theme for a fantasy campaign

[whswhs]

In thinking over possible campaigns for my next cycle, I realized, first, that I definitely wanted to include a straight historical fantasy options, and second, that I had never done an original fantasy setting with the kind of multiracial world that's been standard in fantasy games since the fantasy supplement to Chainmail. My multiracial fantasy settings were Glorantha (from the second edition of RuneQuest) and Middle-Earth (from the novels). So I started thinking about creating my own.

The sticking point, for me, was a variant on Chekhov's gun ("If there is a gun on the mantelpiece in Act One, it must be fired by the end of Act Three"): If I'm going to have multiple races in a setting, the campaign ought to be about the existence of multiple races in some way. That is, the theme of the campaign ought to be one that can be explored best through the presence of such races. What would be a theme that would require that?

I got to an answer yesterday, by an indirect route, after puzzling over it for a while. I was thinking, actually, about the presence of Tom Bombadil in The Lord of the Rings. In a way he really doesn't fit, as has often been remarked: He's not part of any of the Free Peoples, even though he looks like one of the Big Folk; he's not of any use to dealing with the One Ring; he won't even leave his bit of land in the Old Forest. What's he doing there? Well, what Tom is is the most visible example of something that's all through Middle-Earth: spirits of the land, in a very pagan sense, almost like Roman ideas about lares and penates, or Japanese kami. Middle-Earth is what it is, in part, because it's still pervaded with spirits; and Tom himself is in a way the spirit of the whole of Middle-Earth.

But what that kind of spirits are is personifications of the local microecology and microclimate. Every stream has its nymph, like Goldberry; every mountain has its brooding presence, like Caradhras.

So what we're looking at, I think, is a sense of ecological diversity as a value in itself. I had already worked out that the different races would be attached to different terrain types (in the GURPS sense), as to a degree they are in Tolkien: elves to forest and jungle, men to plains, trolls to mountains and arctic lands, and so on. This is a key difference from the real world, where one species has occupied all the various climate types to different degrees. Each species would have its own particular supernatural gifts, and its own affiliation with the spirits of its particular terrain type. But also, survival for each species would involve some measure of trade with the other species. This is especially to be seen with dwarves, whose habitat is underground, and whose food is going to come largely from providing stones and metals to surface races in trade—but all the species will work like that.

And that suggests that the big threats are going to be members of each race who are trying to establish themselves as monocultures, dominating the other races. The diversity of races will itself be a value to be preserved against whichever race's fanatics are trying to damage it.

Of course, the different races' fanaticisms will take different forms. A power-crazed elf, a power-crazed troll, and a power-crazed man will come up with very different schemes.

I think maybe I can do something with this.

Bill Stoddard

[Astromancer]

In several Old AD&D supplements (dealing with the Gods of the Demi-Humans and the Orcs) the idea of Humans as the lucky sepcies that can live anywhere is mentioned or used as an origin element.

Try this idea. It's not a blessing, humanity, traditionally depicted as less magical than the other Races, has no special home, no place that is properly and rightfully theirs. They aren't cursed, but they primal parents of humanity failed to show up for the blessings, so they don't have them.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Try this idea. It's not a blessing, humanity, traditionally depicted as less magical than the other Races, has no special home, no place that is properly and rightfully theirs. They aren't cursed, but they primal parents of humanity failed to show up for the blessings, so they don't have them.

No, I specifically do not want that. If you make Men special in that way, you have a world whose logic is to end up with the Dominion of Men. That was Tolkien's theme; Middle-Earth was a world whose destiny was to turn into our disenchanted world. But we don't love it because it's disenchanted, but because of the enchantment that lingers in it. I'm looking to explore that enchantment.

Bill Stoddard

[Bengt]

The standard multirace settings always bugs me. If they are seriously restricted to certain terrain types it gets more plausible. I don't think it's a good idea for one race to be forced to trade for their very survival, it makes them too weak in the long run. Dwarves could grow stuff underground in geothermal heat or something. It's better if everyone trades for something that is very convenient but not absolutely essential.

How hard are you planning to lock them to their land? Personally I think it should be pretty harsh, e.g. a race is only fertile if they eat food grown in their natural habitat. That would still allow Adventurers to travel about.

How possible will terraforming be?

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Bengt

The standard multirace settings always bugs me. If they are seriously restricted to certain terrain types it gets more plausible. I don't think it's a good idea for one race to be forced to trade for their very survival, it makes them too weak in the long run. Dwarves could grow stuff underground in geothermal heat or something. It's better if everyone trades for something that is very convenient but not absolutely essential.

