Kill the heroes and take their stuff!

[Primal Conundrum]

Life as a monster isn't easy.

Sure, Orcs are crazy strong and heal well, Gnolls are vicious, fast, tough sons of bitches, Kobold have their strange mechanical inventions, and Goblins have that weird Goblin magic.

None of that stops the so-called "civilized races" from casually murdering us in the name of profit, knowledge, or in some cases, fun.

But hey, I guess that's why we keep raiding them, enslaving them, and murdering them back. When you fight fire with fire for long enough, everyone's hands end up black as ash and it doesn't matter anymore just who lit the match in the first place.

-----

So! The premise here is that we play the monstrous characters from a pseudo-D&D setting. If you're like me, you're really super bored of Elves and Dwarves and all those standard issue player character races. This rp is to turn that on its head, go a little savage, and be the bad guys! (depending on your point of view.)

The setting I have in mind (to be covered in greater detail later if there's interest in this) is predominantly a sword & sorcery type of world that has recently begun to develop early firearms (muzzle-loaders, think flintlock pistols) and magic-powered low-tech vehicles, such as a chariot attached to a wheeled altar and powered by holy water and recited prayers. This sets the stage for vehicle combat, crude guns that are loud and dramatic but not overly lethal, and all sorts of shenanigans. I don't have a specific plot in mind at the moment, as the direction of the plot would be informed by the goals of the player characters, but I'm willing to hear any thoughts or suggestions that people may have! I find RPs more fun when multiple people have a hand in creating them, so I want to offer that chance to anyone who finds this idea / setting intriguing.

[KRIEEEG]

Say no more! I'm in!

Soxmo Farbomb is here to bring his goblin kind the vengeance lusted for centuries!

[Primal Conundrum]

@KRIEEEG
Nice! Goblins are awesome. The way I've been thinking of them in this setting (and nothing is set in stone yet) is as a pretty tribal and primitive bunch, but with an inherent ability to use magic in some form, usually regional. Some tribes in barren, rocky, hot areas might have a knack with fire magic, while those from the Roaring Mountain can channel magic through sound, resulting in disproportionately loud battlecries and bard-shamans that can inflict considerable damage through nothing but sound.

If that doesn't work for the character you have in mind, let me know and we can figure out some version of Goblins that will work :D

Oh, and to anyone else reading? I'm probably gonna end up playing a Gnoll. Gnolls are cool.

[KRIEEEG]

Don't worry, I can work with anything. Worst case scenario I can go for the social (tribal?) outcast goblin to break the "location magic only" rule if needed. And yes, Gnoll are awesomeness in person.

When I was typing my comment there were three guests and one player reading this thread.

[Primal Conundrum]

@KRIEEEG
The idea isn't so much location magic, but more that Goblins have an innate affinity to magic and will VERY quickly (only a few short generations) adapt to wherever they've set up residence. It really means that you could use whatever kind of magic you want to have an affinity towards, and you can use that magic affinity to infer / as a starting point for that tribe's background. The idea isn't to create limits.

[KRIEEEG]

@Primal Conundrum
Ok, that sounds way cooler. I was thinking of a somewhat smart goblin that's still pleagued by the stupidity of it's race. Should be fun to roleplay it. But I will probably adjust and adapt when we have more info on the setting and how it will be played.

By the way, any idea when that's going to happen?

[rush99999]

Oh, and to anyone else reading? I'm probably gonna end up playing a Gnoll. Gnolls are cool.

@Primal Conundrum

Dragons are cooler.

[Primal Conundrum]

Well, I'd like to get at least one more person on board before starting the thing! If there's enough interest, I'll make an OOC tonight and those of us interested can collaborate to fine-tune the setting a bit.

Sounds like a fun Goblin to play! Some of them certainly CAN be smart, most of them just... aren't. Whether that's due to a genetic predisposition to being dumb or just a lack of any sort of education in the vast majority of tribes is a subject of some debate.

<Snipped quote by Primal Conundrum>

Dragons are cooler.

