My Fantasy RPG World, Feedback and Ideas appreciated

I guess I'll call the gnome Nilen so I don't keep saying "the cobbler." I can easily change that later.

A good story needs a good villain. So far my concepts are pretty generic. Mad necromancer, orc warlord, tyrant of a petty fiefdom, mafia-esque figure. I'm leaning towards a lawful evil villain in lieu of a chaotic evil villain. This makes slightly more sense given that my premise requires the villain or his agent to at least initially try to take the heroes alive.

I am not sure.

I don't want all four to be dwarven fighters. I really like The Hobbit, it's the book that made me really become interested in fantasy but it's not perfect. 13 near identical characters. Thorin is the leader. Kili and Fili are the eager youths. Bombur is fat. The nine other dwarves blend together.

I don't have a problem making the four heroes all from the same place, probably human. I want them to be distinct. They may or may not have the same skillset. I could go with a archer, cleric, wizard, rogue, and melee fighter, but that's not required. The Three Musketeers is a good example where all the characters have essentially the same skill set but Porthos, Athos, and Aramas all have very different personalities and values.

I may make all four of Nilen's companions, or three out of four companions fighters. Part of my story concept is that Nilen is good at talking his way out of problems. When you have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Nilen repeatedy comes up with novel solutions that avoid beating their problems into submission. Negotiation, stealth, trickery. If the party includes a wizard the wizard is going to be a stupid smart guy. Good at casting spells, but not very creative. If he doesn't have a spell to fix the problem in front of him, he's not going to know what to do. Again, hammers and nails.

If all the characters have the same villain trying to kill them, that could be enough to get them to work together, but ideally they have something else uniting them too.

That's still an unanswered question.

Ideally, Nilen will keep the group together. Scarterran gnomes were created by Mera to be diplomats and facilitate cooperation between the humanoid peoples. What better way to apply "show don't tell" then to have Nilen be the glue that keeps the other party members from killing each other.

At the moment I'm thinking of coupling the other four party members. Not neccessarily romantically coupling them, but persons A and B have a prior existing relationship and persons C and D have a preexisting relationship. That would give me lots of conflict between Nilen, AB, and CD, and it's more plausible than "five completely disparate people are now an adventuring party."

Now, you know me, I love to kill my characters. If I hypothecially I decide two characters need to die then it would B and D. Rather than AB. That way the survivors have to create new bonds with their new aquaintenances.

If I can plausibly swing it, AB will probably be respectable types and CD will be more school of hard knocks types.

I plan to have Nilen have a grandmother or an aunt or other family member that was a skilled herbalist. Either way, Nilen will be a decent healer and also be able to relucantly cook up some poisons should the situation call for it. Nilen is going to be a very intelligent guy. He could have picked up a piece of many relative's professions. He might have a cousin who is a ferrier, an uncle who is a blacksmith, etc. Thus Nilen is likely to be a jack-of-all-trades.

Just by nature of being a small gnome, he will be more stealthy than his other party members. Much how Bilbo was drafted into being a burglar.

I haven't ruled out the possibilty that he has latent magical powers that could awaken over his adventure. A tiny voice in my head tells me that might be a bit cliche. I would like to showcase my world to readers without requiring a giant info dump of exposition. A good way to spoonfeed my setting and it's metaphysics in bite sized chunks is to have Nilen develop magic powers slowly.

Since the Nine are the center piece of my setting, it would make since to make Nilen a budding theurgist or favored soul. I will probably make him a devout Mera worshipper even if I don't end up giving him divine magic powers. That fits his character. Also, most Scarterran gnomes worship Mera primarily.

A ring makes the most sense, but I'm mildly concerned that since I'm copying the basic premise of The Hobbit I'd be a bit too obvious if I make the mcguffin a magic ring.

At this point anything that can fit in a shoe is on the table. It all depend on the villain. If I decide I want to make a moderately sympathetic villain I might make the mcguffin a vial of healing potion or the cure to a curse or something. The villain or someone the villain cares about is very sick.

I guess I'm still thinking about the DC Animated movie Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay where a bunch of desperate villains are fighting over a magic index card that lets the carrier automatically go to Heaven when they die regardless of how much they deserve to go to Hell. I probably don't want my story to deal with souls or the afterlife, but a lot of villains are motivated simply by the desire to survive.

