DOUBLE FEATURE POST: FRONTLOADED VS BACKLOADED SETTINGS, PLAYER AGENCY VS SETTING INTEGRITY, ONE NIGHT ONLY

 

Frontloaded vs Backloaded settings

There is, in my opinion, a mild schism (among the major schisms) in the OSR regarding setting construction: Greyhawk and Blackmoor get shat upon for being “vanilla D&D” or “generic” while a revolving cast of flavor-of-the-month settings that describe themselves as “weird” or “gonzo” are held up as masterpieces. I care not for your reviews of published settings but rather wish to extrapolate on my own meditations.

First, “frontloaded settings” must be defined, as their existence is dualistic with backloaded settings. These are settings that are strange and outre from the very outset, possibly even from character creation or even the introduction: McKinney’s Carcosa, noisms’ Yoon-Suin, or Gibbons’ Bx Mars are what I consider to be good examples of such types of settings. The worlds are alien; cultures are weird; demi-humans are either replaced or deleted; science, pseudo-science, and science fiction cast a shadow over them. They are testaments to creative genii, yet their own alien novelty forms a barrier to play: Of what use dungeon delves and GP when most of Carcosa languishes at a neolithic level?  What of crab-man’s inhumanity to man? What if I don’t want to play someone who’s naked all the time?

The solution is pretty obvious: “Just change it.” Or rather “(you, the referee, can) just change it.” Which is true, but this puts all the burden on the referee AND undermines the whole reason for using a published setting in the first place (so the referee doesn’t have to do the hard work).

Now, there are “backloaded settings”, sometimes called “generic” settings: The ones with the kings and knights and castles and orcs and dragons and not-quite-medieval civilizations. This is where Gygax’s Greyhawk and Arneson’s Blackmoor started. But they didn’t end there: They changed, they EVOLVED based on player decisions (some of those players even being the creators themselves!). Those historical timelines have some referee-created trivia but the important parts are all because of player actions.

But even then, Blackmoor and Greyhawk weren’t as vanilla as claimed, there were aliens and magic apocalypses and weird shit. To go full D&Dcore, turning everything into the same diluted and flavorless melange, is something you can do with WOTC D&D or a host of other alleged competitors, and should be avoided. The balance is between the two, I think, vanilla enough to facilitate immediate player engagement but with sufficient indelible weirdness from the referee’s own mind to add excitement. But above all, the referee must be willing to allow the EVOLUTION of his setting based on player actions.

 

Player Agency vs Setting Integrity

The previous point rolls into this one. I recall many years ago, WOTC had a regular online advice column called Jedi Counseling for their Star Wars RPG (at the time, the Revised edition, which was also technically my first RPG), written by one Sarli. A flustered GM laid out the situation: The game was set at roughly the same time as A New Hope (0 BBY or Space Year 1977) and his party had decided to punch in the coordinates for Yavin IV (the big Rebel base in the climax) for unspecified reasons. Sarli’s solution was to have them wind up at the fake Rebel base named early in the film or arrive at the actual base after the Death Star had been blown up and the Rebels fled. Why did this GM even need to ask what to do? Why did Sarli reply with that? Because if the party got there and killed Luke or seduced Leia or jumped in X-Wing and blown up the Death Star or awakened Sith ghosts (press F for the pre-Disney EU) then they wouldn’t be playing a Star Wars game anymore, they’d be playing a Star Wars AU fanfic game because the setting changed irreversibly (if/until time travel became canon). It’s the tightrope you walk with established settings, especially those derived from media: The group wants to play in the setting but if changes are allowed then, sooner or later, they will no longer being playing in the setting.

But I believe this problem extends beyond published settings into homebrew settings. This is, I think, the root of the old “you shouldn’t stat gods because the PCs will kill them” mindset, not some true ideological take on the nature of divinity but a pre-emptive petulance about the players not appreciating the hard work that the GM making these (unnecessarily) complex characters.

Player agency, the ability for the players to freely act, goes hand-in-hand with consequences. Yes, the party can jump to Yavin IV and TRY murk Luke, but how will they cope with both the Rebels and Papa Vader seeking vengeance? They can storm Olympus and TRY kill every god in the place while stealing all the loot, but how do they deal with the things the Olympians were keeping under control? Give the players a rope and see if they tangle (or hang) themselves . . . or someone else.

Give me a fish-man and I will explain the monsters of my setting

Inspired by this post by Joseph Manola I read years ago and late-night sleepy thoughts. 

While Ye Olde Snake-Men Empire isn't a bad idea, I feel it's been suffering a bit of overexposure in the OSR, a critcism which extends to my own WIP setting. Until yesterday, I was riffing heavily on McKinney's Carcosa with the Serpentine (snake-men) being the creators of Mankind for the purposes of occult science. The Kuo-Toa (or their off-brand OGL equivalents) popped into my head as something cool to add to the bestiary. I had originally thought of them as enemies of the Serpentine, Men, and Elves but then I realized they fit the role I wanted the Sepentine to play.

