[Sword&Sorcery] Racial Selection

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

It could be abandoned, broken, monster-infested, and adrift, which is what I did in my DF game.

Not knowing the game style, could it be a magical accident or ultra rare natural object?

[Buzzardo]

If you want an object of high magic but without any presumption of good or evil, how about a floating mountain? It could be natural magic or a remnant from an ancient civilization. Either people were never capable of that level of magic (it's a natural artifact) or they've lost that ability (it's a product of an ancient civilization). Either way, it's not good or evil; it just is. That way, it's just background flavor to set the tone for a magical world where PCs aren't magically capable.

Just a thought. :)

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

It could be abandoned, broken, monster-infested, and adrift, which is what I did in my DF game.

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

You might want to hide it too. It could be floating around the peaks of the Mistcrowned Mountains or something like that. Far away and seldom visible to men.

The PCs could get taken their by the Evil Sorceror and get a big surprise when they escape but find they can't climb down.

Perhaps good for a post lapsarian campaign in which there is a disused teleport gate network in which PCs can find keys which either unlock new gates or open up new destinations from known ones - teleporting to a new dungeon doesn't (initially at least) give you any clue that it's flying hundreds of feet above the deck. Plus you could include crashed versions as foreshadowing - either spread across a couple of map hexes or, landed more or less intact, serving as a more traditional type of city with an early campaign reveal being that it used to fly...
Plus, you could include the occasional "dead end" gate: the one to the city that's now underwater, the one that opens onto a ledge on a cliffside because the rest of the building that it was in has fallen into the ravine below ... that sort of thing. Mainly because the PCs may feel railroaded if every key they find "just happens" to take them to the next dungeon.

Originally Posted by Kenneth Latrans

I'd consider Laputa from Gulliver's Travels a pretty good example of an evil floating island city. The method by which it flies has a limited area in which it works, thus why it doesn't conquer the entire world.

Plus it's really funny for Spanish speakers the first time they encounter it...

Also, in the spirt of the Aftermath games ... why stop at having your flying city hidden in the mountains? Put the damned thing in orbit. That should really wig any medieval character...

[Anders]

I think I'm afraid it'll make magic commonplace. After a while, a floating sky-city is just "that blob in the air". Am I wrong?

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by Anders

I think I'm afraid it'll make magic commonplace. After a while, a floating sky-city is just "that blob in the air". Am I wrong?

A floating sky-city is ... the floating sky city, not so much. Either as a wonder of the world (I can see, for example, some great world city in the style of Rome or Constantinople, with a pre-lapsarian sky-city permanently tethered as a citadel or palace) or as a remote, legendary location (like Shangri-la or the secret kung-fu monk monastery) ... or even Barrier Peaks style as "that wierd, freaky dungeon we don't talk about anymore" (even in campaign).
Having them zipping about everywhere gets into a sort of magitech 50s sci-fi, but one can be a plot device or an Ozymandias monument.

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by Anders

Interesting. Bird People would live far away in the high mountains. [snip]

Another direction you could go with Bird "People" is giant sapient parrots, living in the depths of the most impenetrable (by land) rainforests, and/or on distant tropical islands. They could be limited in tool use by their dependency on their beaks to manipulate objects, but socially-adept, with a complex society full of back-stabbing and intrigue and an aptitude for languages that makes them exotic but strangely-personable, in stark contrast to the cold and aloof Bugs, Fish, and Reptiles. A Parrot Person could attempt to draw the PCs into local feuds if they have obvious value, or could be traveling incognito in more prosaic lands as a tourist, merchant ship captain or caravan mastermind, agent provocateur, etc, with an entourage of Human proxies shielding it from notice.

ETA: The mysterious and brilliant vizier known as "The Man Behind the Curtain" who not-so-secretly runs the Sultan's court is no man at all, rumor has it. He speaks in different voices as it suits his whim, sounding like a mighty warrior when he wishes men to cower, like a beautiful woman when he wants to seduce, or even like a wild animal at times when his ire is aroused. It is said that he retains the voices of those whose souls he has devoured, but he spoke to me once with my own...