 

Good ideas! Let me highlight my favorites.

Obviously this is the best one, but aren't ancient artifacts from warrior mice a bit cliched?

First you take treasures away from the warrior mice. Then you take treasure away from the cats.

This is probably the best McGuffin for my story since because the heroes and the villains not only want to fight over the key but race to the magic door or chest, whatever is locked.

If I decide to give Nilen some magic powers bestowed by Mera, a comb might actually work. Each of the Nine hae a special weapon or tool and Mera's is a comb that combs out poisions and illness. That doesn't mean that Mera's artifact of power will be hidden in a shoe, but the magic comb in the shoe could be a scaled down (but still potent) replica of Mera's artifact of power.

I'm not sure where I want to go with tone on this story. A peasants shoe that wields great magic power could create a lighter tone. Especially if the power is something one doesn't normally associate with shoes.

"Let me heal you with my shoe."
"Did he just throw a shoe at m---" KABOOM

 

A naturally occuring stone with a hole in the middle. In magical lore, you can detect hidden magics or spirits by looking through the hole.

 

Hmmm, a schismatic eclesiastical coup is a little dense to put onto a reader that is not familar with my world BUT a corrupt bishop would be a good Bigger Bad. The Bigger Bad is quietly pulling the puppet strings of the relatively straight forward villain that Nilen is dealing with. He is only discovered in hints to be revealed later.

A tiny statue is a good motiff for a religious artifact. There is a lot of historical and fictional precedent for that.

It seems unlikely that Nilen would pinched for supposedly stealing the Mcguffin if the bad guys and/or the cops don't find the stolen goods in his shoe shop.

That means the first bumbling adventure that Nilen and his ad hoc crew have to do is to re-steal the McGuffin.

That trope is borderline cliche. I might want to subvert the trope. He sends the ferret out to nab the MacGuffin and the ferret gets distracted and brings back something useless. Much like initially in The Mask. "No, not the cheese! The keys!"

 

So many great posts in here.
I can only skim over them sometimes, and often I don't have something to add, but I really like what I see here, very inspiring.

 

Since adder stones are often a means of identifying spirits and keys open things. I think the most likely function of adder key is to open a doorway to another realm.

A treasure works but my first instinct is the key opens the door to an extradimensional prison or cage. Thus using the key releases a monster or imprisoned criminal. The key may or may not give the opener control over the monster and the villain seeking the key and the door may or may not know the correct answer.

If the villain thinks the key provides control over the monster and it doesn't work. The villain will probably get eaten by the beast he tries to control. If the villain thinks the monster is uncontrollable he will probably tell an expendable underling that the key controls the monster in order to get the underling to open the door and die, not realizing he just gave an expendable underling great power.

The monster or criminal locked in the prison doesn't have to be Sauron, the Terrasque, or something else that threatens the world. It could be a serial killer that murdered thirty people or a fire breathing troll. Something that everyone NIMBYs (Not In My Backyard) but doesn't shae the world to it's core. It can certainly devestate a town or village though.

 

That's not a bad idea but in my opinion with a stipulation like "Must open in the correct secret order" that would virtually guarantee that it will used in the incorrect order wouldn't it? That would mean that the creator is either very paranoid or very vindictive. Maybe I can make the creator of the magic be King Drosst. He is both paranoid and spiteful. If I plan to eventually have Nilen fight King Drosst this would be a decent set up.


Anywho, I recently went to the Renaissance fair. I didn't get any huge inspiration but I did have fun.

I spoke with a real cobbler. I told her about my plan of having a cobbler get drafted into an adventure. I brought up the idea of him eventually shoeing a giant. The real cobbler told me that tanned hide is much thinner than untanned hide and suggested that a giant's shoes utilize untanned hide because the soles would need to be thicker.

This didn't occur to either of us at the time, but untanned hide is easier to come by in the wilderness. So now idea of shoeing a giant makes more sense.


Other than that my only story/RPG thought came to me when I was watching my third show. I was trying to get the best view I could without blocking other people. I wondered "How accomodating would medieval crowds be to the vertically challenged."

Dwarfs are about a foot shorter than humans on average. Gnomes about two feet shorter than humans on average. Kenku about six inches shorter than humans on average. I haven't decided whether elves are taller, shorter, or roughly equal to humans. There is fantasy precedent for all three.