You may ask, "Buzzclaw, what's so special about fish-dudes?" You're right to ask that. My first foray into the Kuo-Toa (and the D&D brand) was 3e; I wasn't impressed. They seemed like generic fishmen. Then recently (this year, I believe), I got a chance to read D2 - Shrine of The Kuo-Toa. That won me over. Horrible, amphibious fish-men ruling and rampaging throughout sea, land, and underworld, kidnapping (fishing? manning?) people for dark rituals. Then the land and sea groups went extinct, leaving only the underworld-dwellers. But they still remember those upstart Men and they're dreaming up schemes of revenge. That's some good shit right there.

Legacies of the Kuo-Toa

Assuming then, that the man-fishes had a stereotypical empire like the classic snake-men, what did they leave behind?

1) Magic! In my own setting, the (off-brand) Kuo-Toa created occult science (less icky Carcosa rituals) then Elves used some of their notes + demonic consultations to create classic D&D magic.

2) Magic Items! In their monster entry, Kuo-Toa really like to use daggers and spears; embellish that dagger +1 with aquatic motifs!

3) Monsters! Land lampreys. Land Urchins. Mantari. Behemoths from the Lankhmar sets. Cloakers too. What's a Roper but a weird-ass land-squid? Are Koalinths and Scrags aquatic versions of Hobgoblins and Trolls OR did the Kuo-Toa take aquatic creatures and create terrestrial versions? Are Mermen and Tritons prototypes or alternative research for Project: Man?

4) Dungeons! All those ruins and tombs are the handiwork of the vanished man-fishes. Are you a bad enough party to dive into ancient, pre-human ruins in search of loot?

The Powers that be

One thing that always puzzled me about D&D 3.5 was the separation between evil gods (like Hextor) and evil entities that weren't gods but could still grant spells (like Yeenoghu). It always seemed to me that at the level of power there was no real difference between the two.

In this post, I'm going to describe my schema for how those concepts fit together. This schema is my default for generic/traditional fantasy and the mindset I use when thinking about stuff for my Tarfel setting (which is in desperate need of development). I don't have a relevant picture so here's a Pie Fiend.

Powers are supernatural, non-mortal entities that can channel their energy into magical gifts given to mortal creatures. Some Powers are also Gods (see below); Powers who aren't Gods are usually Elemental Princes, Demon Lords, Archcelestials, or other powerful beings.

Gods are Powers who have a cosmological function or concept that they work to maintain.  How they keep these functions/concepts working is something unfathomable to non-gods. Even Gods that are in charge of things like slacking off or partying naked spend most of their time making sure that their concepts don't break down.

If a God dies then a cosmic imbalance occurs: either his function/concept stops working entirely or it goes out of control. For example, if a God of death is destroyed then the world perhaps death doesn't occur and all creatures continue to live on in horrifically wounded bodies (a lack of death); alternatively, everyone is dying from papercuts, splinters and scratches (an excess of death).

No matter happens, the death of a God is a very bad thing for everyone. It can take centuries for the quasi-sentient divine spark to find a new host and restore cosmological balance. For this reason, the Gods seek to conquer their enemies and bind them in divine pacts of servitude rather than kill them. Religious wars in the mortal world are often part of an indirect strategy to weaken specific gods.

Non-divine Powers have affinity for and limited power over some functions and concepts but aren't responsible for maintaining them; their deaths and their existences have little impact on cosmological balance.

Gods also have religions dedicated to them and a hierarchical priesthood of some sort as well. Depending on the God's personal attitudes the hierarchy might be a rigid structure resembling military commands or government bureaucracies or it could a very loose structure more akin to a social club. Magical ability often indicates the favor of Gods but doesn't necessarily give priests a higher authority. Gods tend to have a large number of worshipers and the support of local governments.

Gods also have Precepts, general edicts issued by the Gods themselves to do certain things ("Give to the poor from the bounty of your harvest") and avoid others ("Never extend or accept a truce with an Undead"). All Gods require their worshipers to follow their Precepts, although they generally don't notice transgressions unless these occurring on a large scale (such as whole region) or committed by those the Gods have empowered. Gods don't usually change their Precepts or declare new ones.

Supplementing Precepts are Doctrines, mortal teachings derived from Precepts but focusing on practical interpretations. So for example a doctrine derived from "Give to the poor from the bounty of your harvest" would be that only plants that can be used as food or clothing truly need to be shared while intoxicants like tobacco do not.

Gods rarely bestow magical gifts on those who worship them and devoutly follow their precepts; even more rarely a God may offer a non-worshiper such gifts if he agrees to convert to the worship of his new patron.

Non-divine Powers in contrast do not have Precepts or Doctrines; They offer their gifts to those who seem to fit with their interests or even at random. The contract is often simple: In exchange for the gift of magic to be used unconditionally as the mortal sees fit, the mortal must fulfill one task chosen by the Power at some point in the future.

