Dungeons & Dragons lore!

I like the image of a red dragon setting aflame the halflings' weed field, only to just inhale the smoke and lie down in the cinders to take a nap.

That also reminds me that there are species of birds that use fermented berries to get drunk and as a result fly chaotically around in circles, often bumping into things. Imagine how destructive would it be if a dragon were to do the same.

@Arthur Eld @Ultimatum

Ah shit

@Tacitus

I'll meditate on that. I wanted to make the Hobbit-expies interesting, not accidental racist caricatures.

Goblins are a main race in this set-up as well and they have tails, the implication being that not!Halflings inherited those from them. But Goblins have prehensile rat tails and not!Halflings have prehensile monkey tails.

@Charles Phipps

In the set-up I have with Elves, well... First of all, all Elves are "Wood" Elves, they are The People Of The Forests.

Dark Elves, the People of the Mushroom Forests, actually had a immediate setting spanning the empire back in the day, long enough ago to be ancient history but recent enough to still be told about. They consorted with Demons then until the Drow learned they were not the masters, nor the equals, in that relationship and their empire experienced a violent collapse.

(Demons in this setting are just Evil Evil, instead of Chaotic Evil. Devils have their own thing going on.)

Even today, Dark Elves hold an elevated status, collectively. Their near monopoly over trade routes that stretch the Underarm and emerge all over the surface, another near monopoly over the production and distribution of fire dust and the wary, fearful respect people still hold for them, the people who seemed to have nearly ruled the world and kept Demons on a leash.

Mist Elves, the People of the Misty Trees, have much of the "Wood" Elf vibe being mysterious isolationists in their Hidden Elf Villages. Some Sylvan Kingdoms, even now, have imperialist designs by expanding the fog shrouds of their homes to swallow adjacent territory. They kill everyone inside who doesn't leave or convince them they will kill everyone inside who doesn't leave. People treat Mist Elves with wary respect as well, collectively they are scary folk.

This preamble about how everyone walks on eggshells around Dark and Mist Elves is important to talk about High Elves, to contrast with the vision left behind by the Big Book Of Elves:

High Elves, the People of the Tall Trees, literally believe they are the chosen of Heaven, put here on Earth to guide all other people's towards righteousness. They do this by constantly spouting sage advice or presenting people with little tests. What they have never done is raised an empire or tried to conquer the world, being to peace loving for that.

They are constantly the subject of pogroms and attempted genocides. Next to goblins, they are the second most persecuted race in the setting. Stories are told about them, about they secretly control the world and whisper in the ears of kings, how the Heavens turned their back on them after the Eladrin caused some calamity. Truthfully, they never quite had the favor of Heaven to begin with and they do often seek to become the moral advisors of various leaders, but these facts are twisted into knots to justify trying to exterminate a people.

And it's usually the Rock Gnomes, the Dwargs, who are doing it.

And if a red dragon gets the munchies from that...well, there's a halfling village right there.

https://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/2023/12/thirteen-tips-for-running-planescape.html

I did a collection of 13 tips for running Planescape based around the idea of making the setting more Dungeon Punk and Fantastic Noir.

Hi all, my group is going to start a game set in Eberron next year, and knowing very little about it I'm struggling a bit with tying backstory for my character to the setting and I'd appreciate any help.

tl;dr How would a Warforged Bard come to be in Eberron? Did any of the houses or nations employ warforged as musicians in some capacity, or as bards? This is set 2 years after the war ends.

I played a warforged bard who was a "special order" meant to be able to serve as a butler to provide the comforts of home to some shitty noble kid in addition to serving on the battlefield

Most of that sounds pretty plausible, yeah. I don't believe there's any official lore about warforged military bands, but at the very least I don't think there's a hard no either, and if I was your DM I'd probably ignore it if there was.

As for nations, Thrane and Karrnath didn't use many warforged, and while your background could make sense for any of the other three (with some tweaks for Cyre, because of the whole magical apocalypse thing), it sounds most archetypally Brelish, so that's what I'd recommend for a nation of origin.

Given that the Treaty of Thronehold which ended the Last War and was agreed upon by all the nations who took part in the war (except for Cyre, on account of it having been destroyed in the Day of Mourning) also included the full emancipation and legal recognition of Warforged as a sapient race as part of the terms (much to the consternation of their creators/sellers, House Cannith), I would say that your bard wouldn't have been "decommissioned" so much as illegally enslaved. The College of Tragedy is likely a good fit, then, even before the disastrous heist.

It might be worth your time to look up the 1866 enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas, a year after the Civil War ended (the anniversary of which is now commemorated as Juneteenth), for historical inspiration. Maybe your Warforged character was one of many who were deliberately prevented from learning of the Treaty's exact terms (and kept hidden from outsiders, so they can't inform the Warforged or alert law enforcement) in order to keep them as slaves?

