[William]

Originally Posted by Johnny Angel

Thinking of Tieflings brings me to a concern I have about doing this. I don't want to spring some sort of 'gotcha!' moment onto the players by subjecting a Tiefling character to a potentially dangerous social stigma without them being aware of it at the beginning of the campaign.

Tieflings are used to being discriminated against, even by fairly canny planewalkers. When you have obvious fiendish blood, in a world where bloodlines can affect someone's thinking and powers, the notion of the sins of the father tainting the son isn't so irrational.

If you're springing the Banestorm on your players, what you should probably reveal is that you're proposing to toss them into a setting it will be hard to leave. Mention in the context of this that the inhabitants may not be familiar with tieflings, so that the tiefling's player knows basically what will be up.

One idea I have for how to handle divine power is by saying the belief and piousness of such a character might allow for their god's divine spark to exist in this new world (Banestorm.) However, I might also strongly hint that their actions could possibly determine if this spark grows or fades.

Power Investiture isn't much known on Yrth; "divine" abilities are generally statted as advantages that arise from mysticism (see p. 26 of Banestorm; basically, powers rather than spells, with the Pact limitation and Disciplines of Faith for his tradition). Talk to your spellslinger about how much of a change in his spellcasting system he'd be okay with. Writing up abilities that can be used a few times a day will match his current spellcasting fairly well.

I'm not sure how receptive the residents of Banestorm would be to new religions.

They would probably treat the D&D pantheon as some other world's "pagan" religion. The public at large knows that nonhumans exist and have their own religions, so one more will likely be treated the same way any other nonhuman religion would be in whatever region where they find themselves. Some regions are more open to outsiders and nonhumans than others.

Overall, I'm looking for some opinions on what other people feel the impact of new elements (race & religion) would have on the Banestorm setting. Would the new elements draw notice at all? If so, would different areas and peoples of Banestorm have different reactions?

Tieflings start at a bit of a disadvantage cosmetically, but since Yrth already knows most of the standard fantasy races -- elves, dwarves, centaurs, etc. -- and knows that multiple other worlds exist, it's unlikely that yet another species coming from a different world and worshiping strange gods will shock anyone. Yrth is meant to be a "typical fantasy" setting for GURPS; in other words, your standard D&D party should fit in fairly well.

A modron, now, a modron might have trouble. The Ministry of Serendipity -- and lots of none-too-ethical wizards -- could be very interested in a mechanical being. :^)