How hard are you planning to lock them to their land? Personally I think it should be pretty harsh, e.g. a race is only fertile if they eat food grown in their natural habitat. That would still allow Adventurers to travel about.

Not that hard. It will be more that each race is better able to survive in its natural terrain with less technology. For example, trolls, with huge bodies, can endure an arctic environment where a man would freeze.

How possible will terraforming be?

If you mean reshaping one terrain to be like another, it will not be too easily doable with technology. But the threat of its being done with magic will be one of the themes. Men might burn down the great forests, or trolls might cover all the land with snow and ice.

Bill Stoddard

[Bengt]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Not that hard. It will be more that each race is better able to survive in its natural terrain with less technology. For example, trolls, with huge bodies, can endure an arctic environment where a man would freeze.

One thought about Arctic/Polar regions is to put an amphibian race there since beyond a certain latitude all the solar converting organisms are water based.

If you mean reshaping one terrain to be like another, it will not be too easily doable with technology. But the threat of its being done with magic will be one of the themes. Men might burn down the great forests, or trolls might cover all the land with snow and ice.

Bill Stoddard

What stopping them from burning down forests with regular technology? I mean if there is a war and humans make inroads into the forest, they can cut down trees with regular axes before the inevitable counter attack. It will take much longer for trees to grow back mundanely than it took to cut them down mundanely. The elves would have to spend supernatural resources to keep up. This asymmetry could be significant over longer times.

It could be more balanced if there is a spiritual inertia that only lets land grow what is "right" on it until a long time has passed. To speed up the spiritual change could require 37 übermages in a complicated ceremony while singing elf-children is enough to make trees grow a bit faster on forestland.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Bengt

One thought about Arctic/Polar regions is to put an amphibian race there since beyond a certain latitude all the solar converting organisms are water based.

Having an amphibian race would feel more like science fiction than fantasy to me, if you mean that they breathe both air and water. I expect that arctic trolls can go into the water, just as polar bears can. There will also be selkies as an island/beach race.

What stopping them from burning down forests with regular technology? I mean if there is a war and humans make inroads into the forest, they can cut down trees with regular axes before the inevitable counter attack. It will take much longer for trees to grow back mundanely than it took to cut them down mundanely. The elves would have to spend supernatural resources to keep up. This asymmetry could be significant over longer times.

It could be more balanced if there is a spiritual inertia that only lets land grow what is "right" on it until a long time has passed. To speed up the spiritual change could require 37 übermages in a complicated ceremony while singing elf-children is enough to make trees grow a bit faster on forestland.

Certainly that's possible, and in fact is one of the specifically human threats, along the lines of a Mongol invasion. But the trees will be more able to fight back, partly because they support comparatively dense elven populations that can fight to preserve their forests, and partly because each terrain has its spirit guardians and each race has its magical powers. But I'll need to work out the details.

At this point my notion of races is dwarves underground, elves in forest and jungle, ghouls in the desert, halflings on rivers and lakes and in swamps, men on grasslands, selkies on islands and beaches and in lagoons, and trolls in the arctic and in the mountains. Though I need a better name than "halflings." I kind of like the sound of "hulder" but it get the impression it means something not much like hobbits.

Bill Stoddard

[Bengt]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Having an amphibian race would feel more like science fiction than fantasy to me, if you mean that they breathe both air and water. I expect that arctic trolls can go into the water, just as polar bears can. There will also be selkies as an island/beach race.

I was thinking more like an otter or seal. Closable nostrils, able to hold their breath for fairly long, nictitating membranes, webbed fingers.

Remove their skin selkies?

I kind of like the sound of "hulder" but it get the impression it means something not much like hobbits.

Bill Stoddard

Hulder (Norwegian), Huldra (Swedish) is a kind of mountainous fairy/troll/goblin. They are mostly antagonistic towards humans.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Bengt

I was thinking more like an otter or seal. Closable nostrils, able to hold their breath for fairly long, nictitating membranes, webbed fingers.

Remove their skin selkies?

Not as a natural ability, no. But several races will have a spectrum of magical abilities that includes shapeshifting of some sort. Elves turn into trees, men turn into wolves or big cats, selkies turn into seals. At least that's how I'm envisioning it.

Bill Stoddard

[shawnhcorey]

Originally Posted by whswhs

But the trees will be more able to fight back...

Like the trees have a tendency to fall on the lumberjacks when cutted?

Originally Posted by whswhs

Though I need a better name than "halflings."

Gnomes.