The task given varies on the Power bestowing the gift. Fiendish Powers tend to choose particularly gruesome acts like cannibalism or torturing a sapient being to death. Celestial Powers instead select grueling but benevolent tasks such as giving every orphan in the city a loaf of bread or a long pilgrimage to many sacred sites.

The general train of thought is that once a mortal tastes the power and realizes that the tasks is easy to fulfill, the mortal will be tempted to make more pacts for more gifts. The Powers hope that this process will corrupt (or purify, in the case of Celestial Powers) the mortal and increase their own influence. Unlike the priests of Gods, the priests of non-divine Powers base their hierarchies on the magical gifts they've received from their patrons.

A third group along with Powers and Gods are Idols. An Idol is a non-Power that is worshiped. Idols may have Precepts and Doctrines but can't bestow gifts the way real Powers can, although some manage to simulate this with skilled applications of sorcery.

A final note is that Gods are nearly omniscient in regard to their function/concept but have difficulty focusing on and observing the mortal realm. Most of the time, Gods just can't tell anything is going on unless it's a big happening like a major war or a massive revolt. Gods mainly collect information from their Servitors (Outsiders created from the souls of the faithful) and from those they have bestowed their gifts upon. Sometimes Gods will also send Avatars, physical manifestations made of their own essences, to survey the mortal world. Many Gods prefer Avatars because they get to experience the realities of the mortal realm directly, without the lens of another mind altering their perceptions.

Non-divine Powers find it relatively easy to perceive the mortal realm, although their scope is usually limited to a single region at a time. These Powers also lack the ability to create Servitors. so they are limited to obtaining information from their few gifted followers or their Avatars.

City of Lies

I'm trying to get back into the swing of blogging now that the semester's over, so sorry if my last few and next few posts are a bit rambling. I was thinking yesterday about redundancy of races/monsters in fantasy, a trend I have strong opinions about and will discuss at length in a future blog post. But I also thought about how redundancy could be used positively in terms of adventure design. In a nutshell, the idea is Rakshasas, Werewolves, and Doppelgangers involved in a shadow war in a modest colonial port. Although the ideas presented are based on D&D, the concept should be easily adaptable to any fantasy game.

There a few assumptions that I used to make this scenario:

• The world is very near to an industrial revolution but not quite there yet
• There is an expansionist Britain-like empire that controls parts of both a USA-like and China-like countries
• This empire has been around for centuries in some form or another
• Factories exist
• Firearms are uncommon but everyone knows someone who has a gun
• Rakshasas, Doppelgangers, Werewolves, and Succubi exist in the campaign world

As for the city itself:

• It's a colonial port founded about 150-200 years ago in not-America. 
• All the political power is concentrated in the hands of nobility and their subordinates.
• It refines raw goods from the local territories into ready-to-use materials for factories back in not-Britain
• There is a small community of Dwarves here who maintain the machinery of the factories.
• There is also a community of not-Chinese smaller than the Dwarven community. They leave in a fantasy equivalent of Chinatown
• The not-Chinese get the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs in the factories, port, sewers and outside the city.

Hopefully that seems coherent so far.

Twist #1: The nobles of this area are predominantly Werewolves and have been ever since the city's founding. They control the government and the police. They are careful to control their predatory urges via staged "hunts" outside the city at their country estates. Typical prey includes thieves, criminals of all stripes, those with insurmountable debts, and the occasional stray not-Chinese worker. These victims are rounded up by extremely loyal and secretive police squad who often have at least one Werewolf in the group. The community strongly discourages killing anyone inside the city proper. Offenders quickly find themselves getting shafted in terms of agreements and overruled by superiors. Those who persist in these offenses may find themselves tortured or becoming the prey of a very special hunt.  There are approximately 80-120 Werewolves in the city. The werewolves are blissfully unaware of the other shapeshifters in the city.

Twist #2: Fifteen years ago, an elderly martial arts master arrived in not-Chinatown and opened a small school. Preaching edification through mental and physical strength, he quickly became an influential member within the immigrant community. The next year, a wealthy merchant and his wife arrived. They graciously used their funds to improve the local housing and pay for medical treatment that many working families needed. The year after that, a teacher and a lawyer arrived and have been educating the populace. At the same time, more and more violent gangs have sprung up since the master arrived fifteen years ago. The local police don't interfere with not-Chinatown unless violence spills out into the general city but they've been watching anxiously as the gangs become larger and more heavily armed. The five persons mentioned earlier, the master, merchant, wife, teacher, and lawyer, are all Rakshasas and are organizing the gangs. They plan on overthrowing the local government and establishing a pirate enclave here. The Rakshasas know that some of the police and government are Werewolves but vastly underestimate their number. They have a much more accurate estimation of the Doppelgangers' numbers and are currently in a truce with them.