How much would humans accomodate visitors or demihuman residents? My friends pointed out that it could vary a lot based on how much respect and status the demihumans have. Disrespect could be shown not just by not accomodating shorter humanoids at all but disrespect could be shown by accomodating them with exaggerated and condscending courtesy.

Fun to think about. Among other things, as my character Nilen rises from lowly cobbler into folk hero, I can certainly showcase the transition by in what matter humans accomodate his vertical challenges.

 

To encourage further interest in this thread, I'm going to talk about fantasy creatures having sex!

Half-elves, half-orcs, and half-dragons have been present in D&D and other Fantasy for quite some time. I don’t have to re-invent the wheel on them. Now I’m going to cover the weirder hybrids.

Not to sound weird, but if you put two groups of people together long enough some of them are going to couple with each other.

Here’s the way the bird’s and the bees work. Humans, elves, and dragons were created by all of the Nine working in tandem. These three races are called the core race. All other mortal races were created by one, two, or three of the Nine working together. Hybrids of the Core races: human-elves, human-dragons, and dragon-elves can have viable offspring, but every other hybrid is sterile. Either quickly or slowly, over generations the descendants of hybrids will revert back to normal members of their race. Human blood is very persistent. If a child is 51% human by blood they will born a normal human with only minor cosmetic differences suggesting their other heritage.

A lot of modern humans have a small amount of dragon and elf blood in their veins. A lot of human-elf hybrids have sought other human-elf hybrids as mates. There are many fifth and sixth generation half-elves out here.

An exception on the sterility rule is with spirit-mortal coupling. Mortals with spirit blood are rarely sterile. The Spirit’s reproductive material will basically morph into the mortal’s race. A spirit that mates with a gnome will give birth to what is essentially a gnome with some minor spirit traits. A spirit that mates with a goblin will give birth to what is essentially a goblin with minor spirit traits, etc.

Spoiler: Human-Dwarf hybrids

Man-Dwarves

So let’s cover human-dwarf hybrids. These were fairly common on Athas, the setting of Dark Sun, but not any other setting that I’m aware of. Note that Athasian dwarfs are substantially different from most fantasy dwarfs. They have no hair at all. No hair on their scalps, no beards, no body hair, no eyebrows. Half-dwarves are also hairless. Human-dwarf hybrids on Athas are called Muls, pronounced like “mules.” My friends and I preferred to pronounce it like “Mull” because we liked the sound of it. In any event I probably shouldn’t use the nickname because nearly every hybrid is sterile, not just man-dwarves.

I’m going to use Athasian Muls as a baseline, but I’m going to say that man-dwarves are generally hairy. So an adult man-dwarf on average is only going to be an inch or two shorter than an average adult human of the same sex, if they are shorter at all. Female humans tend to be shorter and lighter than male humans and female dwarfs tend to be shorter and lighter than male dwarves. Man-Dwarfs probably follow the same sexual dimorphism with males being larger but a female man dwarf is going to be much larger than a female human or female dwarf.

Man-dwarves don’t have any of a dwarf’s natural instincts for stone and they don’t have a full blooded dwarf’s innate resistance to poison and magic. Man-dwarves are very strong and very resilient though.

So basically a man dwarf is going to have a human’s height and a dwarf’s build. Very broad shoulders and heavily muscled. Much like Athasian muls, Scarterran man-dwarves are big as babies. Whether the mother is a human or the mother is a dwarf, child birth has a very high mortality rate for the mothers if magical healing is not available. On Athas, most muls are the result of forced breeding in order to create very powerful gladiator slaves. So far on Scarterras, I don’t have a culture that would be likely to do force breeding like this. The Dark Elves would certainly be willing to try forcing the creation of man-dwarf hybrids, but they very rarely catch dwarves alive. They are basically on the other side of the world from the dwarven homelands. Out of their millions of slaves, they probably only have a couple hundred dwarves at most. It would arguably be a waste of limited resources to try to force breed man dwarves.

Mondert is about 60% human 40% dwarves and the two races get along very well. Most human clans are formally or informally allied with at least one dwarf clan. Some of these friendships can blossom into romance. It’s a mild taboo because of how dangerous childbirth is for the mothers of hybrids (and hybrids are sterile which is a problem for the family oriented-Mondarians), but Mondert has enough magical healers that if a man-dwarf is conceived, the mother and child will both probably survive the birth.

