The Gaming Den

Writing up world background in an email for my group, thought I'd share it here too, partially because I'm contemplating taking a sleep break and for some reason I have the feeling that just leaving it on an in progress email could be bad.
2 parts Tome fluff, 1 part inspiration from novels, 1.5 parts off the top of my head, I guess.

The world is a flat tablet of earth floating in the infinite space of the Prime Material Plane, and is named Apolys. Water courses over the edges in an eternal waterfall into places unknown. There are five continents on the tablet, Pelios in the center, a frozen spire reaching into the high rarefied sky, In the northern corner, Marius, a continent of mountains and mist shrouded forests, home to the bureaucratic courts of the Jeweled Dragons, and the hidden monasteries of the Kinist Monks. In the south sits the crescent of Chelicos, taken by most of the great human kingdoms, creating a vast network of dubious peaceful trade networks, traveled by halfling nomads in their caravans, bringing goods from one land to another. Aesos sits on the eastern corner, and is held by no one. The cosmopolitan Kingdom of Xaricous (himself a human), sits in the middle of the triangular continent, surrounded by the the Dwarven Mine Networks in the Mountains of Go-lrith-ar, the Forests of the Elves, the plains of Korios, stalked by halfling outriders, and the hills of Voilar, where gnome dens and kobold mine cross and erupt in frightful combat on a child's scale, and to the far east of the continent, sits the Moil, a blighted scape of wasteland, where wights and ghouls skitter in the shadows of vampire lords' castles and lich-towers. Finally, to the west of the world is the lost continent of Xython, covered in overgrown jungles, brackish swamps and crumbling ruins. The continent is left to monsters and savage tribes, and many riches go unplundered.

The kingdom of Xaricous is surrounded with towns and hamlets, which house commoners who work the land, and allow merchants to ferry goods from farm to town and castle. The town of Steppeshadow, near the center, has the dubious honour of being home to the Academy of Graven Magic, the necromancer's college. What is little known about the college, is that it teaches more than just necromantic magic. It also teaches combatants to channel the energies of death to smite the living and bring the pall of negative energy across the world like a burial shroud.

Recently the orcs, long relegated to wastelands in the northern corner of Aesos, have had a change of fortunes. Their minds have sharpened, and they've begun to employ skillful military tactics in a bid to conquer Apolys. They've already driven the dwarves from the northern mountain ranges, and burned part of the elven forests in their invasion. Rumours have circulated that the orcs have made overtures of an alliance to the denizens of the Moil, and various free agents.

There are other major populations of the world, however. The underdark stretches across the entire tablet of Apolys as caverns and tunnels crossing throughout it's rocky hide. It is home to the brain eating illithids, psionic creatures whose minds and society are alien and insidious, the treacherous drow, where even the lowliest pauper lives in comfort and status akin to the nobles of the surface world, and sadistic priestesses worship the demon spider goddess Lolth and life is lived in eternal intrigue as each drow attempts to gain power over their fellows. A subrace of gnomes, the svirfneblin, scamper through the tunnels defending themselves and combating the overwhelming evil of lower world while a subrace of dwarves, the duegar, toil in the rock for their mad god of industry.

A high, vast mesa reaching out of the thick jungles of Xython is home to the continent's closest semblance of a civilization, the Vashar. The first humans, bent on vileness and deicide, each baring a trace of demon blood in their veins, swarm through the firmament of this mountain like mad, vile insects, killing and maiming their own callously, but holding together in some semblance of a society, even governing themselves, harshly, though effectively. They even have managed to create a society which produces, though mostly it produces venoms, torture implements and masters, and vile alchemical and magical items. Perhaps their universal social unacceptability is what allows otherwise alien and abhorrent people to band together, for they are so given to cannibalism, the company of vermin and procreation without care of consent, that they do not care for the distasteful eccentricities of their fellows. Most people of Apolys see the Vashar as beasts in men's skin, rather than true people, but can seldom tell the difference before it is too late, for though tainted with demonic blood they may be, they look completely human without intentional modifications. Only their complete lack of understanding of emotion and civilization will give them away, and many, especially those who adventure, are very accomplished actors.

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The dwarves are an industrious and pious race, who work their mines, bringing up precious stones and metals from the deep chasms for the glory of their warrior god Ah-Moradh. They observe strict religious laws, praying as a mass multiple times in a day, covering their heads in sacred wrappings developed from the cloth padding ancient dwarves wore beneath their war helms, and standing as a great bastion of knowledge and enlightenment, recording all knowledge and memory in magically preserved massive stone tablets deep in the most sacred temple, near the heart of Apolys. They bear in their hearts a terrible distrust of goblins, orcs and giants, having fought them for long eons, seeing through deception and treachery, and waiting in times of peace and mutual prosperity for their ancient enemies to need to be put down again.