Twist #3: More recently, about five years ago, a number of very vocal dissidents advocating for better working conditions, better wages, shorter hours, and more autonomy have been causing disruptions. There are two types of dissident rhetoric: One is political and says that current working conditions are a violation of legal rights and a thinly-disguised tyranny; the other is religious and preaches in the name of gods of freedom that current working conditions are akin to slavery. Despite frequent police crackdowns, the ringleaders always seem to escape and reappear weeks later to incite more unrest. The truth is that ringleaders are Doppelgangers. The political and religious parties are two allied but independent groups working to sow chaos and an armed revolt in the city. They hope to either draw troops away from the much richer and more strategic ports in the north or to draw garrisons from non-Britain itself and launch a bloody uprising. A stumbling block in the political movement's plan is that they are don't know that Werewolves are in town and they mistakenly believe that the Rakshasas are fellow Doppelgangers. But the religious movement knows better . . .

Twist #4: Three years ago, members of the Doppelgangers' religious movement discovered a secret complex deep in the sewers beneath the site that formerly hosted a stately manor. Within these chambers they found a sizable collection of magical texts and trinkets. But the most important find was that of a summoned Succubus. Summoned fifty years ago by a local wizard to act as lover/mentor, she was bound to a small phylactery warded against the touch of demons. One day, the wizard never returned and so she was unable to leave due to the magics that bound her to the phylactery. Over the many decades she studied, practiced, and improved on all the magic within the complex. Those Doppelgangers freed her and have established a secret cult around her. She has taught them many dark and ancient magics and given them very detailed information on the city. The religious movement/cult knows of numerous secret hideaways in sewers and mausoleums; the identities of most werewolves that were alive fifty years ago and by extension many of those still alive; and thanks the Succubus' divination they know that the mysterious master in not-Chinatown is definitely not a Doppelganger. Unlike the other groups, their motivation has taken on a mystical character. They want to incite the bloody war between the Rakshasa gangs, the Werewolf-controlled government and police, and the Doppelganger-led labor unions then harvest the spiritual energy that the dead and dying will radiate from the comfort of their underground catacombs.

Setting off the tinderbox: The Doppelganger cultists' plan to ignite the powderkeg is fairly straightforward. One of them will impersonate a known Werewolf's Human form then hire a prostitute or invite one of the impersonated Werewolf's friends to a very public place were the police and the public will witness the pair. The Doppelganger will then shapeshift into a hybrid Werewolf form, maul whomever was unfortunate to be its companion for the night, and escape into the sewers. The Werewolves and police will be busy trying to suppress the events and capture the presumed murderer. The Rakshasas will stir up the gangs to fight against monstrous oppressors who are truly monsters; the Doppelganger political movement will do the same. The religious movement will call for a divinely-sanctioned purge of the evil in the city's midst then retreat to the winding warrens below.

After that, even I don't know what happens.

Elves of Tarfel

Yay a new post after a million years! This semester is really hard .___.

Spinning off of my post about a new campaign setting I'm cobbling together, here's an extended look at the Elves of Taurion Effel/Tarfel.

The Ancients of The Elderwood

The Elderwood is a vast, ancient forest dominating the north-central area of the Civilized Countries. Within it are strange beings that combine Elvish and Plant-like features. The "Elder Elves" lack any ability to speak. The most Elvish among them have growths resembling moss or vine-like plants and have brown blood; they are standoffish but will not attack unless threatened. As one journeys farther into the Elderwood, the elves become more plantlike. The deepest specimens retrieved have bark-like skin and green blood with the consistency of slime or syrup. Elder Elves are curious in that they only seem to eat raw meat; a few specimens were taught to eat cooked meat but they only did so reluctantly. The civilized Elves of the Day, Night, and Gloom cultures are completely disinterested them, viewing the Elders as results of parallel evolution or degenerate breeding (or both according to some works by Elvish scholars). Aside from Human researchers, the only other group interested in them are the Serpentine, who capture them for experimentation or execute them outright.

Day Elves and Night Elves

Although the Serpentine describe the Elvish conquest in the same manner as an outbreak of rodents, with disorganized butchery and senseless violence, the Elves insist that their conquest was organized and commanded by a cosmic deity. After the overthrow of the Serpentine, the Elves prosper for thousands of years until the Great Schism. Wicked Elves lusting for power and wealth forsook their patron deity and turned to an opposing power, shattering their empire with civil war and apostasy.
Those are the facts that both sides agree on. Additional details are highly contentious. One group, the Day Elves, insist that their original deity was Ialtes (worshiped by Humans as "Yalt"), the lion-headed sun god. The apostates who caused the Great Schism turned from him to the worship of Sethon (known as "Thoom" to Humans), the snake-like deity of night, shadows, and lies. The other contingent calls themselves the Night Elves and claim that it was Sethon who was their patron in prehistoric times and that cult of Ialtes is the real apostasy. Despite their differences in history and religion, their dress, societies, rituals, and social mores remain strikingly similar. Nevertheless, they consider being called by the names of their hated brethren to be the greatest insult which combined with their lack of differentiation in regards to speech and clothing insofar as non-Elves can perceive them, have resulted in the deaths of many Humans and Dwarves who have misidentified them.