@rush99999

Agreed, but Kobold are even cooler than Dragons ;P

[rush99999]

Agreed, but Kobold are even cooler than Dragons ;P

@Primal Conundrum

You might want to rethink that statement.

[Primal Conundrum]

@rush99999
Naw, I stand by it. Kobold (the way I see / run them) are clever little bastards who know better than anyone else just how fragile they are. Dragons are big, powerful beings that strike fear into others through their sheer presence. Kobold don't have that. Compared to how powerful dragons are, it is WAY more impressive that Kobold have survived and built a culture and carved out a niche for themselves using nothing but traps and ingenuity.

After all, even Dragons can be caught and killed with the proper traps. Kobold musicians still sing the songs of the scale-kings of old who captured and subjugated such beings.

[rush99999]

@rush99999
Naw, I stand by it. Kobold (the way I see / run them) are clever little bastards who know better than anyone else just how fragile they are. Dragons are big, powerful beings that strike fear into others through their sheer presence. Kobold don't have that. Compared to how powerful dragons are, it is WAY more impressive that Kobold have survived and built a culture and carved out a niche for themselves using nothing but traps and ingenuity.

After all, even Dragons can be caught and killed with the proper traps. Kobold musicians still sing the songs of the scale-kings of old who captured and subjugated such beings.

@Primal Conundrum

Point taken.

[Sombrero]

I'm very interested. Might reboot an old Illithid Pirate character that never really saw the light of IC.

[Primal Conundrum]

@Sombrero
I'm a fan of tweaking races to thematically fit a setting, as well as having specialized sub-races (Like Aardgnolls!) The three I've mentioned so far are only three options, I'm happy to add more. If you have ideas for how you'd like to customize a race, I'd love to hear it!

[Sombrero]

@Sombrero
I'm a fan of tweaking races to thematically fit a setting, as well as having specialized sub-races (Like Aardgnolls!) The three I've mentioned so far are only three options, I'm happy to add more. If you have ideas for how you'd like to customize a race, I'd love to hear it!

@Primal Conundrum

I'm a big fan of tweaking races so that they can be played the way they're not traditionally supposed to be played, haha. Running, Climbing stealth mermaids on land for example. I was thinking of playing a burly mind flayer who uses psychic abilities to augment his abilities as a warrior/pirate captain and aspiring feudal ruler. But, in most settings, the necessary mind flayer parasite atrophies their physical features in favor of the brain to the point where they're incapable of being burly. I'm thinking he would instead be... I dunno, made of rubberier stuff as opposed to no stuff at all, so he'd still have a physical debuff, like a weakness to piercing weapons, but it would be conducive to playing a physical class.

[Primal Conundrum]

@Sombrero
An interesting take on the Illithid concept! There are two concerns I have, but they're just that: concerns. And concerns can be addressed and resolved.

First concern (and the lesser of the two) is that I don't know if it'll be a nautical / piratey campaign. That's easily dealt with though, as a compelling character will work on land or sea. Also, if we end up doing much in the way of vehicle combat, you could go for the mounted raider theme instead which is essentially a pirate on land. Easily solved.

Second concern, and this is the one where the ball is more in your court, is that Illithids are traditionally pretty powerful creatures. With a whole pile of psychic nastiness plus more combat ability, compared to the other options it feels really strong. However, like I said, I'm totally into race tweaks, so if you have an idea for how to bring Illithids closer to the baseline of power while still retaining their style and flair, it would be a character that I'd love to have on board!

[The Fated Fallen]

Yeah! They can keep their songs of 'Oefwyn the Big' and 'Hedren the Lithe'! We drink, plunder and write out own songs in blood and gold! We may not be civilised, but we live life our way!

Huzzah!

[Sombrero]

@Sombrero
An interesting take on the Illithid concept! There are two concerns I have, but they're just that: concerns. And concerns can be addressed and resolved.

