The World

One world peopled by various races. The dwarves, slow movers and yet as unstoppable as a glacier. The goblins who are said to know everything there is to know. The elves who hide in there forests but can control the body and mind of those they set there minds to and the humans. What can we say about them. Most numerous and most recently come to magic. They maintain a huge army and many of them practice the “new magic”.

Each race has its own magic which seems to spring from the very core of there being. Shaping and shaped by the caster. Lately the magic has begun to fade and all casters are effected by this except for the practitioners of what has become known as the new magic. Although weaker than the other magics it is more easily mastered and doesn’t seem to fade like the others.

Also Necromantic magic. A respected although very misunderstood magic it like the new magic can be found in all races although seems very rare among dwarves.

Although some of the common spells are known the higher arts of each type of magic is mostly unknown except to practitioners of the art.

[size=134]Dwarves:[/size]
Unable to run but very tough dwarves start with 2 extra hp (7 in total) and derive rank in there army directly from magical advancement.
They can cast energy bolts and warding magics to protect themselves from damage. There are rumors they can render themselves immune to magic and create barriers of pure magic.
[size=134]
Goblyns:[/size]
Collectors of knowledge there isn’t much they don’t know. Some suspect that they already know the cause of the weakening magic although few believe they know how to stop it.
They possess magics for communication with those of other languages and identification of magical items from the lost times. Also magics for locating vulnerabilities of things that seem to be indestructible. They’re rumored to be able to read the future and to be able to create interactive illusions.

[size=134]Elves:[/size]
Mostly they stay inside there forest boundaries keeping to themselves. Little is known about them.
There magics include sleeping spells and truth spells although rumours exist of far stronger incantations hidden from common knowledge.

[size=134]Necromantic:[/size]
Known magics include life drain and limb crippling. Rumors of undead creation and speaking to the dead exist.

[size=134]New Magic:[/size]
Unlike most magics is learnable by any race.
[color=red]The magic is still being worked on
[/color]
For those not talented in magic there are other areas to learn and develop in. The world is littered with magic items from the lost times and attunement to them can be quite hard. Few have the discipline and skill to attune to the most powerful of that time. [color=red](More data to come)
[/color]
There are also combat skills to be mastered and some train the body to be tougher and more skilled. [color=red](more data to come)[/color]

magical items and artifacts. Magical items have to be attuned to which generaly costs xp and artifacts are the same. This is partialy a game balance thing and also to prevent excessive looters ending up gods. Artifacts can be attuned to in halves giving them basic magic powers when half attuned to and more powerful abilities when fully attuned to. examples might be:

magic:
(weapon)Able to hit enchanted creatures such as golems and powerful undead.
Artifact:
Same + double damage to lesser cratures

Magic:
Unlock anything
Artifact:
Able to open anything(includes moving bars and opening combination locks etc)

Magic:
randomly changes into other magic items (at DM discretion)
Artifact:
Randomly changes into other magic items. Sometimes controllable for certain magic items.

Magic:
Can heal in sacred places like a healer.
Artifact:
Can also heal in high magic areas.

Magic:
(Shield) proof against knockdown and knockback
Artifact:
Proof against magic as well.

These are still being worked on but show the rough level of power.

Toughness would buy 2 more hp. 2 weapon fighting would have to be bought as an advantage. Debating making large shields an advantage since they do change combat so much.

What is it about this setting that makes it special to you? ‘Just another’ is pretty bland advertising - I’d like to know what gets you excited about what you’re working on.

Its the world. The way the different races interact with each other and there divionism. They’re quite segregated and they generaly prefer it that way. Each race has its own history and agender.

The magic also excites me. Each type is very different and comes in multiple levels. Instead of all mages of the same kind being very similar in capability each mage will have there own focuses. People won’t know much more about each others magic than is already posted. The real details will be kept for the practitioners.

Could we have a sample of some of this background? just to get the flavor as it were?

Still working alot of it out. At the moment much of it is disjointed ideas. Any particular race take your fancy? I’ll start with any people are fascinated by and explore out from there.

Sure thing, i’d like to know more about the dwarves, I’ve played elves and gobbo’s before. :slight_smile:

So would I…some of us are built more perfectly for dwarves than other races :slight_smile:

The dwarves are very militaristic. They inhabit a huge mountain of fantasy like proportions and have tunnels reaching deep under the desert and according to some rumors far beneath the rest of “the world”. Rank is often synonymous with magical advancement although as of late with the magical situation being what it is and many peoples magic fading this has become somewhat more complicated.

Their main response to the new magic and to the spread of Necromancy was the addition of new mages to the regiments and a disavowing of any necromancers. Its extremely rare for any dwarf to use necromantic magics and it appears like every other race that learning either type replaces there racial talents.