 

 The Deep Elves

 After the Great Schism, the largest Day Elf bloc was that ruled by Abal, son of a regional governor named Hased. Abal was the first king of what is now identified as the Hasedite Kingdom. Abal had eight successors over the next five centuries. The last of these was Tabel. During his reign a vast conspiracy among political and mercantile elites that had been brewing since the reign of his father, King Awen, began an open revolt. The elites manage to rally peasants to themselves with promises of more freedom, limited land redistribution, and the gift of a single non-Elf slave to every household.
In desperation, Tabel turned to the Deep Dwarves for aid. The Deep Dwarves had crushed an expansionist campaign by King Lutel two centuries earlier in the hinterlands of the Fang Mountains and following their victory entered into a non-aggresion pact with the Hasedite Kingdom. Tabel used Deep Dwarf mercenaries to supplement his troops and crushed the rebellious elites. Following this, the vanquished were paraded through the capital and both the regular Elvish army and the Dwarven mercenaries participated in the King's three-day victory feast. According to the legend, on the last day of the feast the high priest of Ialtes, an aged Elf named Baru, chided Tabel saying that he had enough rabble-rousing and that tomorrow at noonday the captives should be ritually executed for defying the sovereign chosen by the sun deity. Tabel is said to have laughed and casually informed the priest that the captives were leaving that night with the Dwarves; Tabel had nowhere near enough treasure to hire such a huge contingent of mercenaries so he agreed to turn over all captives as slaves to the Dwarves. The high priest Baru stood up and invoked the gravest curse possibly against the King, that his heirs should all die and he and all those related to him by blood be rendered infertile, for his offense of denying blood sacrifice to Ialtes and for selling his kin into the hands of lesser beings.. That very night, the Dwarves marched back to their lands in the Fang Mountains with their new slaves in tow. This episode is referred to as the "Sin of King Tabel" in Elvish histories. The Elvishy slaves eventually won emancipation and developed a new culture based on a synthesis of Dwarven
and Elvish attitudes. These former slaves are now called Gloom Elves. They no longer worship Ialtes but have instead adopted traditional Dwaven deities and ancestor worship. They also maintain a great deal of enmity toward both the Night Elves (their traditional enemies as Day Elf descendants) and the Day Elves (who are viewed as traitors and tyrants).

A Whole New World

Picture this: You're a teenager who has been voraciously devouring D&D 3.5 books. You've recently found out about the OGL. You decide to yourself "I'll write something and sell it!" Then you realize that writing RPG stuff takes a lot of work (especially in D&D 3.5).

The person described above was me about 10 years ago. And now I'm feeling kinda nostalgic for those days when I didn't realize how crappy 3rd edition and my early homebrew attempts were. So I'm going to grab all that horrible stuff, polish it, combine it with some more recent ideas into a new setting, and post it as recurring feature on this blog. So let's dive right in.


The world in question is formally known as "Taurion Effel", Elvish for the "True World". Ancient Elven scholars of the Fourth Age so named the world in contrast to "Kadarion Effel", the "False World", which is commonly known as the Dreamworld. Over time, the name has changed drastically. At the current time, commonly designate the Fifth Age, the most common form of the name survives as Tarfel. Other variants include Tarfil, Taronel, Tarfland, and Tarfiland.

The historians and chroniclers generally recognize that there are four or five vast stretches of time commonly referred to as Ages that are differentiated by environmental characteristics and by which race(s) seemed to be most influential. The commonly recognized Ages are:

• The First Age, or The Age of The Seafolk: Back when Tarfel was almost entirely covered by water, numerous aquatic races forged mighty empires. These races are referred to as the Seafolk. Although such a term is the same as modern parlance for Merfolk and even Sahuagin, the ancient Seafolk were more alien and farther removed from their descendants. As the waters retreated and icecaps formed, these empires crumbled. 
•  The Second Age, or The Age of The Insectoids: As trees spread to the newly-dried land, the air of Tarfel become much richer (in oxygen). Insects and arthropods grew and some among them grew sapient. The greatest of these Insectoid races were the ant-like Formi, the spider-like Aran, and the beetle-like Otubak. Warring between these three and others destroyed much of the tree-choked land. The air became poorer and these races began to literally shrink or die outright.
•  The Third Age, or The Age of The Serpents: A slight warming of Tarfel enabled the reptilian races that were formerly enslaved by the Insectoids to expand into new territories. The most illustrious of these are the Serpentine, who still persist in a greatly weakened state and work tirelessly toward the extinction of Elvenknind. A minor ice age doomed the vast realms of the reptilian races. Now only pitiful remnants clinging to ancient history remain.
•  The Fourth Age, or The Age of Elves: This age was marked by the rule of the Elves. They discovered new magical secrets and devised several ingenious technologies, particularly in the field of astronomy. The Elven empires crumbled after the Great Schism, the Sin of King Tabel, and numerous civil wars. The Elves still remain a strong presence in the modern world.