First concern (and the lesser of the two) is that I don't know if it'll be a nautical / piratey campaign. That's easily dealt with though, as a compelling character will work on land or sea. Also, if we end up doing much in the way of vehicle combat, you could go for the mounted raider theme instead which is essentially a pirate on land. Easily solved.

Second concern, and this is the one where the ball is more in your court, is that Illithids are traditionally pretty powerful creatures. With a whole pile of psychic nastiness plus more combat ability, compared to the other options it feels really strong. However, like I said, I'm totally into race tweaks, so if you have an idea for how to bring Illithids closer to the baseline of power while still retaining their style and flair, it would be a character that I'd love to have on board!

@Primal Conundrum

Well, in lieu of the first thing, my aim was generally to make him more of a viking-ey pirate, since he'd be wearing more fantasy armor and getting involved in melee/land combat anyway for the sake of having more land, but I'd totally be up for making him a Mad-Max villain with a roving band of brigands in a big, ship-like Fantasy Vehicle, because that's freakin' amazing.

My idea is that Illithids have glands that secrete... Midi-Chlorians, by any other name, and these glands can be "exercised" in order to produce more of them more often. (I imagine they give prisoners of their ilk hormone-suppressors instead of handcuffs, so they can't brain everyone to death.) Now, most Illithids, when made/born/hatched, will have other Illithids with them/will be brought into an Illithid society that can teach them how to use these powers and better exercise their minds, but, since this guy got really pissed and killed the one who infected him, he doesn't have that luxury, so what powers he does have he had to find and practice on his own before they could come to any practical use, and he's never set much time aside for strengthening himself in the ways of Mind-Flayery. So, if he's met with another psychic, or someone of above-average willpower, he'll have to try and match them on psychic grounds with either stubborn persistance and/or surprise, or give up and get his sword out.

[Primal Conundrum]

@Sombrero
I could see it working. It's gonna be a tricky line to walk because a character like that could easily power balloon, but if you can keep a good balance of strengths and weaknesses I think it could be really fun. Also, as a plus for the pirate / land pirate theme, guns in this setting are very much at the point where you would carry a brace of single-shot pistols.

And tbh, Mad Max is kinda one of the strong influences on the setting as I have it so far, just with a more magic twist to it. For example, Gnolls rock crude, really big combat motorbikes fueled by necromantic enchantments. They gas up by shoving a body, still living or dead, into the engine. Depending on the wind, the smell of burning flesh might be an earlier warning than the sounds of their sputtering, grease-spewing engines. I'd love it if we all wound up riding nasty vehicles around, so feel free to brainstorm about possibilities in that direction!

[Sombrero]

@Sombrero
I could see it working. It's gonna be a tricky line to walk because a character like that could easily power balloon, but if you can keep a good balance of strengths and weaknesses I think it could be really fun. Also, as a plus for the pirate / land pirate theme, guns in this setting are very much at the point where you would carry a brace of single-shot pistols.

And tbh, Mad Max is kinda one of the strong influences on the setting as I have it so far, just with a more magic twist to it. For example, Gnolls rock crude, really big combat motorbikes fueled by necromantic enchantments. They gas up by shoving a body, still living or dead, into the engine. Depending on the wind, the smell of burning flesh might be an earlier warning than the sounds of their sputtering, grease-spewing engines. I'd love it if we all wound up riding nasty vehicles around, so feel free to brainstorm about possibilities in that direction!

@Primal Conundrum

I'm thinking of keeping him in check by making him a pigheaded/villainous Don Quixote-type whose learning process consists of few, far-between "eureka!" moments that are... Laughable, at best. If he gains knowledge of psychicness, it's going to be along the lines of, "Hey! I have telekinesis that's slightly stronger than before!... If I can somehow get Lord Roderick to bet his entire land in a duel of tennis, I'll really be in business!"

Ooh, A body-powered flintlock tank would be pretty cool, particularly because it's entertaining to envision an energetic minion climbing around reloading and heaving the cannon around.

[Eklispe]

I have interest in a game of this sort, though I'm not sure what kind of character I want yet.