ones help to survive. Thier mutation flooded thier system and caused them to be a little like wolverine where the cells refresh themselves quickly (though not nearly as quickly as wolverine). Looking for: what they look like and behavior, and maybe some history, anything else not covered here. Skrall- Tribal, eat anything. This race got flooded with more of the mutation cells causing them to be partially unstable and insatiable most the time. Thier eyes are probably the only similairities looking as though dots are swimming in them. Thier mutation also caused more nerve connections to be made. Looking for: behavior and history, I already know that no two will look alike but maybe something else that will distinguish them from humans. anything not covered here. Gobbers- goblins, smart, tinkers. This race's mutation caused thier brains to be more dense consiquintly caused thier growth to be stunted. Looking for: better description of look, behavior, history and anything not covered here. Vaultians- Teamplayers, came from underground bunkers. This races mutation caused them to be able to heal wounds a little. This alters others bodies a little temporarily by giving it a diffrent look. Looking for: look, behavior, history and things not covered here. Cratians- I dont know of any general things about these guys, found hard to think about. Force thier will on the world I suppose would be closest thing. Looking for: everything really. Thanks in advance.
#2 TheRealOrion Jun 21, 2010 20:49:11	Hey, are you using my blood parasites? 'Cause that would be really cool. I created those in a small collective of people, so I'd love to be able to tell them that someone's using them. As for the races, I like how you've characterised them according to their ability scores. Very fun. I have one question, how long has it been since the apocalypse? It makes a difference to the kinds of communities they can form, especially given that they don't just produce more of themselves. The notion of a "racial" culture is very different in the world you've created. I'm going to ignore appearance and behaviour in favour of some thoughts about how these "races" would fit into a social setting. That's the kind of thing I like to play with. Gulgs: Given that they can't reproduce and that they're really stupid, I hate to say it, but I think they'd end up being exploited for their labour, which is to say, depending on the setting, they'd be slaves. No worries about them producing more mouths to feed, easy to manipulate (because of the stupidity), and strong. Perfect labour force to exploit, if you're an unscrupulous bastard. The flip-side of that, though, is that if your daughter starts to manifest "gulgism" in her teens, you either have to give her up to be exploited or you have to sneak her out of the community. That could make for some interesting drama. Trogs: Reptiles are classically hated by Western culture (Satan basically ruined it for everyone else), so what if you made them hermits by circumstance instead of by choice? They don't associate with the other kinds of humans because the humans won't have them. They're shunned by everyone they see, so they go and hide themselves out of shame. Gobbers: Intelligence without insight or charisma is almost as easy to exploit as strength without intellect. Gobbers would quickly be chained up in the back room building guns, which leads me to... Cratians: Natural leaders. Regardless of actual ability, intellect, or moral fortitude, charismatic people tend to end up in charge: barking orders and creating little tyrannies, or helping persuade groups to do things that are in their own interest anyway, or something in between. Some cratians would enslaves the Gulgs and Gobbers. Others would lead the revolution that tried to free them. I know I left out a couple and that what I wrote isn't exactly what you asked for, but these are my reactions to what you've written. I hope some if it is useful to you.