• The Fifth Age, or The Age of Men: Humans, the bastard race born of the union between Dwarves and Elves, has spread and conquered all over Tarfel. Unlike their predecessors they are far more fractious and disorganized. Some (Human) scholars fear that these division may be their downfall.  
•  The Sixth Age: The Sixth Age is currently mere conjecture. Several kingdoms look upon the notion that Humans will be replaced as an offense against religion, culture, and the crown. Nevertheless, in hidden cabals and cozy studies, those with knowledge of the past puzzle over the portents of the times. 

Elvish Religions

One of my problems as a creative person is that I suffer from a very fleeting attention span combined with an overactive imagination. I start writing one story/idea down and then another quickly replaces it, leaving the object unfinished, then THAT story/idea gets replaced, etc. ad infinitum. It can be a bit frustrating. Anyway, I came up with some Elvish religious tidbits that I probably won't use unless I run a HOW or Unisystem game so I figure I should share them with y'all for inspiration.

(Picture only for clickbait purposes)

Nature

Nature-worshiping Elves is really a cliche at this point but by using other religions like those below it's possible to make it less cliche. The cult of Nature preaches harmony with the natural world, preservation of natural beauty/resources and the rejection of "excessive" technology and artificial methods of altering the land. Societies where Nature is the main deity tend to be reactive, only acting militarily when their territories are directly threatened by outsiders' expansion.

The Ur-Elf

"Damn it feels good to be an Elf." The cult of the Ur-Elf deifies, exaggerates, and worships the traits of the Elvish race. It can shoot better than the god of archery, sneak up on the god of sneaking, out-magic the god of magic, and out-swordplay the god of swordplay. You can do all these things too if you're an Elf! (Not Really.) The Ur-Elf (who was going to be named "Amys") is essentially a god of egotism and self-adulation. It was my conception that Amys would be portrayed as genderless, male, female, and/or hermaphroditic depending on the temple in question and local traditions to express the universality of Elvish awesomeness. Inspired by Heedless One, the statues of the Ur-Elf would be made of emerald or jade but now this idea seems a little silly to me. Unlike the Nature worshipers (see above), the Ur-Elf religion encourages aggressive expansion and conquest. I also was thinking that magic in a society dominated by Ur-Elf religion would be stagnant as the leading mages would only care about ye olde Elven magic and not any of that non-Elf witchery.

Fire

Since Elves are traditionally forest-dwellers and fires can destroy forests, it seems weird to me that no one seems to have examined the Elvish view of fire. I did toy around with the idea of giving all Elves pyrophobia one time but it seems like something that would work in a story not a game. Anyway, Fire-cults worship and appease powers of fire in an effort to ward off forest fires in particular and all dangerous fire in general. They practice ceremonial burnings of effigies and objects to "feed" the fire so that it won't be "hungry" and burn the environs. They also dance around fires and with torches. While on inside of the group this all seems on the level, mainstream Elvish society sees a bunch of nascent arsonist whackos only a single step away from burning down the city. For this reason, most public Fire-cults are in non-Elven lands.

Magic 

Much like Nature-worshiping Elves, Elves as the masters of magic is a bit of a cliche too. Elves who worship Magic are viewed by almost all Elvish societies as dangerous loners due to their obsession with power and immortality. It's the goal of many to transcend into something else via magic, something that isn't part of the natural order (so Nature-worshipers don't like it) and which implies that Elves aren't the best creatures ever (so Ur-Elf worshipers don't like it). Magic-worshipers tend to be wizards. They also tend to be found almost exclusively in non-Elf settlements, usually as founders and teachers in magical academies or employed in the government/military.

  

The Bat

No, not Batman. "The Bat" is a title used when referring to the Elves' god of curses, night, and caves, who is represented by a bat. Similar to the Fire-cults above, worship of The Bat was mainly intended to ward off curses but there were also plenty of curse-mages for hire, which led to a violent suppression of the cults by major Elvish society. I imagined that the worshipers of this deity eventually became wandering Gypsy/carnival analogues who used Elvish skills and magic to entertain the masses. Another idea that I never really expanded is that one of The Bat's major curses is the origin of vampirism.

Obscure D&D Lore

Dungeons & Dragons has been around for 40 years now. As you can imagine, both the roles and the fluff (lore) of D&D have changed a lot during that time. Some fluff remained pretty constant throughout all edition (the difference between arcane and divine magic), some got tweaked between editions (alignment), and a few were radically changed (OD&D's Gnolls and 4e's Eladrin ). This short list isn't going to be too surprising to veteran players but there are some tidbits here that are interesting.

-Gnolls were originally Gnome/Troll hybrids.