Elves exist to be found in every terrain and climate, crafted, as if whittled from wood or sculpted from clay, to thrive in their evironment. They, unknown to most peoples, exist to serve long lived wizards, crafted by these wizards to suit their tastes and the lands surrounding their towers. Though the race was made to be pawns, they serve masters of easily stolen attention, many of which become completely engrossed in their experiments, and who have little desire for more land than is necessary to build a grand tower to collect mystical energies of natural magic, and so, the race has largely become it's own. It has prospered and spread, and many forget that the reason for many of their traditions was originally to please and titillate their arcane masters. Elves are known not only for an aptitude with magic, and creating great works of physical and musical art, but also for the great pleasures they may give to those they deem worthy of joining for a night. Only the oldest elves know that all these arts were cultivated at behest of powerful wizards, and even then only because they have become those powerful wizards. Certainly, their are masters of arcane magic of other races, but the most powerful, by in large, are elves who, through their craft, have lived not just hundreds, but thousands of years.

Gnomes are a jocular race which fights with great skill and savagery when all other avenues are exhausted. They are good natured, and skilled at illusion, alchemy and cooking, but also are masters of guerrilla warfare. They weave illusions which mislead and confuse, fight in spaces which are cramped for most of their enemies, and are served by befriended burrowing animals who scout enemy placement and warn of forays. They dig in their mountains for semi-precious stones, much like their cousin race the dwarves, though most go into magical items, alchemical concoctions and expensive liquors, and they forage for herbs that form the basis of potent alchemy and medicine.

Hm, I think I've figured out what the primary change for the Orcs was. They finally wised up that Gruumsh leads them solely to defeat and converted to the worship of Hextor. The pure change from mass horde rushes to actual tactical combat would make a huge difference in their effectiveness in combat. It also allows me to bring in some of the outcome of more effective orcs without copying Grunts and throwing in magic immune guns for the PCs to acquire anytime they got lucky and killed a squad of Orcs.

some one tell me if these are balanced (enough):

Horde Orc
There are still orcs who follow the old ways, who worship Gruumsh despite overwhelming defeat throughout history. These orcs are savage, strong, but less capable, mentally, than humans. They are known for their terrifying rages, letting them fight on despite life threatening wounds with great stamina, and even greater strength.
Horde Orcs replace the orcs in the Tome book, their traits are identical but gain the following ability:

* Rage: 1/day, a horde orc may rage as a first level (phb) barbarian. For (modified) Con mod+3 rounds, the orc gains +4 strength, +2 con, +2 to will saves, and takes a -2 penalty to AC. In addition, a raging horde orc will not die, even at negative hp, until his rage ends.


Legion Orc
The orcs of the Legions who worship Hextor have, through fecundity and quick gestation times, begun to breed true as a new subrace of orcs. More intelligent than their wild kin, and now disciplined (after a fashion), they have lost some traits, and gained others as they start to develop into a new species of orc.
Racial Traits

• Medium Size
• 30' Movement
• Humanoid Type (Orc)
• Darkvision 60'
• +4 str, -2 Cha
• Daylight sensitivity: Legion orcs are becoming more accustomed to light. While bright light still pains their eyes, they no longer are at any penalty while in it. They tend to wear dark goggles or brimmed caps in it all the same.
• +2 vrs Poison and Disease
• Immune to Ingested Poison
• +2 to Jump and Survival
• Weapon Proficiency and Supply: All legion orcs are trained in combat from the time they can hold a weapon (roughly a week after birth, with some prodigies grabbing the nearest weapon and stabbing the midwife the moment they come out of the womb). As a result, all legion orcs are proficient in a martial weapon, and are equipped with a masterwork version of that weapon.
• Favoured Classes: Fighter and Cleric
• Bonus Languages: Dwarvish, Elvish, Giant, Gnoll, Goblin, Infernal, Sylvan and Undercommon

You might was well go full-out oldschool cosmology, and have Moil be literally situated over the land of the dead (where the god of the dead hangs out). The sun is some powerful fiery dude (Pelor, I guess) that keeps watch over the world during the day and the underworld during the night, with the moon doing the opposite. The mountains ringing the outside of the world hold up the blue firmament where the sky god hangs out and makes the weather.

Probably, but the likely hood of that actually coming to matter is... immediately nil, though progressively more likely as time goes on I suppose, given that this is, of course, D&D, and so eventually they'll be powerful enough to kill the gods.

Any reason basic scientific concepts couldn't or shouldn't function normally in a whole hog mythological world like that?

And are the Orcs balanced?

Prak_Anima wrote:And are the Orcs balanced?

Not really. At low levels, balanced combats are pretty much predicated on the PCs taking out enemies (when there are multiple foes) in one hit. And while you can still do that as a wizard, the only way for a fighter to effectively fight these orcs is with hit-and-run tactics.

The Hexorcs are basically just Tome half-orcs, except geared more towards soldiering than command. They're probably fine.

Hm, what would make the normal orcs balanced, then? I'm more concerned about the Hexorcs, honestly, but I don't want to leave the regulars in the lurch.

I'm honestly not clear on why you're giving horde orcs a rage ability. They're already pretty much balanced for what they do, which is hit things. They have a favored class of barbarian, which means that most PC classed orcs at first level will be virtually identical to NPC warrior orcs.


My only complaint about the Hexorcs is that they're overly complicated.

Changing normal orcs because I've had a player complain about balance of them, but honestly, he's never going to play one, so I'm going to tell him to just forget it.

Not sure what's complicated about the HextOrcs. They basically lose daylight sensitivity and most of their mental penalties and gain a weapon.