Man-dwarves in Mondert are generally treated with love and respect, but there is often a tiny hint of prejudice that can never be full extinguished. Man-dwarves have a role in the Mandarian community but it is a thinly veiled role as a second class citizen. Most Mandarian man-dwarves often choose solitary professions that keep them away from their dwarf and human countrymen for long periods of time. A lot of them join the military or become adventurers. There are two reasons martial roles are a natural fit. First off, Man-dwarves are very strong which is handy for soldiers and adventurers. Second-off Mandarian man-dwarves cannot have children and Mondert is a society where having children is a very strong cultural value. Thus man-dwarves are considered expendable, but they are greatly celebrated for their sacrifice at their funerals if that’s any consolation.

Outside of Mondert, man-dwarves are rare. They are more likely the result of brief trysts rather than genuine romances. These man-dwarves rarely get much exposure to both human and dwarf culture. They are usually raised by their mother’s culture (whether the mother is human or dwarf) or they are left in a basket on the door step of a temple of Zarthus (Zarthus’ followers are honor bound to care for orphans and half breeds).

If they don’t become heavily involved with Zarthus’ Lanterns. man-dwarves rarely truly fit in anywhere. They are not exactly warmly welcome in human lands, but in general a man-dwarf will find a better reception in human lands than dwarf lands. Stahlheim dwarves might put a thin veil of politesse over their disdain for these half-breeds, but Meckelorners generally show open contempt. Man-dwarves of Stahlheim or Meckelorn stock nearly always fall into a professions that have no fixed address and benefit from their great strength. They are often mercenaries or sailors. They will try to find a surrogate family in their co-workers.


Game Stats
-Man dwarves have an extra bruised health level.
-Man dwarves receive a -1 difficulty break on all non-magical Strength rolls, including damage rolls.

-Dour, Man-dwarves pick up the full-dwarves’ social graces. They have a +1 difficulty penalty on all non-magical Charisma rolls with those who do not know them well.

-Man-dwarf player characters receive 8 fewer freebie points than normal. Player characters are encouraged but not required to take on Flaws related to being a social outcast or pariah, unless they are Mondarian in which case they should probably consider taking some social Merits such as “Honorary Dwarf Clan Member”.

Spoiler: Gnome-Human hybrids

Human-gnomes (Gnomans?)

The size and shape of a Gnoman’s nose and ears varies widely. Depending on which facial traits are dominant a man-gnome looks like a very tall gnome or a very short human. If the mother is a human, it’s probably a fairly easy child birth. If the mother is a gnome, the child birth will likely be rough and the midwife better be uncommonly skilled or have magical powers if the mother is expected to live through the process.

Gnomes and humans generally get along well. Sometimes this leads to an unlikely romance or a brief dalliance. Depending on the culture of the human dominated area this could be unusual but tolerated or a severe taboo. The main reason conceiving gnomans is taboo is that gnomans really don’t have any advantages. They are less hardy and strong than humans and they lack a gnome’s full social graces. Gnomes tend to look on gnomans with pity, viewing them as handicapped people.

Player characters who play handicapped characters get extra freebie points but for NPCs, the world isn’t fair, Gnormans are just disadvantaged people.

Gnorman Game Stats

Gnomans are very similar to humans. They have the baseline stats of any humans. They are sterile and receive no flaw points for this.

Gnomans must take at least one point of the Uncanny Appearance flaw. They can the two point flaws if their mix of human and gnome features is especially awkward looking.

Gnomans do not have the social bonuses that full gnomes have, but gnomans usually have relatively high social attributes. Gnomans may take the Puny Flaw if they gravitate towards gnome size. They may take the Infirm flaw as well. A rare few unlucky gnomans have mis-sized feet that impair their movement. These gnomans should take the Lame Flaw.

Gnomans get the full freebie points for any Flaws they take as a result of their condition, apart from the sterility.

Spoiler: Gnome-Elf hybrids

Gnome-Elf (Gnelf?)

Back when the dark elves still enslaved gnomes, the dark elves often force bred gnelves, but that practice hasn’t existed in centuries. Because of this horrific past, most gnomes generally view interbreeding with elves as a severe taboo because the offspring of these unions remind them of these dark times.