Edited by TrashJack on Dec 12th 2023 at 3:49:51 PM

That's a good point, yeah. Anyone treating warforged like a Star Wars droid after the treaty is definitely doing a crime.

Thanks y'all!

Yikes. Yeah, that's an entirely depressing implication I hadn't considered. I think that'd make sense, at first it was hidden by the officers who were passing him around, and when he was lost in a bet the criminals either didn't know or cared enough to tell him. I'll read up on both proclamations, I may end up using it IC as part of a cynical streak.

Thanks, I'll weigh the options with my DM to see which is convenient to the campaign. While part of me wants him to have been from Cyre, I probably should temper the tragedy just a tad so it doesn't unintentionally veer into farce.

Interesting, it'll make for a nice start, when not playing for the troops the musicians and he could have been serving the officers.

I did a sequel to my above article called 13 Tips to running Dark Sun

I'm now debating whether to do Ravenloft, Eberron, Dragonlance, or Forgotten Realms next.

Ravenloft and Eberron because both are quirky enough settings to justify discussion.

Dragonlance because it is a game world that kind of needs 101+ adventure hooks given so much is tied up in the metaplot.

Forgotten Realms because it is the one that is the most useful potentially and making it distinct is worthwhile.

It's funny how Forgotten Realms is the D&D setting that has gotten the most love outside of the tabletop. I blame that on Baldur's Gate.

Maybe if Dragonlance or Ravenloft or Eberron had better videogame adaptations they could have hit it big too.

I've been waiting for someone set a game in Waterdeep for ages now!

Maybe those better Dragonlance/Ravenloft/Eberron games finally have the opportunity to be made, now that Baldur's Gate III has proven to be a huge seller and an award-winner. If Larian develops them themselves, or licenses their engine and documentation on how to recreate the D&D 5E rules in-game out to other developers (like BioWare did with the Infinity Engine and work with the AD&D 2E rules from Baldur's Gate for Black Isle Studios when they developed Icewind Dale and Planescape: Torment), I could see games based on those settings being successful as well, and in turn those settings starting to get some more love.

Edited by TrashJack on Dec 14th 2023 at 11:25:47 AM

Waterdeep is also from the Forgotten Realms setting. It is in fact one of the locations in Neverwinter Nights.

Planescape: Torment still exists after all.

Yes, but that's still just one major game set in Sigil.

And since Icewind Dale was mentioned, that's also set in Forgotten Realms.

Here's the Forgotten Realms wiki page covering a list of d&d videogames

Note how Forgotten Realms has multiple series of games, while the other settings listed have one or two games.

In the interest of fairness, Dragonlance isn't listed for some reason. That setting actually has the second most number of videogames to its name...at a grand total of eight according to Wikipedia. All of which were from the late eighties and early nineties and were released in rapid succession.

Edited by M84 on Dec 14th 2023 at 10:06:24 PM

I was well aware that Icewind Dale was set in the Forgotten Realms. I only mentioned it (and Torment) because it was developed using the Infinity Engine that BioWare created and was built off their work with the AD&D 2E rules in Baldur's Gate, but wasn't developed by BioWare itself.

My point was that if Larian licensed out their engine and allowed another developer to build off of their utilization of the 5E rules in Baldur's Gate III like BioWare did way back when (or if they devoted an internal team, likely smaller than that which developed BG3, to do it themselves), if those games use non-FR settings (particularly ones that go in different directions than FR, such as Eberron or Ravenloft), and if WotC/Hasbro is smart enough to capitalize on the video games' success, then I could see other settings become more popular.

Edited by TrashJack on Dec 14th 2023 at 9:29:53 AM

The wiki I brought up didn't mention Iron & Blood: Warriors of Ravenloft...but that's understandable since that was not a good game.

It was not only one of the worst D&D based videogames, it was one of the worst videogames period.

Edited by M84 on Dec 14th 2023 at 10:45:20 PM

Yeah, there was like 40 games and only a few with anything resembling plots.

And it's not like all of the FR games were winners either. I played Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor to my great regret. I also didn't enjoy Daggerdale either.

I will said the reason is because forgotten realms can be sold as "main" fantasy setting everyone can used, like the main flavor or the mario tht you start getting before moving to the other who have their own flavor or have this "fantasy but X"

FR became the face of D&D I think because of its convenience — you can run a game ANYWHERE in the Realms and it would still be a unique experience — and also because many of its factions aren't assholes.

Greyhawk, like it or not, was closer to Conan's flavor of Sword and Sorcery, where many of the iconic were selfish schmucks interested in their agendas rather than for the greater good.

Dragonlance had factions and races too thematically tied to the setting itself and lacked the portability to other campaigns. Also the Tinker gnomes and Kender.

Eberron had no metaplot, so while that makes it a GREAT sandbox, many players feel that nothing they do matters in the grand scheme of things, as nothing will move forward. Ever.

Eberron's general vibe is also very distinct from the 'standard' Tolkienesque Fantasy Setting.