Before the alliance between the the 4 main races of the world there was a time when the dwarves looked ready to expand there borders and large companies of dwarves started to spread out. While only the numerically superior humans had any luck at holding them back the surprising advances came against the goblyns. While more and more of the goblyn land was taken no resistance was found at all. Instead a single goblyn approached under flag of truce and was taken prisoner. Little is known of what happened but shortly after this the Dwarves left there expansions and returned back to the more traditional dwarvern lands.

As of late the dwarves have been seeking out many boat builders although it is unclear why as there are no known islands of any real note aside from the main continent.
(More information is available to the players of dwarves that isn’t common knowledge. This will include details of there magical system as well as more history and current information)

I think I’d be a goblyn. They look like they’re plugged in to the whole world. Then again I already have one character who reads the future and look at the trouble he’s managed to get himself into. Interactive illusions look interesting though.

The goblyns prize forethought and planning over rash action. They are close to emotionless and look down on acts born of passion and emotion. They inhabbit the swamps to the East and also the hills that border the dwarvern lands and used to belong to the gnomes.

While a few of them study the new magic it is still uncommon among there kind. Necromancy also seems unpopular with them although like any other topic it is a thing of study for them.

Since the alliance they have travelled more freely and been better able to study the other races. Its not unusual for one of them to crop up just about anywhere and often they will move into a village and stay there for some years studying it and its people, learning about the area in far more detail than even a native.

As of late they have been seeking to further there diplomatic ties with the other 3 races and there is talk of a massive construction being planned although it is deep within goblyn lands and very few people claim to have seen it.

(More information available to players of goblyns)

OK. I’m decided. I want to play a goblyn. Fire me the info. I assume I’m not supposed to talk about any of the information contained in it except with other goblyn players.

Dylan

So they’re kind of like Vulcans who live in the swamp. You can’t get any more awesome than that.

They’re less like Vulcans than you might at first think. Rather than suppress their emotions they simply lack them. Logic is a big thing for them though. This often leads to them being quite driven and focussed. Prediction is a big thing which is in some ways the basis of their society. They’re also generally quite short and surprisingly pacifistic under most circumstances.

Prehaps they’re more vulcan like than I think. I do remember ripping off Spock when I played my goblyn chaos mage in a TT game. I guess its up to the player. Hopefully we don’t get too many halfbreeds who are excessivly like Spock. Vulcan nerve pinching a golem just doesn’t feel right.

Time for another BG post. Hopefully at some point it’ll all get tidied up into a better sense of order.

The races are quite segregated. Humans tend to stick to themselves and travel in numbers. They can be found almost everywhere. They’re better students than the elves and dwarves. Better warriors than the goblyns and elves and more accomplished in bushcraft than dwarves or goblyns. They may be second best at everything but thats also their greatest strength.

The goblyns normaly stay in there own lands but often send out lone scholars to study one thing or another. While on the whole their knowledge tends to the theoretical they do have students of the practical. Word is they have no standing army and there have never been any recorded proof of such a group.

The Elves tend to stick to the more verdant areas of The World. There are occasional rumours of different types of elves although as of yet it seems these are just rumors. Everyones heard of the sea elves or the drow or the wasteland elves and yet its just a friend of a friend who’s seen them.

The dwarves are almost without exception militaristic. The odd one has been known to take jobs like security consultant or leading small units in the human lands but mostly dwarves are for the dwarves. Reguardless of there jobs they won’t take contracts against the goblyns since before the recently signed alliance.

The alliance:

The alliance was signed by the 4 main races after the virtual eradication of the gnomes. Little is known of what happened to them and most people these days only known of the gnomes as stories told to children. After the virtual genocide the other races got together and signed an accord. Depending on who you ask it was a goblyn inititive or something put together by the humans. Some of the less numerous races tried to stop the signing but with a group of dwarves there for security they had little chance of doing any real harm.

Other Races:
There are still a few gnomes around although they for the most part know little of the magics and skills attributed to gnomes of the past. There are trolls who show shamanic magics and are fearsome fighters. There are said to be demons around the hills and although few people pay much attention to this most know better than to travel through a certain area of the goblyns land and the goblyns themselves tend to avoid it.

In respone to PMs I’d suggest that it really is limiting to play a gnome and I’d rather not have PC trolls at the first game. Maybe later on. The demons are more rumor than anything currently and so can’t be played by PCs.

I suggest you make rules open as you can without ruining any nifty game ideas. Open rules are a blessing & a curse. They let people know how the world works but also opens you up to abusers of rules.
Closed sections allow you to keep secret portions to players closed, such as magic systems only being fullly know to magic users.
If you have powerful player races, like trolls, I would suggest you alow characters to play them from a juvenile stage, giving them much fewer advanatges & allowing players to earn them… so baby Troll becomes teenage troll becomes adult Troll with full abilities… then they wouldn’t be such an issue. It’s called racial progression, Metamorphosis etc.