#3 zylo_drizzt Jun 22, 2010 7:22:01	Like that idea of using blood parasites though these ones are diffrent in the fact that they dont dominate those that they infect and the fact that I am not gonna give them statistics but more of a diesease type deal that can grow in about any enviroment, zombie parisite is kind of the same and may change with time. Hmm time well first off, not earth, I dont like the idea of there being places that characters actually know about (like major cities and such) kind of want them to explore on thier own and learn about where it is they call home. time, hmm, well its a time that can be remembered by the oldest (though barely because oldest of course have very poor memories and those that do are very rare) so thinking that maybe 70 or 80 years have passed. yes I know, kind of fast for mutations and all but this is a setting of my creating, I do what I want, respect my aurtoritae. anyways, to post comments about races. oh and not all races are sterile, just glulgs, therere is an unnatural way to produce them but havent given specifics because I havent had much time to think. fist, why no skrall? or vaultians? second, gulgs, hmm kind of opisite I wanted to go for but none the less, very thought out, may have to rework idea in that case. kind of thought of them as super mutants from fallout 3 or course third trogs. hmm outcast because of unnacceptance. hmm that may work though how could they still be shunned without knowledge of the cristianity and other such god based religions? fourth, gobbers, again kind of the oppisite I was going for, wanted them to survive the wastes of a new era by intellect such as being able to make an explosive out of almost anything. Fifth, cratians. I kind of like the, I can kill you with my mind and I can control you with my words type deal. though dont know if I gonna have them as purely slavers or tyrants after all not everyone will be one. overall, I like the ideas, might make them the default race or might make it into some sort of flavor for a session or for specific locations. I dont know yet. By the way the reason I want to know this all is because I am kind of thinking of the players learning the history of thier home planet. thanks for all that by the way if I havent already.
#4 TheRealOrion Jun 22, 2010 12:39:03	Seventy or eighty years is a little quick, but you have a ready-made excuse for the mutations, and it means that there might be old people around who just remember The World Before, which can be kinda cool. I don't think it would take long for our civilisation to collapse under the "right" circumstances. Post-apocalyptic movies are based on contriving those exact things. Mad Max posited that all the gasoline ran out. Bam! Instant apocalypse. Anyway, I left out the other two races because I couldn't think of anything to say about them, and I didn't want to come up with something contrived just for the sake of coming up with something. Regarding my suggestions, please take them or leave them at your leisure. If they don't work with the kind of world you want, then ignore them entirely. They were just ideas, and like I said, I was riffing off of social dynamics. The strong and stupid in our world are usually manipulated by the charming and unscrupulous so that the strong/stupid become cheap labour, cheap entertainment (athletes), or cheap military might. That's not to say that all labourers, athletes, and soldiers are stupid. Far from it! But if you're stupid and you're strong, you're low-hanging fruit for manipulative people. Same as if you're pretty and stupid, to be honest. Anyway, that's where I was coming from on the Gulgs. I don't think 70 or 80 years is long enough to shed the deep-seated symbolism of a culture that's nearly two millenia old, which to say that our recoiling from lizards and serpents isn't going to go away in that short a time. I don't think people do that because they're Christians and they consciously think "serpents are bad." I suggested it because it's a fundamental part of Western culture. We villify snakes and lizards at almost every turn, with only a few exceptions. I just kinda like that they were unwilling hermits. I also like the idea that perhaps their healing mutation is over-active and they're not really lizards. Instead, they have a cancerous skin condition that creates the appearance of lizard scales, and that ugliness is enough to get them shunned. That's just a thought, though. As for the Gobbers, you're right, I wasn't giving them enough credit. I can imagine individual gobbers being chained up in the back, making weapons or tools, but if you get a few of them together and they form a community, then suddenly they'll be demanding high prices for the stuff they can make, and that equals power. I wonder what would happen if the Gobbers and Cratians formed some kind of alliance? Gobbers make the stuff, Cratians sell the stuff. I think we have our ruling class right there.