The taboo is considerably less stinging in the nation of Loren. Loren was insulated from the dark elves historically. Wood elves are generally pretty light on sexual taboos in general. Wood elves and forest gnomes tend to get along very well. While still rare, gnelfs are hardly unheard of in Loren. They are generally treated well and the parents receive little stigma as long as both mother and father raise the child. That’s sort of the rule for wood elves mating with non-elves. “As long as both parents stick around to take responsibility for the life they created, it is acceptable.”

Regardless of which race the mother is, pregnancy is roughly as difficult as it would be to birth a normal gnome or elf. Gnelf’s do not inherit their elf parent’s natural physical grace nor do they receive their gnome parent’s natural social graces, but gnelves do enjoy an advantage. Their senses are more acute than full-blooded gnomes and full-blooded elves. They combine an elf’s sharp eyes and ears with a gnome’s sense of smell and general intuition. Gnelves may lack the silver tongues of full-blooded gnomes but gnvelves are very good at reading facial cues and micro-expressions. It’s not literal, but gnvelves are said to be able to “smell” lies.

Most Gnvelves that hail from Loren, rarely leave Loren, often skipping their rumspringas entirely. Elsewhere most gnelves tend to distance themselves from gnome and elf society alike, often joining a priesthood of whatever deity fits their tastes best, their great empathy makes them popular counselors and negotiators among nearly all priesthoods except for the Testers of Maylar who have little need or desire for empathetic counselors.

Gnelf Game Stats

-Gnelves get a -1 difficulty break on all non-magical Perception rolls.

-Gnelves get a -1 difficulty break on all Empathy rolls. This is cumulative with the bonus above for Perception + Empathy rolls thus it is quite hard to lie to an gnelf and get away with it.

-Gnvelves have one less health level than humans.

-Gnvelf characters start out with three fewer freebie points than normal.


Players of Gnvelves are encouraged but not required to consider taking Puny, Infirm Flaws, or Uncanny Appearance Flaws for the normal freebie points.

Spoiler: Satyrs couple with everyone

Satyrs

Satyrs are a charming and promiscuous lot. They will sleep with almost everyone. According to satyrs’ own legends, the original satyrs were transformed elves. The results of their union support this. Elf-satyr couplings have a low chance of resulting in a pregnancy but when they do produce a pregnancy the result is a normal elf about half the time or a normal satyr about half the time. The child is 80% likely to be a member of the mother’s race and 20% likely to be a member of the father’s race. The child is always sterile but is otherwise indistinguishable from his or her base species.

Human-satyr couplings are similar but in place of a sterile but otherwise normal human, a “normal” half-elf is conceived. A few satyrs with human blood lack their race’s normal acute senses (they get three bonus freebie points if they are missing this ability). If a half-elf and a satyr have a baby the result will always be a normal but sterile satyr or normal but sterile half-elf.

Gnome-satyr couplings are similar but in place of a normal gnome, a “normal” gnelf is conceived. Satyrs with gnome blood often are noticeably shorter and may have the Puny Flaw.

It’s uncommon, but the “normal” children of interspecies satyr couplings sometimes develop nonfunctional cosmetic features of the other parent such as small horns or very hairy legs. This is represented by the Uncanny Appearance Flaw.

Gnome-Dwarfs
Gnome-dwarf couplings are very taboo because the offspring is always stillborn.

Dwarf-Elf
The two races find each other unattractive as a rule. If an unlikely and taboo coupling occurs, no offspring is produced, stillborn or otherwise.

Kenku?
They lay eggs! They are too different from the other humanoids to even imagine crossbreeds. I suppose a dragon could shape change into a kenku and sire or bear half-dragon half-kenku offspring but they would look kind of weird and gross.

None of this is set in stone. If someone has a better idea, I can rewrite the laws of genetics in my world.

 

I do shun certain Peter Jackson movies. Mainly, there was no reason to stretch the Hobbit into three movies! Among being weird, the elf-dwarf love sub story was pointless because it didn't advance the plot in any way.

If the subject matter is not for you, you can skip it. In this case the spoiler tags may be useful. I mostly cover the babies though not the act. If no one responds in a few days I will move on to a different topic.

Gary Gygax was human and made mistakes. I had a few ideas for my fantasy world that were on the level of owl bears, but fortunately I have friends who are honest with me.