-The Gold Dragon was originally the only Lawful (i.e. Good) dragon in OD&D. The remaining five dragons were Chaotic (i.e. Evil) and correspond to what would later be referred to as the Chromatic Dragons.

-There was a UK-published adventure where D&D unofficially crossed over with Warhammer Fantasy. To paraphrase: "In a distant land, the men do not worship the same deities as us . . . they bow to a pantheon of Hope, Anger, and Love . . . and those who will not worship these deities they execute." Hope, Anger, and Love are what Warhammer's Tzeentch, Khorne, and Slaaneesh are embodiments of.

-At one point during AD&D 2e, Yeenoghu (variously the god of Gnolls or the demon prince of Gnolls) was identified as a god of the Giants, and a Giant himself.

-The AD&D 2e multiverse was created by two supergods cosmic snakes who are/were the most powerful beings in the multiverse. 

-In AD&D 2e, Archons (Lawful Good celestials), Asuras (Chaotic Good celestials), and Aasimon (angels) are the transformed souls of Good creatures in the afterlife but Guardinals and Eladrin are actually extraplanar races whose origins have no ties to mortal souls.

-Adding to the above, Asuras, Guardinals, and Eladrin are not immortal like Archons and Aasimon. They do live for a long time though. Guardinals seem to have the shortest lifespans of the three.

-OD&D and Chainmail Gnomes are just Dwarves that live in hills instead of mountainous areas.

-In AD&D 2e, Stygia (one of the Nine Hells) has "ancient tentacled gods" frozen underneath the ice. These descriptions seem to reference the art in Planscape that showed an "evolved" Nupperibo (minor devil) and an "ancient Baatorian" (the inhabitants of the hells before devils moved in).

-In D&D 3.5, probably based on the lore above, Zargon from the Basic D&D module B4 The Lost City was retconned into being an ancient Baatorian despite the fact that the concept had been discarded by the tail end of AD&D 2e.

-Wizards of the Coast created a campaign setting for AD&D 2e based on wuxia. It was only released online (with each chapter as a separate PDF), regarded as crap, and was never again mentioned by WOTC.

-The Witch, an AD&D arcane spellcaster class created by Gary Gygax and published in Dragon Magazine, could not effect clerics, Djinni, or Efreeti.

Fantasy Settings: Cults and Religions

Happy belated Turkey Day, y'all.

Today, I'd like to post some musings on the nature of cults vs religions in fantasy settings. This is particularly flavored by D&D lore, so pardon me if this is old hat to some people out there.

In most high fantasy settings, religions follow the teachings of what are verified gods and tend to have a very visible presence in society; cults on the other hand, follow creatures that aren't really gods but are powerful (demon lords, elemental princes, really powerful dragons) and tend to be shunned and persecuted by society.

Going off of the above, it seems that religions=good and cults=evil but there are plenty of evil gods kicking around in most settings also, which makes cults seem redundant. There have also been good cults that worship archangels or their equivalent in some settings, which I'm not sure I like but serves to balance the moral position of culthood.

The question of the day is why someone would sacrifice social position and community ties by rejecting religions and joining cults. Being a hipster is one reason but I later thought of another: Power with no strings attached.

Religions have bureaucracies and gods have tenets that they demand that you follow; the powers that a cult worships give power without any fiddly doctrines up front, using foot-in-the-door salesmanship to slowly entice cultists into a deeper devotion.

This also complicates matters because while a worshiper of Killdeath, god of murder, will be very clearly murdering people to appease her god, a cultist might have signed his soul away for something as simple as a promotion at work. The spectrum of petty to serious evil runs a much broader gamut in evil cults than in evil religions, making disposal of a cult something that isn't as clear-cut as disposal of an evil religious cell.

Reflections on Ravenloft

Ravenloft  is an interesting story in the world of RPG settings: It started as a breakout adventure module that inserted horror tropes into D&D and introduced the nefarious Strahd von Zarovich, the game's first Vampire wizard.  It was followed up with another module called The House on Gryphon Hill that is widely panned but introduced a character that would become very important: The Lich Azalin.

From these humble beginnings, Ravenloft evolved into a full-fledged campaign setting although it was constructed using a weekend in hell design philosophy that empahsized easy one-shots.

At its core, Ravenloft is a setting about the Human struggle of good vs evil, sin, guilt, and hubris. In Ravenloft, those who have committed particularly horrendous crimes tend to become Darklords; these Darklords are awarded with new realms by the mysterious Dark Powers of Ravenloft but are also forever bound to them. The setting is also dripping with cruel irony. Strahd bargained with the Dark Powers for the power to kill his brother and claim his bride for himself; she committed suicide to escape him and reincarnates every few decades but always slips from the grasp of the now-immortal Strahd. Similarly, Azalin was a mighty Wizard-King who feared death and loved magical knowledge; the Dark Powers gave him the secrets to Lichdom but he cannot learn new spells. Azalin's domain also has a similar cruel twist in that the world he left was a civilization at its peak while his domain is (or was, if you take later AD&D products to heart) filled with the citizens of that same empire after centuries of collapse.

