10-15-2020, 12:35 PM | #21 |
Join Date: Oct 2020
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Re: What DF races have towns?
I'd say all major races, Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, Gnomes, etc, though with many settlements, towns, or cities even being a mix of more then one race. Like even simply a town of Dwarves and Gnomes made up of crafters, artisans, builders, and tinkerers. Maybe even a town focused somewhat on invention and export. With elves having towns and cities more hidden away, such as in forests, with maybe even academies and schools of magic in larger elven cities.
The setting does make a difference though, the one ones I might say |
10-15-2020, 01:12 PM | #22 |
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: What DF races have towns?
Humans, obviously, because that's most of us reading and we know that we have towns. After that, I think any race that has items and abilities named for them – dwarven this, elven that, orcish the other thing, and so on – is going to have towns. It's difficult to have a global culture and an economic production base for goods otherwise.
What changes are these things: What proportion of the race lives in those towns? For races that strongly value Nature and therefore tend to shun settlements and technology (like elves), the percentage will be rather low. For races forced together by circumstances (like dwarves in tunnels), races that embrace technology (dwarves again, and also gnomes), and races that need strong central rallying points for military conquest (like orcs), it will be high. How many towns are there, and how large are they? Two races – one in either of the above categories – might have the same number of towns, but one's towns might be 10 times bigger than another's. A race that isn't fond of towns might have "standard-sized" towns, but very few of them. A race that is fond of towns might also have very few towns, but those are massive metropolises . . . or it could have a veritable rash of smallish towns, barely bigger than villages, in every corner of the world. What do the towns look like? A sprawling dwarven tunnel complex around a huge central cavern, an area of apparent farmland with halfling burrows under every hill for miles around, a bunch of elven walkways and platforms high in the forest canopy, a menacing fortress full of orcs, and a "classic" human town are all towns.
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Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch <kromm@sjgames.com> GURPS Line Editor, Steve Jackson Games My DreamWidth [Just GURPS News] |
10-15-2020, 04:16 PM | #23 |
Join Date: Oct 2020
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Re: What DF races have towns?
Well, while I do tend to have elves with a greater respect for nature, I also have the race as more of an "ancient civilization", with cities, places of learning and scholarship, high towers, a city of mages even. Just perhaps have it that the city is interwoven into the nearby trees and forest, at least not as industrialized. Buildings grown from trees, into or on such, etc. With elven metalworking, jewelry making, and a focus on the arts, in music, song, and dance.
So yeah, having it that elves could also have towns and even large cities, just more insolated from other races. Last edited by GreyScholar; 10-15-2020 at 04:20 PM. |
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