#5 zylo_drizzt Jun 22, 2010 13:44:19	well kind of wanted the races to be seperate but equal in most cases. That could be one instance though. Just like gulg slaves could be another instance. mostly I wanted to make gulgs a mostly barbaric race, the kind you would have raiding alot but then again that could just be another instance whereas there could be another instance where they are working with gobbers. Hmm well this kind of leaves us at square one, maybe slaves is best for now and rest of instances are variations like escaped slaves now raiding villiages because of cratian is helping thier tactics or something like that. any other suggestions? thought about cratians having such a will to live that they affected thier enviroment, thoug I suppose that charisma could help other ways. alright could we work on skralls and vaultians then? thinking that the vaultians recently came out and found how sterile thier enviroment was, they were easily overtook by the parasite and because of thier weak immune system they developed the ability to heal with a touch, thinking I make this ability able to affect more than just hp later in levels. also they have short life spans not only because of this and because the mutation causes them to age more quickly (kind of like they are using thier very own life to heal another) but because they always needed space in the vaults they grew up in, this will also explain why they dont know too much about the history of thier vaults too well because the oldest one of them probably dont even live for 80 years, they probably only been out for maybe 40 years and have already had a generation or two beyond thier vaults. also may not be small but smaller than humans. what other places could the cratians fill? I mean yeah they may be pretty people and maybe even able to manipulate others easily and be a good leader but I mean there might be other places that comes in handy besides being upper class race right? thinking that maybe scrags were animals before (probably even part human). there were large populations of animals that were together when the meteor storms stated hitting (zoo's maybe). the animals bodies couldnt take the mutations and so pretty much turned to goo, later that goo started collcting and it eventually formed an upright moving critter that looks kind of like a human but diffrent and obviously so. thinking maybe because of this background is why they eat flesh and why they mutate so rapidly. Thinking that they have so much of parasite that they must consume things alot more than others, like locusts. I dont know, just trying to get it all to fit together and need full history of at least one right now so I can get started on the first adventure to learn about one of the races, because in order for my players to feel connected to the world, I want them to learn about thier world. Also 80 years after would be enough to still have a good bit of scrounging able to be done. what do you think?
#6 TheRealOrion Jun 22, 2010 18:38:31	Okay, you're looking for a balance rather than a stratification. I think you could engineer that. It just requires looking at things from a different perspective. Perhaps, because anyone's kids might mutate, a kind of enlightened self-interest has set in where people don't take too much advantage of the dumber mutations? There will always be unscrupulous people, of course, but generally, when you're in a populated community, they frown on it? You can justify that all kinds of ways, if you want to. I don't think you have to give Cratians any actual powers to make charisma extremely useful. The charisma-based skills are practically super-powers. If you read the Rules As Written, Diplomacy can get you out of almost anything if you have a high enough score. What bonuses are you going to give these characters again? If it's only a +2, then we're talking about slight tendencies, not necessarily all that much greater than normal variations in humanity to today. If we're talking about a +10, then the mutations will make the difference in people's lives. A +10 Charisma lets you potentially do some crazy **** with Diplomacy. There seems to be a whole story behind the Vaultians that I don't know, but it sounds interesting. Go with that? I think you have a good plan to work from. Do one mutation at a time, explore that history, and let the mystery unfold. Don't paint yourself into any corners by doing it all at once. Let the game take its own pace and rhythm. See what kind of game the players are into. If they just want to smash and grab, then long histories might not be interesting to them. If they want to be post-apoc archeologists, then you can indulge your histories. It really depends on the dynamic at the table.
#7 zylo_drizzt Jun 24, 2010 10:29:32	well you see the reason I am dming again is the fact that I know that the other guys are either a) busy (he is one of the best story dms I have seen and he no longer has time to come up with campaigns so I am filling for him) b) new to game or c) someone I would never trust to run a game again (at least not when I am playing it). So I took charge, I dont normally like to run games because of the players involved. The one I dont trust to run a game is playing and I know the type of game he likes (fight fight fight fight fight fight if it doesnt involve this or treasure then he not paying any attention at all). The other two are better with story based games with action thrown in (I only got to play with the new guy once but he seems to be pretty good at staying in character and he is very funny) the old dm is very good with story, lousy with mechanics (team us up we got the perfect campaign ever cause I am amazing with mechanics and balancing). Anyways thats the players (so far, may have more and may be more story guys). So anyways, basically the reason I want to go into history thing is because I think people who identify with thier setting are also more immersed, keeping thier attention and keeping them in character, I like that and I need practice at it more than I need practice at balancing encounters and such. Ok so you seem to like vaultians and such well check it out. I tried to mimic, in a way, fallout 3. Gulgs are super mutants, skrall are kind of the feral ghouls, trogs are kind of intelligent ghouls shunned but survive (though probably a whole lot thougher and thinking of adding a little more since one of my players pointed out something) vaultians are like the vault dwellers. The only two missing is the cratians and the gobbers. I added those to fill out stats and because I think that part of the world needed something (a small race and a kind of a more supernatural race). yes some people say that my races are unbalanced, they could be right, but I wanted the players to focus more on story because they dont got to work so hard now to be powerful and staying in character than trying to metagame stats and probablility (I know that the one will regardless most likely) but anyways thats why I am doing this. Starts at third so I got some room to make appropriate encounters and so they got some room to survive (also it makes them feel like they been actually doing something with thier lives I guess and might come up with better back stories). Wow I got lots of reasons to do things, I never really thought about it all before. Anyway, thanks for all the advice. hmm now I just got to figure out which race to find out about first, be nice if they had made characters already and I could pick one of thier races or not pick one of thier races. (kind of wanted to tell them to pick other races and classes than each other but though that might be overstepping my bounds). Sorry for long post.