But there's on big problem with Ravenloft: It's a Dungeons & Dragons setting. There are Elves, Dwarves, hundreds of Liches and Vampires, Mind Flayers, Werebeasts of a dozen varieties, and a Fey kingdom. And many of the domains and Darklords are from canon D&D worlds like Forgotten Realms or Dark Sun. In worlds were Liches are a dime-a-dozen enemy then what makes Azalin so special? If Vampires are running around everywhere, then what sets Strahd apart? If Ravenloft scoops up all these terrible sinners then why aren't all of the Orc chieftains and Drow generals in it?

In my opinion, the best way to preserve the flavor and themes of Ravenloft is to cut out a lot of the D&Disms. Dwarves, Halflings, and Elves should be virtually non-existent. Azalin should be the only Lich, and Strahd should be perhaps be the only vampire or the progenitor of a certain strain of vampires. The Darklords should be almost entirely baseline Humans, perhaps with some monstrous ancestry to sweeten the taste; alternatively, they were Human but now can't truly be called that.
Some realms, like the ones from Dark Sun, Forgotten Realms, and Azalin's own will need to be trimmed or heavily altered. When thinking of the tone of Ravenloft in general, I think that approaching it as a strict historical fantasy then adding the horror and supernatural elements is the best way to go.

Creating a quick fantasy setting using Magic: The Gathering

Tired of medieval fantasy in pseudo-Europe? Want to make a strange game setting but don't know where to start? I've got an idea for you to use. It involves seeing random Magic the Gathering cards and then creating a world based on those details.

Step 1: Go to http://magiccards.info/random.html (my preferred database) or http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?action=random

Step 2: Note the first 5 non-Legendary creatures you find (including subtypes like Elf, Orc, Wizard, etc) and the first 3 lands (Mountain, Plains, Forest, etc.) and/or landscapes (Sunken City, Fog, etc.)

Step 3: Put it all together.

Let's make a quick world!

Creatures:
-Alphetto Alchemist, a Human Wizard according to errata. The Morph ability might also be an interesting twist.
-Myr Sire, a Myr (magic robot) that creates more Myrs.
-Brassclaw Orcs, hardy Orc tribes
-Sewer Rats, and lots of 'em!
-Diligent Farmhand, a Human Druid. It's looking like Druidism and Alchemy might be two competing philosophies in this world

Land(scape)s:
-Stomping Ground, ruins reclaimed by nature and beasts.
-Murmuring Bosk, a haunted or otherwise sinister woodland.
-Blood Moon, a magical red moon that alters the world.

Putting it all together:
The world is choked with forests that spread like a plague across the land, swallowing up cities. In the oldest forest strange sounds are heard; some say that spirits from another world are trying to enter into this one. A baleful red moon glares upon the land at night, and all blame it for the sudden surge in forest growth. Rats, once restricted to sewers, are now virtually everywhere; disease outbreaks are becoming more common. The Orcs still persevere amidst the unnatural woods thanks to a mixture of healthy superstition. The Humans of the world have polarized into two camps: The Alchemists, who want to use magic to reverse the "sylvan scourge" and the Druids, who want to use magic for the adaptation/evolution of their people. 

Going Ape in Fantasy: Egypt

Welcome to the first installment of a semi-regular feature on the blog! I really like the concept of intelligent apes in roleplaying games (and if you do too then I advise you to buy a copy of Terra Primate asap ;) ). In this feature I will detail some Ape/Monkey-related fluff or lore.

Egypt apparently had several Baboon gods, among them the (NSFW) Babi/Baba, Hapi, and Astennu. Thoth also apparently got in on the act every once in a while as well.

So, let's look at the pieces we've got: grayish noble/ruler baboons; normal(ish) baboons; dog-headed apes.

A question before going forward is how anthropomorphized the baboons should; I lean toward "moderately', that is about 4 feet tall and quite capable of standing upright in a hunched manner. Real baboons are pretty violent but wouldn't work with a faux-Egypt setting unless they just took over the ruins, so I'd tone down the overt violence. Brutal formal duels/brawls would be an interesting way of conveying a strict hierarchical society with big anger issues.

As for magic, using Egyptian-inspired sun/star magic doesn't seem to particularly "feel" right with these horrible Egyptian baboons. Earth and water magic, focusing on stability, life, and fertility seem much more flavorful.

As for the "dog-headed" apes, they could just be an animal or a barely sapient race. Used as beasts of burden in peaceful times and war-beasts in war times (Bet you didn't see that coming!)

If an equivalent to Arabia exists and this Baboonian Egypt is as well-known as the real Egypt then there's really no way to make this revelation surprising unless the general character of the world is an insular/xenophobic one and the players are trailblazers.