S&S Parrot People [60]:

Attributes: ST -3 [-30]; DX +1 [20]; IQ +1 [20];

Secondaries: SM -1 [0]; Basic Speed -0.25 [-5]; Perception +1 [5];

Advantages: Claws (Sharp) [5]; Flight (Winged -25%) [30]; Language Talent [10]; Mimicry [10]; Peripheral Vision [15]; Striking ST +2 [10]; Teeth (Piercing Beak) [1];

Perks: Piercing Voice [1];

Disadvantages: Ham-Fisted x1 [-5]; One Arm [-20]; Short Arm x1 [-5];

Quirks: Agoraphile [-1]; Proud [-1];

Notes: Talent (Smooth Operator), Jealousy, Compulsion (Lying), Low Tech, and Enemies are common but not required. Truthfulness and Sense of Duty are uncommon. If this species becomes well-known in the setting, they'll probably develop a Reputation for treachery before long.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Anders

I don't know... an overriding truth of Sword&Sorcery and the setting is that magic - if good - is not very impressive and that if it is impressive it is evil. At least that's my impression. Having a city hanging over the heads of the humans would mess with that - I don't want an evil city floating in the sky because that... I'll get back to you on that.

It could be a ancient technological marvel long since misunderstood.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

It could be abandoned, broken, monster-infested, and adrift, which is what I did in my DF game.

A flying dungeon? Seriously cool! Hey, clean the rat trap out and become king of the Sky City. Adding on extra girth and wings optional.

[Buzzardo]

Originally Posted by Anders

I think I'm afraid it'll make magic commonplace. After a while, a floating sky-city is just "that blob in the air". Am I wrong?

For true Conan-esque S&S, I think you should avoid such strong magic. However, it might work for other kinds of settings; I could see it in Lankhmar, for example. The question is: How much sorcery do you want in your S&S?

Originally Posted by The Colonel

an Ozymandias monument.

That's how I would use it - purely an artifact from a bygone age, there to remind everyone that they live in a fallen world.

Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc

Another direction you could go with Bird "People" is giant sapient parrots, living in the depths of the most impenetrable (by land) rainforests, and/or on distant tropical islands. They could be limited in tool use by their dependency on their beaks to manipulate objects, but socially-adept, with a complex society full of back-stabbing and intrigue and an aptitude for languages that makes them exotic but strangely-personable, in stark contrast to the cold and aloof Bugs, Fish, and Reptiles. A Parrot Person could attempt to draw the PCs into local feuds if they have obvious value, or could be traveling incognito in more prosaic lands as a tourist, merchant ship captain or caravan mastermind, agent provocateur, etc, with an entourage of Human proxies shielding it from notice.

ETA: The mysterious and brilliant vizier known as "The Man Behind the Curtain" who not-so-secretly runs the Sultan's court is no man at all, rumor has it. He speaks in different voices as it suits his whim, sounding like a mighty warrior when he wishes men to cower, like a beautiful woman when he wants to seduce, or even like a wild animal at times when his ire is aroused. It is said that he retains the voices of those whose souls he has devoured, but he spoke to me once with my own...

Now there's a good idea. :)

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by Buzzardo

Now there's a good idea. :)

Thanks!

Many a rumor abounds concerning the pirate captain known as Birdman Jack in the port cities of the Harrowing Straight. They say he's a brilliant tactician at sea, that he's survived four shipwrecks, that he's sailed around the world in his newest frigate, the Polly, and speaks a dozen languages. Nobody except his crew of cutthroats sees the face of the Birdman and lives, but I spoke to a man who knows a man whose brother is a wizard who summoned the ghost of one of his victims, once, so listen close: When he interrogates a captive, it is in a cabin lit by a single candle and he stands just out of view, allowing his victims to almost see him out of the corner of one eye. His voice is smooth, cultured, and educated when he desires; rough and crass with a seaman's dialect when more appropriate. His personal stores, stacked in his cabin, have little in the way of salt meat and hardtack, consisting mainly of dried fruit, rum, and barrel after barrel of seeds. They are curiously free of bugs. On his shoulder rides some kind of homunculus, a tiny man with a high-pitched voice that speaks semi-intelligent malevolence...