#8 TheRealOrion Jun 24, 2010 21:22:58	It sounds like you're going to have an "odd man out" within your players: one tactical/combat character in a group of character/story players. You might want to talk to that guy, face to face, and tell him that it's not going to be a pure combat/treasure game. I think it's only polite to tell people what they're getting into, and do it straight up, not through the game itself. That way, he can choose if he wants to play rather than constantly trying to play his style in your game, which is no fun for anyone involved. As for which race to start with, I think if you lay out your plan to the players in similar terms to what you've laid out here, you might be able to get them to describe what kind of players they might play, and you can go from there. It sounds as if you'd like to play an improvisational game, which is fine as long as you make players aware of it, and you can even enlist them into the improv itself. Tell them that you'll partly base the game around the kinds of players they pick. Wouldn't we all love to hear that? That our characters aren't just bit parts in the GM's grand epic, but that we actually determine some elements of the game? I think you could have a lot of success pitching this game as both improvisational and colaborative. Just a thought. Take it for what it's worth.
#9 zylo_drizzt Jun 25, 2010 10:48:59	thats true. But my personal style of dming usually involves very real chance of death at every turn cause I make my encounters matter. He likes my encounters probably the best of anyone and likely will still want to play and likely still wont be active in the story but that is alright, the majority will. thanks for all the help. Now since I have already put some campaign information down as a guidline and such, and now I have populated my world, its time to start making adventures. So looking for story hooks now, cause I never played in a group that made it to very high level and want to. This is just to pass the time anyways and will probably come back to it quite often when not playing otherthings. When darksun comes out, I may just start running that but for now, everyone liked my first adventure in this setting so gonna run it again (I had the same disaster but not same races).
#10 TheRealOrion Jun 25, 2010 12:24:37	I don't have any specific ideas, but I do have a method for creating games that I used to use. It requires that you have a way to come up with basic ideas already, but I would try to just let simple game premises come to me--a villain, a problem to solve, a monument or creature that I've always wanted to use--and then wait until I have three of them. Then, I'd take all three and combine them. Make the villain create the problem with produces the monument. Make the problem something that the villain's trying to solve, but to the detriment of people around him. Combining simple premises creates a complex game. Just a thought.
#11 zylo_drizzt Jun 25, 2010 13:51:03	finally got news recently about what one charater may play. He is thinking af playing a skrall (wants to explore mutations, this is the really good gm) so thinking group is employed by patron to get whatever she needs (she trying to help humanity) and they obige for whatever reason they choose. currently her project is to find history and reason for races as they are now. And first one on the list, skralls. So now just got to come up with something for that. Still cant think of why the cratians developed as such though.
#12 TheRealOrion Jun 25, 2010 18:47:09	Maybe I'm misunderstanding the premise. Aren't the mutations a result of the comet? If that's the case, then you can science-jargon your way into any explanation you like, can't you?