Discworld, Dungeonworld

[Phil Masters]

Nonhuman Races

One thing that gives a fantasy world its specific flavour is the particular nonhuman races (if any) present there, so a dungeoneering game set on the Disc really needs to use Discworld races to feel right. (Well, mostly. Some races out of Dungeon Fantasy 3 might be squeezed in. I'll get back to that.) We can use the racial templates from the Discworld RPG and the rules for nonhuman PCs from Dungeon Fantasy 3; the one thing that creates a minor anomaly is that "Longevity" is treated as a perk in Discworld and included in several templates, whereas the concept is just excluded from Dungeone Fantasy, but whatever; either drop the cost of those templates by a point, or treat it as an excuse for the character to know some historical snippets and partial immunity to the very occasional freaky "ageing" magical attack.

Anyway, let's look at each case in turn:

Dwarfs are gratifyingly easy. It's not hard to find the points for a 27-point template, and dwarfs are natural dungeoneers. Dwarfish Greed would work just fine in dungeon games, and some of the racial quirks could serve as decent downtime roleplaying hooks. The only thing is that the Metalwork Talent is a bit marginal for dungeon games, but actually, note that it also covers two skills that are excluded from Dungeon Fantasy games (Mechanic and Metallurgy); excluding those makes it a 5-skill and hence 5-point Talent. Put two levels of the Talent into the template to preserve the cost, and your dwarfs become natural artificers or just handy characters to have along to fix the occasional damaged weapon.

Gargoyles are maybe less of a natural fit, especially with the Can't Wear Armour thing, and the 46 point template cost is a bit of a bind. Still, innate DR 5-8, ST 15, and Night Vision 4 aren't to be sniffed at, so why not have a bit of dungeon architecture who decides to join a passing party? Hidebound and Innumerate aren't approved DF disadvantages, but meh - roleplay them to heck.

Gnomes and Pictsies are a bit weird for this task, but Nac mac Feegle aren't likely to turn down the idea of violent adventure, and gnomes might reckon to act as thief types, then duck and run like blazes if things turn dangerous. Silence isn't on the list of approved advantages, but I don't know why not.

Banshees are basically psychopaths, which might not exclude them from dungeon adventuring, but they also have a 72-point template with a lot of the points going on Winged Flight, so I suggest leaving them out.

Elf-Kin have a cheap template and a DX bonus. If you want a character who should, if the GM is playing things right, get beaten up a lot by dwarfs, trolls, and scholars, who am I to argue?

Goblins could be roped into dungeoneering parties against their better judgement... I guess that they're more plausibly sordid hireling types (play them as Baldrick-in-the-dungeon), and the low ST has got to sting anyone who tries to play them as combatants, while some players are going to whine tiresomely at having to spend 24 points on a useless craft skill, but hey, decent DX and Night Vision 6! Plus, the last novel implies that they're remarkably good with technology when they try, so why not use them as artificers?

Gnolls are strong and rugged, but dumb, slow, and incapable of wearing armour. But they're cheap on points, and including a walking compost heap in your party has to be good for an easy laugh.

Golems have a 438-point template cost. Sorry.

To Be Continued...